Concern over £1.3m spend on town's mystery projects
Ipswich Borough CouncilA councillor has said he would challenge a decision to spend £1.3m on undisclosed regeneration projects for Ipswich town centre.
The Labour-run Ipswich Borough Council unanimously agreed at an executive meeting on Wednesday to devote some of the remainder of its £25m Town Centre Regeneration Fund to the two plans.
Details of the projects have been kept under wraps to protect financially sensitive information, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Ian Fisher, the leader of the Conservative group, said he would call in the decision due to concerns about how the money was being spent, and whether it was in the best interests of residents.
The £25m was awarded to the borough council in March 2021, as part of the then chancellor Rishi Sunak's £1bn deal for 45 towns, including Lowestoft.
If Fisher's challenge goes ahead, the executive's decision would be discussed by the overview and scrutiny committee.
It is not known whether the meeting would be held in public.
Should the decision be upheld, it would leave the council with just under £2m in the fund to invest in empty buildings in the town centre, the LDRS reports.
Five projects have already gone ahead, including what Fisher previously described as the "behind-closed-doors" deal to turn part of a town centre shop into an adult learning centre.
The £800,000 project to refurbish the first floor of the former Grimwades store was listed in exempt items for an executive meeting in February, meaning the public and press were excluded from hearing the details.
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