Rutland residents have voiced their concerns regarding the progress of local infrastructure, namely the over-subscribed medical centres and doctors surgeries, amid a Rutland County Council bid for a £23m Levelling Up fund intended to support 'economic innovation, cultural destination and mobility'.

Rutland County Council and Melton Borough Council have joined hands to submit a joint bid for the second round of the Government's Levelling Up Fund, which if successful could see a £23m injection to help boost the economy of the local towns and improve connectivity between them and our more rural areas. 

Find out more about this bid here.

Winning this bid would see the introduction of a mobile, digital visitor experience at Rutland County Museum, a Demand Responsive Transport system based on the Bus Service Investment Plan approach developed by Rutland Council, and an increase in highly skilled job opportunities.

There are proposals also to introduce a £6.5m, 500m2 travel anchor mobi-hub covering Rutland Memorial Hospital, and a £3.5m, 1000m2 facility, providing lab and light assembly space for the development of medi-tech level clinical trials, a Continuous Professional Development centre for clinicians working in the area and a training base for students involved in relevant disciplines at the local universities, including medical schools and schools of nursing.

However, despite these proposals a number of Rutland residents have voiced their concerns about local medical provisions, including walk-in health care services and local doctors surgeries.

Local man, Andy Goldthorpe, said: "I hope the other 2 key projects are less woolly in their title, otherwise it sounds like an awful lot of money given over to hot air projects, while the counties infrastructure continues to creek! Imagine what a £23m contribution to a walk-in health centre, or Drs surgery would be like."

This bid comes after an announcement, made on the 4th of August, that Rutland Memorial Hospital will see a £1m refurbishment between August 2022 and January 2023.

Only a month on from Oakham Medical Practice receiving an Inadequate rating from the Care Quality Commission, local residents hope that this will improve accessibility to healthcare in Rutland, with a range of improvements being made. These include:

• significant roof repairs
• new electrics
• remodelling to replace disused bathrooms with useful storage space
• boilers will be replaced and asbestos removed
• some office space turned into space for outpatient treatment
• redecoration of the patient area

Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton, said: "It's fantastic to see Leicestershire Partnership Trust investing a million pounds in Rutland Memorial Hospital. These vital works, new outpatient treatment areas, and a redesign of patient areas, will transform the experience of patients and future-proof our wonderful hospital that means so much to our community."

Do you think that the £23m Levelling Up Fund proposals are an encouraging step made by RCC, or do you think the funds would be better redistributed elsewhere?

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