A multi-million bid for funding to restore the Madeira Terrace arches has been rejected by the government.

Brighton and Hove City Council applied for £9.55 million in funding to restore the eastern 865 metres of Madeira Terrace along Madeira Drive.

The bid included plans for the 200-year-old green wall and to improve access to the area for deprived communities in Whitehawk.

However, in a letter seen by The Argus, council leader Phelim Mac Cafferty was told that the application was not successful.

The letter by Dehenna Davison, minister for levelling up, read: “The UK government remains firmly committed to levelling up all parts of the UK and officials will provide written feedback on the application to support future proposals.”

The upcoming £11.7 million project to restore 40 of the Madeira Terrace arches is not affected by the decision.

It was estimated by the council in 2017 that a full restoration of the terrace would cost at least £24 million.

Cllr Mac Cafferty said: “I think the whole city will be massively disappointed that the government has rejected our bid for Levelling Up money for the Madeira Terrace restoration.

“The Madeira Terrace restoration is a great project that will generate huge benefits for our local economy and in particular the city’s eastern seafront.

“The entire government decision-making process for allocating funding is deeply flawed.

“Cutting council funding across the country by billions and billions of pounds over more than a decade, while forcing councils to bid against each other for ever-shrinking smaller pots of money, is a dreadfully short-sighted way to run local government.

“It is an appalling waste of council resources and staff time. It also creates huge uncertainty.

"It’s the opposite of what we need for sustainable investment and it means we are unable to plan for the longer term.

“I would prefer to see a more grown-up relationship with government.

"One where they release proper sums of regeneration funding to councils - so that we can decide locally how we are going to spend it.

“That way we could plan into the future and deliver better outcomes for all communities.”

MPs from across the country have expressed disappointment that projects in their areas did not receive cash from the latest round of levelling up funding.

Conservative backbenchers told ministers they were disheartened that their areas had not been selected for funding, claiming their local councils had worked "really hard" on bids.

The criticism came after ministers insisted areas outside of London and the South East received more money per capita in the sound round of bidding.