County Council asks Government to help regenerate South Cumbri

Today, County Councillor Mike Ash, Deputy Leader of the Council made the following statement about the problems facing South Cumbria and the need for Government aid to help regenerate the area. Speaking at the Council's Cabinet meeting this morning he said, 

"At the Council meeting on 23 January, The Council Leader was to write to the government minister expressing the Council's profound concern over the 700 potential job losses at the Barrow Shipyard and the worsening economic plight of Barrow and Furness region. The Leader wrote to all the Cumbria MPs and MEPs informing them too, of our concerns for Barrow if the shipyard failed to secure any of the work for the two new aircraft carriers and asked them to exert influence on the government through parliamentary procedures. 

Despite that pressure and Barrow's first-class naval architects and draughtsmen, Barrow is not to get any of the carrier work. It would seem that the construction of the two new aircraft carriers will be undertaken at four shipyards: Rosyth and Govan in Scotland, Swan Hunter's at Tyneside, and Vickers Thorneycroft at Portsmouth. The French company, Thales will get all or most of the carrier design work. 

Barrows problems do not end there; BAE have also asked the MOD for permission to transfer all work on future type 45 Destroyers to the Clyde, leaving only Astute class submarines for Barrow. As I understand it, there will barely be enough work for 2,500 employees. The decline of the Barrow shipyard has clearly accelerated during these past few years, and especially during the past few months. 

The social and economic consequences of these cumulative job losses is devastating for the Barrow and Furness area, and if we add to these the job losses at Glaxo, and at Kay's shoes and at other companies the situation for south Cumbria becomes even more precarious. Yet, astonishingly, we qualify for only half the level of EU intervention funding as, say, Lancashire. 

Barrow is already in the top 6% of most deprived communities in the county, and contains four of the top ten wards in Cumbria suffering the worst deprivation. We cannot regenerate Furness or south Cumbria on our own and we desperately need greater government intervention and more objective 2 funding. 

We are working very closely with our partners in an effort to improve and increase the economic position of Barrow and Furness: partners such as: the NWDA, GONW, West Lakes Renaissance, Furness Enterprise, the CIIA, and others. We are injecting significant staff resources, particularly from the Education and Social Services Departments, into working with others through the Local Strategic Partnership to reinforce our services for people in Barrow who may be at risk. The infrastructure and access to Barrow remains a concern to the Council and we continue to press for urgent improvements to the A590." 

Cabinet approved a request from Councillor Ash to write to BAe itself, seeking clarification of its short and medium term plans for the shipyard, and specifically asking them to reconsider their decisions to transfer the type 45 Destroyer work to the Clyde. MPs and government ministers will receive copies of the letter.