Tag: Local Enterprise Partnership

Lewis Herbert and Lucy Nethsingha – reservations around an Eastern Powerhouse devolution deal

“We’re going to take this in a democratic and transparent way to the first possible meeting, which is on 23rd March, and Cambridge will make a decision.”

17:20 Friday 11th March 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The BBC understands the Government wants to go ahead with an Eastern Powerhouse devolution deal, despite Cambridge City Council announcing it’ll not take part. The Leader of the City Council is with us very shortly. The proposals would give control of transport and planning to a single mayor, with responsibility across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. And the Leader of the LibDems on the County Council also with us in a moment or two. But first of all, political reporter Tom Barton from Look East. Tom, what’s it all about?
TOM BARTON: So this is about effectively Government giving away some power. So decisions that are made at the moment by civil servants and Ministers in Whitehall and Westminster instead being passed to local areas. It’s been going on for a while, trying to find an area that they can give it to effectively. Norfolk and Suffolk had put together proposals which they took to the Government. The Government said, we like what you’re talking about, but we don’t think you’re a big enough area for this to work in. We want you to go and work with Cambridgeshire instead.
CHRIS MANN: Big enough in terms of numbers?
TOM BARTON: in terms of the impact of the economy if you like. So not just population, but economic power.
CHRIS MANN: Because Cambridgeshire is a powerhouse.
TOM BARTON: Exactly. And the Government, this is all going to be announced at the Budget next week. George Osborne the Chancellor wants to stand up in the House of Commons and announce a deal for an Eastern Powerhouse. That’s what he’s talking about. And so this would give a new elected mayor, effectively East of England’s very own version of Boris Johnson, the power ..
CHRIS MANN: Or Alex Salmond.
TOM BARTON: Or Alex Salmond. .. the power to do a range of different things. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to be, but it’ll be around housing, infrastructure like roads, railways, public transport, skills, those sorts of things, across all three counties. So it would wear away the borders between the counties, and see decisions taken across the board.
CHRIS MANN: Where would it be based, this government, this devolved, not parliament, but devolved .. ?
TOM BARTON: The institution if you like of the mayor. We don’t know. That’s one of the things to be decided. They might choose a point somewhere geographically in between Norwich, Ipswich and Cambridge. Who knows? But the crucial thing is the Government has been trying to get this deal signed off. They really wanted the whole of Cambridgeshire on board. But last night, as the deadline approached for the deal to be signed off, Cambridge City Council walked away. They said that they don’t want to be part of it.
CHRIS MANN: OK. And let’s bring in the Leader of Cambridge City Council, who is councillor Lewis Herbert. Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Why did you say no?
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Daniel Zeichner – making the case for Cambridge

17:20 Friday 9th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Cambridge is at a crossroads, poised for the next wave of growth, but being held back by its infrastructure. That is the view of Cambridge Ahead, a group of business leaders and academics committed to growing Cambridge into the top small city in the world. Today they launched A Case for Cambridge, their plea to central government to invest more in our region and benefit the whole country. The Chairman is Ian Mather. He said Cambridge can’t rely on its history to thrive in the future.
IAN MATHER: People come to Cambridge. They stick here; I did over thirty years ago. And they love the place, but it does need to develop to attract some of the best industries in the world. But doing that at the same time as keeping it a special place. And it’s a difficult act to do, but I believe it can be done.
CHRIS MANN: Ian Mather of Mills and Reeve. Antony Mattessich is the Managing Director of Mundipharma International, one of the many pharmaceutical companies that chose to base themselves in the city over the last decade. He said Cambridge is competing with cities like San Francisco and Boston, and it’s vital that we continue to be an appealing option to the talented people that he wants to recruit.
ANTONY MATTESSICH: When they have children where are the kids going to go to school? Is there a place in the schools? What is my commute going to be like? What is my house going to be like? Where do I have to live? I would also mention that we have people who .. they’re not quite ready to settle down in a place like Cambridge. They want to live in London. If they want to live in London, the questions are what’s the commute going to be like coming from London.
CHRIS MANN: Today’s launch featured a discussion with the area’s MPs, asking how we influence central government. But Rupert Read who stood for the Green Party in Cambridge in the last General Election, unsuccessfully, thinks we should also be asking the question whether we want the city to continue to expand.
RUPERT READ: What we’re saying in the Greens is, this growth can’t go on for ever. There’s a serious danger now we’re going to lose forever the very special character that Cambridge has, if we carry on recklessly growing it and sprawling it out into the countryside.
CHRIS MANN: The Cambridge case may be about academics and decision-makers, but the Leader of Cambridge City Council Lewis Herbert insists they’re taking everyone’s opinions into account.
LEWIS HERBERT: In some bits of the world you’ve either got governments or you’ve got business, who just don’t care about what people think. It really does matter what people think in Cambridge, and if we cannot answer the needs of the people on low incomes as well as those that need to be attracted as international brains, then it will fail.
CHRIS MANN: That’s councillor Lewis Herbert. Well Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, the newly appointed Shadow Transport Minister, was part of this morning’s panel, and he joined me in the studio later to discuss how it had gone.
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Agricultural Innovation Centre for Soham

17:44 Friday 2nd May 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: It’s been announced that a multi-million pound agricultural innovation centre is coming to Soham. £500,000 has been awarded from the Eastern Agri-tech Initiative. Let’s find out more now from Grahame Nix. Hi Grahame.
GRAHAME NIX: Hi.
CHRIS MANN: Chief Executive of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership. So tell us, what does it do?
GRAHAME NIX: The innovation centre was part of the Eastern Agri-tech Initiative that the LEP bid for from the Regional Growth Fund, and we were successful in bringing £3.2 million in for investment. And part of that was to create an innovation centre to encourage growth in the agricultural sector, which is really important in our area. And today we’ve been able to announce the half million pound of investment that we’re able to put in to encourage that centre to take off.
CHRIS MANN: So it’s a bit like the science hub that’s at Addenbrookes near Cambridge.
GRAHAME NIX: Indeed.
CHRIS MANN: This is one for agriculture.
GRAHAME NIX: This is one for agriculture. So it’s another research opportunity, so it picks up very much on our research heritage in this area. But it also picks up on the important Government initiative that’s come out around the agri-tech sector. Our area is one of the most important agricultural centres in the country. We have a huge research base between both Cambridge and research in Norwich. We have innovative farmers, and what we’re trying to do is put them together, and to encourage improvements in productivity, reductions in waste. And this centre which we announced today will be part of that process. It will be a focal point for people to come together and do interesting research in that area.
CHRIS MANN: How long will it take to get up and running, and before we see the effect of it?
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Tim Bick On The City Deal For Cambridge

09:37 Thursday 12th December 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: Nick Clegg the Deputy Prime Minister is visiting Cambridge today, and he’s expected to announce that the Government is to make more money available to be spent on roads in the county. This is in addition to spending on the A14. So what can we expect? Well joining me is Tim Bick. Tim is the Liberal Democrat Leader of Cambridge City Council. Tim, good morning to you. Thanks for coming in.
TIM BICK: Good morning Andie.
ANDIE HARPER: So what is this money all about? We’ve been talking about the A14 money for some time, and obviously other main roads need work on, but this specific announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister, how much and where is it to be used?
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Alconbury Enterprise Zone is Excellent News for Peterborough

07:12 Wednesday 17 August 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Neil Darwin is Director of Economic Development at Opportunity Peterborough, and can speak to us now. Good morning Neil.
NEIL DARWIN: Good morning Andy.
…………..
ANDY GALL: Alconbury have been chosen as the Enterprise Zone by the Government.
NEIL DARWIN: Indeed.
ANDY GALL: Peterborough did apply but wasn’t selected.
NEIL DARWIN: That’s right.
ANDY GALL: Your thoughts this morning?
NEIL DARWIN: We’re really pleased. The important thing was we got an Enterprise Zone in the area, and it’s fantastic news that we have indeed got one. The important thing is that having Alconbury deisgnated means that it’s good for Peterborough, irrespective.
ANDY GALL: Does it mean though that because Enterprise Zones in the ’80s, when they came about, they were sort of blue-chip companies would be drawn to them, but then they became sort of employment blackspots.
NEIL DARWIN: Indeed. It’s a very interesting policy line the Government have taken. Some of them did work in the ’80s. Some of them failed miserably. And again, what the Government have done this time is say that they’re going to focus on growth, growth-focused areas. What they mean by that is they’re going to put them in places like Alconbury, rather than in the middle of Blackburn or Burnley or places of that ilk.
ANDY GALL: But what kind of industry is it going to attract in the current climate?
NEIL DARWIN: At the moment we’ve been talking to Urban & Civic who own the site down there. They’re very keen to try and attract overseas business to the area. And there’s still plenty of demand for that, around some of the modern technologies that are coming forward. So biotech and all those sorts of things. So it’ll be interesting. From a Peterborough perspective it will be very interesting to see how it takes off. And actually the important thing for Peterborough residents is actually having, as Urban & Civic have described in the proposal, up to 6,000, 7,000 jobs. It’s having those jobs on the doorstep, because it’s actually very commutable from Peterborough. So there’s a real win-win there, in terms of having jobs on the doorstep.

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Co-op Peterborough Depot to Close

17:10 Monday 10th January 2011 Drivetime BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY BURROWS: We start today with some pretty grim news for staff at the Co-op distribution centre in Peterborough. 230 jobs are under threat, after the company announced its depot in Ivatt Way in Westwood will shut in the Autumn. The firm has said the move is being made after a company review. It said efforts will be made to redeploy staff. The company has sites in Huntingdon and Godmanchester, and plans for a new base in Hampshire. But it is likely there will be redundancies in Peterborough. Let’s speak to the Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson. Evening to you Mr Jackson.
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Peterborough News 29th October 2010

A summary of the Peterborough Breakfast Show from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire broadcast from 06:00 to 09:00 on Friday 29th October 2010.

Topics:
East Anglian Air Ambulance no longer want to work with the volunteer Magpas service, but Magpas say they will continue to operate using the Cambridgeshire police helicopter, and will buy their own if necessary.
Mayor Keith Sharp has promised to get a new war memorial in Cathedral Square Peterborough by 2012.
Local Enterprise Partnerships have been given the go-ahead by Government, replacing EEDA locally. Opinions are divided on whether Cambridge and Peterborough have enough in common to make the idea a success.
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Bridging the Gap

In an interview broadcast at 08:25 on Tuesday 7th September 2010. Radio Cambridgeshire’s Paul Stainton talks to local committee man John Bridge about an anonymous group of business people who plan to replace EEDA with a new Local Enterprise Partnership headed up in the interim by the interviewee.
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