The British Motorway Network
The British Motorway Network and the North East of England road links.
Any Manager writing a Business Plan for the North East of England would recognise that the prime objective should be to build an economy which can compete in the Global Market.
There are two basic requirements to compete against the best economies found anywhere in the World.
The first is a transport structure which links all our ports and industrial bases within the U.K. and Europe.
We do not have this basic requirement because the British motorway network which links Edinburgh with Glasgow, Carlisle, and Manchester, and in the Midlands, Bristol with London and Leeds, ends abruptly at Gateshead. This makes the North East into a cul-de-sac.
Tragically those local authorities South of the Tyne and North of the Tees have failed to recognise that the North East is the only economic region in the UK that is not in the road transport loop.
The importance of being in the loop is fundamental to the economy of the North East linking Teesside with Central Scotland. The gap in the motorway loop is between Seaton Burn and Edinburgh, the A1.
The second basic requirement is to educate our young people and provide them with the technical skills essential to recover from the decline in meaningful skills.
Transferring skills from one generation to the next is paramount.
Training is the fundamental long and short term foundation of all successful economies.
It is the training and understanding gained from these skills that has generated wealth throughout human history from inventing the wheel to the ongoing revolution generated by digital technology
For example: Film makers could not make movies without the camera and digital technology that they take for granted.
The British Motorway Network and the North East of England road links are a critical to the economic growth of our Region.
Northumberland and the North East has all the basic ingredients required to lay the foundations of economic success for decades to come, but, we have been waiting for decades for a leadership that understands how to deliver.
At last there are new incentives to provide us with the Organisations required to address these two issues and who can generate the leap forward essential in delivering our aspirations which these two initiatives can contribute:
Councils across the Scotland-England border hope to deliver their case for a “growth deal” in a matter of weeks.
Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Cumbria and Carlisle City councils are involved.
A conference in Dumfries in June was told a growth deal could be “transformational” for the area.
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced support for the project in his budget last year.
The new combined Authority including Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland will benefit from the formation of this new body which will have a budget of £20 million a year that will, hopefully, be match funded by other sources for the projects we need.
Alan Thompson
October 2018
