LETTERSFrom Mr M. Nobbs, (secretary, IW Trades Union Councils), Newport:
WHILE I welcome our Island MP’s promise (CP, 20-01-12) to seek a meeting with Marcus Bryson, GKN chief executive, who I met many years ago while on the works committee at GKN, I must express concern at comments made concerning whether the Island has assisted area status.
I was particularly concerned by Andrew Turner’s promise to secure assistance, which he states could be available through other agencies.
As an ex-senior steward from BHC, Westland and latterly GKN and now retired, I note the comments from the coalition’s business minister, Mark Prisk, who has promised to investigate whether the Island "was on the list" for the new generation of "challenger" banks, designed to provide new lending opportunities.
If the Island is not on the list, why not? And how long would putting the Island on the list, take? There appears to be a lot of ifs and maybes.
We are talking primarily of future employment opportunities and training for our younger generation of school leavers who wish to go into new technology manufacturing. Island policy makers need to bite the bullet and to secure this funding for the IW.
The IW has a long history of a high skills base through boatbuilders, such as myself, who achieved a City and Guilds qualification at the end of a five-year apprenticeship, qualifying as a tradesman, which became a way of life.
Let us not get too pre-occupied by what the funding is called but let us get it for the sake of our unemployed youth on the Island, and to secure this new composite turbine blade factory, as an ongoing requirement for the Island, and an encouragement to other industries and employment opportunities for future generations of students entering the world of work for the first time.
Let the powers that be, who are responsible for employment policy on the Island, get their act together.