Town will bounce back again
Twice as many people are unemployed compared with five years ago
Corby is vowing to bounce back from the savage recent blows to jobs in the town despite figures which show that ever-increasing numbers of people are out of work.
There are now 1,976 people on Jobseekers’ Allowance in Corby compared with 950 in early 2006, and an Evening Telegraph investigation has shown that Northamptonshire now has twice as many unemployed people as five years ago.
Major job losses have been announced in the past month at Tata Steel, Eddie Stobart, Argos Wincanton and Solway Foods.
But Corby Council says it is doing all it can to push for investment in jobs. The authority is planning meetings with county council leader Jim Harker and the regional enterprise partnership to bid again for an enterprise zone for Corby.
And deputy council leader Mark Pengelly said other projects would help.
He said: “There are things like Electric Corby and the Rockingham Speedway masterplan which we are working on after we lost the enterprise zone bid.
“Silverstone has lots of high-enterprise businesses and that is what we want at Rockingham.
“We can’t do it without support for infrastructure costs and we are asking the Government for support.
“We’ve also had meetings with the two developers either side of Geddington Road and they will be creating 3,000 jobs themselves.”
The council is also planning to organise a business breakfast at the Pen Green Centre with First Enterprise, a business support organisation which offers start-up help and small loans.
Corby Enterprise Centre is also working with smaller companies.
Manager Stuart Hartley said: “In the last year we have safeguarded 70 jobs and created 25 new ones.
“We are here to assist businesses that want to grow. This could be a satellite office of a national company or a one-person band.
“Out of the 25 businesses we have here, approximately one quarter for new businesses from outside the East Midlands and one quarter are new businesses from outside Corby.
“The council is looking to attract higher-skilled people to Corby and we are just one part of that.”
Corby MP Louise Mensch is meeting with Corby Council this morning.
She said: “The biggest thing we can do is push through the development at Gretton which will create 3,000 jobs.”
Prospective parliamentary candidate Andy Sawford said: “I have been pushing for an enterprise zone. The nature of my role is to put pressure on local authorities to make jobs a real focus.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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Comments
There are 39 comments to this article
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RobMckellar
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 08:02 PM@darren smith - it is amazing isn't it, tens of millions of pounds for the cube and they couldn't even manage a half decent paint job.
RobMckellar
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 08:00 PM@darren smith. No it is funded from S106 contributions from developers. The aim is not to promote electric cars, it is to encourage high tech industry to come to the borough. The scheme is cost neutral and beneficial to the local economy.
darren smith
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 09:26 AM@ rob mckellar, so my council tax money is being wasted on a scheme that benefits no one in the town. In October 2011 there was only 1107 electric cars on the road (source guardian newspaper), I would have to estimate 80-90% are in London, so why waste money on this scheme? Some of it could have been used to paint the ugly concrete walls inside the oxo cube. Or actually put to use that would benefit all the town
RobMckellar
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 08:00 PM@darren smith. Thank you for that remark, I appreciate it. The northern orbital road is county council funded whereas Electric Corby is borough council funded.
RobMckellar
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 07:58 PM@Beanfield Beast. I think it is only charging points that are needed. Yes developers can be compelled to fund it and that is where virtually all of the funding has come from. The infrastructure was already in place at the railway station and the council's match funding is coming from developer S106 contributions.
RobMckellar
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 07:55 PM@Subcomandante - Sometimes it is just yes or no, other times it is a series of options. In this instance it was options.
darren smith
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 04:42 PM@ king ted, the politest way to describe you is a muppet!!! Don't come on here slagging Corby and the ambition it has. Corby had show over the past 10 to 20 years that it's a place that can deliver. Silverstone was branded a village fate pretending to be a world class venue a couple of years ago. Rockingham speedway is everybit as good as silverstone as a venue. And pardon my geography but doesn't part of silverstone circuit fall in to buckinghamshire? And has had money pumped into it from both county councils, where as rockingham was privately funded. What has south northants got to offer over Corby? Towcester racecourse, Corby is evolving with excellent new facilities, and lots more to come. north londonshire was a marketing ploy by the developers of priors hall, not the people of Corby. Watch this space
darren smith
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 04:27 PM@ rob mckellar, totally agree with you about building on brownfield sites first, also see that the gretton nimbyism is still alive and kicking. Must say though it is good to see a councillor on the thread replying to questions being asked. As for electric Corby, why don't they spend the money for this project to complete the road to nowhere (first phase of the northern orbital road)?
Beanfield Beast
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 07:27 PM@RobMcKellar thanks for clearing up the point about the Electric Corby scheme. I'm at a loss to know what infrastructure is needed though other than charging points. Could developers be compelled to provide these as part of new schemes perhaps?
Subcomandante
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 01:37 PM@Robmckellor - oh I see, didn't know you could vote on half of it, thought it was either a simple yes or no. I was told he still voted against electric Corby even though you're saying he supports it? Confused lol!
RobMckellar
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 01:32 PM@Subcomndante - The decision making committee is the One Corby Policy Committee upon which the Conservatives voted for the concept of Electric Corby while Labour voted to queue up for the ERDF. The purpose of Overview and Scrutiny is not to debate policy and decision-making but look at the finer detail and raise concerns of a more specific nature. My understanding is that one member of the Conservative group voted based upon his concern over the effectiveness of electric cars themselves. This was not a vote against Electric Corby and the Conservatives continue to support it.
Subcomandante
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 08:09 AM@RobMckellor - Think there's been another u-turn then because I asked one of my cllrs in the town this weekend about this project, and got told the Tories voted against this at a scrutiny meeting last week with the public there?
Afloat
Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 10:56 AM@RobMckellar - just to say there should be a forward slash between "uk", "pages" and "Projects" on the website I quoted for Shore Energy. For some reason the ET site deletes them when you post your comment.
Afloat
Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 03:11 AMWe need innovative "off the wall" thinking which would give Corby a competitive edge in attracting businesses. The council will need to provide "value-add" and maybe incentives. We need to avoid zero-hour contract employment and just building more homogenised shopping centres. Corby needs to market itself aggressively and not sit and wait for things to happen. I know, it's easily said, but no one from outside is going to be Corby's advocate.
Afloat
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 10:47 PM@RobMckellar No need to hunt for the info - the announcement was made by Shore Energy in December and is confirmed on their website http:www.shore-energy.co.ukpagesProjects. The exact wording is "In December 2011 we sold our interest in the project in Corby, Northamptonshire. The company who acquired the Corby site is Atlantic Environmental (Corby) Limited, who intend to develop an autoclave based waste processing facility using the Wilson System technology. They anticipate going into commercial production during Q3 of this year." I would suggest that, given the fact that Atlantic have not commenced construction yet and don't even appear to have started trading, this is a rather ambitious target. What is very disappointing is that either the ET is misquoting her or our MP doesn't actually know what proposals are currently on the table for creating employment in the town. The ET should have challenged these numbers and published clarification of what potential jobs are being created and when they will be available. Clearly, the 6,000 jobs referred to in the article is a major (politically motivated?) overstatement of the reality. It would be helpful if you could produce a bottom line number of what we can actually expect, Thanks.
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