Newcastle Labour

I welcome the news of the government of £4.4m in financial support to Clipper to support development of their 70m Britannia wind turbine blade prototypes at Walker Riverside.

This announcement follows many months of significant work by the constituency MP Nick Brown, and the unstinting work of Shepherd Offshore to develop a sound economic base for the East End of Newcastle.  This is fantastic news for the East End, for the city and for the region.

To read claims that this was only made possible due to Cllr Greg Stones intervention and his hard work with Shepherds demonstrates just quite how deluded Stone actually is.  He claims that "This initiative has only been made possible by the intervention of Fiona and myself to press One North East to lobby for Government assistance by taking advantage of "state aid" exemptions for renewable energy technology, and by the Lib Dem run council's commitment to regeneration of the Walker shipyards.

He is either totally deluded or will stoop to any level in a pathetic attempt to gain credit for anything successful occurring in Newcastle.  That he thinks he had a key role to play in this decision really beggars belief.

The investment being made is part of a strategic investment being made by the Labour Government, and follows significant work and investment by Shepherd Offshore, the One Northeast  investment team, CBI, and importantly the Newcastle East MP and Regional Minister Nick Brown MP, to identify and promote the North East and in particular the River Tyne as a base for the manufacture of the wind turbines. 

This has been a long term vision and I for one am extremely grateful for the role of Shepherd Offshore in developing the river side sites, to ONE and their investment team, and to the Labour Government for this huge vote of confidence.  This is another step forward in the Great North Revolution. 

A sound economic base is what is needed for the regions economy and this is yet further commitment from this Labour government into the region for today and for the future.

I welcome Clipper to the East End of Newcastle and look forward to much more investment.

Cllr Nick Kemp (Labour) Labour spokesperson for regeneration and the economy