Where are the jobs?

[Lord Elpus]

In 2003 Greenpeace published this report http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/6702.pdf 

Drummond and key Officers were all sent a copy, as were GONE and One NorthEast, in my opinion they all failed to grasp the business opportunity and we missed the boat in relation to not getting our toe in the water early enough and other areas embraced the opportunity with both hands. 

Firms Like Able and PD ports made rash promises which were not based on orders or experience in the field.  A few months ago I made the point in a meeting that in order for Hartlepool to get a chance of benefiting from these opportunities we need direct help from Government, immediately.  We can't rely on our Teesside neighbours in such a dog eat dog world.

Shighty should have done more to promote this during the last government's term but Hansard shows little evidence of him doing so.  Mandy should have helped when he was a man of influence but did very little for anyone other than himself.  Drummond and Wilson did try to win the contract which went to Dundee but Stuart tells me they were let down by Government departments and officials.

So where does that leave us.  Apart from having a good deep water port and plenty of dock side land ripe for development.  10 years down the road from the original Greenpeace report not much further on.  Apart of trolling off to Huckelhoven I have yet to see any efforts by the dynamic duo to promote this longstanding opportunity for Hartlepool.

A good start would be fresh people with fresh ideas take charge of this town's future. 

[craig finton]

Very interesting article on the front page. I wasn't aware that such a large scale project was about to unfold just a few miles off our own coastline. Sadly, it looks as if we are once again about to be shafted by our Teesside 'colleagues'.

Promises, promises.......

[seaton]

As with the majority of projects in the UK the work force is cheap immigrant EU labour. The equipment is shipped in from abroad and assembled here.
I was in London the other week and there were `loads` of workers with coveralls, hi vis jackets every where in central London and not one of them as British. London was always a good place to work and there were plenty of people from the N.E. who were employed there, any one know of any one who was employed on the construction of the Olympic Games facilities
Hinkley Point is being constructed by a French Company, well the French goverment so all the equipment will be constructed in France and shipped in modular form to the UK with the assembly being done by there own work force. HS2 will be no different.
Jobs only for a few, all these companies should be made to take on apprentices pro rata with the number of people they employ. Successive goverments have allowed the decline in British Industry

[rabbit]

"French Company, well the French government so all the equipment will be constructed in France and shipped in modular form to the UK with the assembly being done by there own work force."

Perhaps not, The reactor itself will be of European / French design..Much of the civil work (buildings etc) will be done with local labour (including no doubt foreign workers).

The various main reactor sections will most likely (but not certainly) be manufactured abroad.The high tech welding may well be done by British engineers.The control and instrumental equipment could be manufactured here.

The main steam turbines will quite possibly be supplied by British based companies.

Unfortunately perhaps.most of the original British steam turbine manufacturers are now part of international conglomerates. e.g. Parsons of Newcastle are now part of Siemens of Germany.  English Electric and General Electric of the Midlands are part of the French Alstom.

The important water pumping systems could easily have been supplied by the experienced Weir Group (based in Scotland) but now I see that even that pump manufacturer is now part of an American based company SPX..Typical!

It will be down to open tendering and competition on  price and providing the essential expertise and safety.

There will much British based work involved in the design, construction. operation and maintenance in this new venture.

All is not lost..

[seaton]

"French Company, well the French government so all the equipment will be constructed in France and shipped in modular form to the UK with the assembly being done by there own work force."

Perhaps not, The reactor itself will be of European / French design..Much of the civil work (buildings etc) will be done with local labour (including no doubt foreign workers).

The various main reactor sections will most likely (but not certainly) be manufactured abroad.The high tech welding may well be done by British engineers.The control and instrumental equipment could be manufactured here.

The main steam turbines will quite possibly be supplied by British based companies.

Unfortunately perhaps.most of the original British steam turbine manufacturers are now part of international conglomerates. e.g. Parsons of Newcastle are now part of Siemens of Germany.  English Electric and General Electric of the Midlands are part of the French Alstom.

The important water pumping systems could easily have been supplied by the experienced Weir Group (based in Scotland) but now I see that even that pump manufacturer is now part of an American based company SPX..Typical!

It will be down to open tendering and competition on  price and providing the essential expertise and safety.

There will much British based work involved in the design, construction. operation and maintenance in this new venture.

All is not lost..

Good post, but at the end off the day what do we in the UK actually own, you know who sold the family silver off.We are now being held to ransom by all the foreign utilitiy companies, who when confronted by the MP s the other day didnt give a t***. When companies are answerable to share holders its all about profit and dividends. Things had too change but its gone to far.

[not4me]

It seems to me that the only real output of organisations like Tees Valley Regeneration and Tees Valley Unlimited is the creation a sub-culure of quango-ites job-hopping around the country producing very little but a myriad of PowerPoint presentations and expense claims.

I gather Stephen Catchpole, who headed up Tees Valley Unlimited, is the latest to up sticks to take up a position with Coventry and Warwickshire LEP. It seems to be a common career approach within these organisations - do the plans, the meetings, the seminars and presentations and then p**s off before having to explain why none of it came true. In the meantime, you have earned a very nice salary while achieving bugger all.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/business/news/10777039.North-East_business_development_boss_to_stand_down/   

[steveL]

This issue highlights one of the weaknesses of Labour in Hartlepool in that, over the years, it has increasingly seen its role as based mostly in the management of deprivation rather than being able to plan a route out of it. Consequently, it is entrenched in a pre-occupation with the third sector while being entirely passive in its role as a central player in bringing more jobs to the town. It's far easier to blame Central Government for such things and simply sit by the telephone in the hope that one day it will ring with news of a major employer coming to Hartlepool.

Wrighty's effectiveness as an MP is at the heart of this. Hartlepool is almost alone in the North East in not being the base for a significant Government Department or even the base for some satellite office. Middlesbrough has a Tax Office; Darlington, the Student Loan Office; Durham, the Land Registry and Passport Office and of course, Newcastle has Longbenton and other Goverment offices.

As has been said on here before, 50 years after the last ship yard closed and with a Labour MP for 48 of those years, can anyone point to any major employment development brought to the town?

Worse, for half of those years, we have had both a Labour MP and a Labour Government. Surely, if Labour were ever going to do anything to really help the employment situation in the town they would have done so by now?

[norfolkngoode]

Worse, for half of those years, we have had both a Labour MP and a Labour Government. Surely, if Labour were ever going to do anything to really help the employment situation in the town they would have done so by now?

You can understand The Tories not being interested in us, but......
You would expect the party of the working classes to have done something wouldn't you?
They have had plenty of opportunities.
But do they really have to do anything?......

No they dont, and they know it!

Its amazing, after all, no matter what happens, or how bad things are, people must be happy, (or completely apathetic), because the votes are always there, they dont really have to try to help/improve anything.
People WILL continue to vote Labour, regardless! 

We've got the Council/MP we deserve

[norfolkngoode]

I understand what you're saying Stephen, what I dont get, and what my post failed to say is, why are people content with such poor/mediocre representation?

[stokoe]

BENEFITS? is it i don't know.