Report
to the People
3rd
February 2003
Regeneration of the Clyde
I know how hard it is.
It’s not a month since more than a thousand jobs were lost in our community and we’re being asked be positive about the future. Not easy.
But, as Tuesday’s address to the business community by Enterprise Minister Iain Gray showed, this is not the time for defeatism. The Inverclyde economy, if we take the right decisions now, is not doomed to collapse.
If, for example, our manufacturing industry is to have a bright – or indeed any – future, local businesses need to follow the example set by organisations like IBM, who are moving from being a manufacturing to a total solutions company.
This, of course, isn’t a painless process – just ask those who, after in some cases decades of service, have been transferred to Sanmina. But, as we in Greenock know to our cost, it’s a safe bet that companies without this vision, saddled with weak management unable, or willing, to invest in the future, simply wither and die. At least with change the workforce gets a fighting chance.
Diversification, though, is about more than businesses branching out into new markets or moving up the value chain in their own market. It’s also about finding new uses for our natural assets.
And, as I said in the Parliament during a debate on the subject on Thursday, what better untapped asset do we have than the Clyde?
While I’m not a geographer to trade, I do know that the Clyde doesn’t start in Glasgow and come to a sudden stop at the Erskine Bridge. Any debate about regenerating the Clyde – or more accurately, using the Clyde to regenerate Clydeside communities – must, I argued, include areas like Inverclyde.
Important as the Clyde was to our past, I defy anyone travelling here from the East to, as soon as they hit Langbank, take one look at the view then argue that the river isn’t crucial to our future.
Just think of the opportunities. The breathtaking scenery could attract people and business, so helping rebuild our declining population – and the waterfront would be the ideal location for affordable, desirable housing. Then there’s the wealth of untapped waterfront leisure opportunities – from sailing to selling. Indeed, the river could improve transport links, a must for any successful economy, by offering us the chance to avoid the jams on the way into Glasgow by taking a fast ferry.
This vision, this strengthening of our economy and realisation of our natural assets, will not be delivered overnight. But, with the support I am seeking from Ministers at Holyrood and our own efforts here, it can be done.
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