View from Westminster - April 5, 2012 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

View from Westminster - April 5, 2012

3:10pm Wednesday 4th April 2012 in MP's View - Mark Garnier

A couple of weeks ago, I had the delightful task of accompanying a representative from Sport England to present cheques to a number of local sports clubs who had been successful in applications for grants.

There were five, in total: Kidderminster Tennis Club, Far Forest Tennis Club, Bewdley Cricket Club, Wyre Forest Gymnastics Club and Wyre Forest Hockey Club (who I sadly couldn’t join for the presentation as I was summoned to London).

We in Wyre Forest took five of the 350 grants made across the country and that is excellent news.

In these tricky times, it is sometimes right to reflect on good news, such as the Sport England awards. The fact is, there is a surprising amount of good news in Wyre Forest.

Two of our local big employers – Brintons Carpets and Sealine yachts – have received significant investments, totalling between them some £50 million, which has secured these businesses on a sound basis for future growth. The sugar beet site, after years of languishing as an eyesore in the south of Kidderminster, has just had an exciting planning application put in to develop the site for employment, leisure, care, tourism, retail and cafe, and residential. There is even a new halt proposed for the Severn Valley Railway.

The safari park is proposing to build a new 250-room conference centre that will be the best facility in the county, linking this to the SVR via a state-of-the-art monorail.

In Stourport, planning is proposed to redevelop the basins site along Bridge Street, enhancing the visitor offerings as well as providing more marina space and residential flats. Asda are looking to build a superstore in Kidderminster and Tesco are about to start work in Stourport, redeveloping the old Bond Worth carpet factory. There is a new Premier Inn opened in Kidderminster. Weaver’s Wharf Piano Building is to be the home for a joint venture between Kidderminster College and the Birmingham Metropolitan College to bring a new range of exciting courses.

Our tourist offering is about to be enhanced with the new carpet museum to celebrate Kidderminster’s industrial heritage.

We have a number of schools being rebuilt and refurbished, and Wyre Forest District Council is creating construction jobs and opportunities with the new offices in Stourport Road, with the resulting, vacated sites providing further opportunities for investment.

We even have a new crematorium and cemetery.

I know that not all these are controversy free, and people have strong feelings about a number of these projects. I also know that there are some projects that have not yet realised their potential. People have lost their jobs. But the overall narrative is one of inward investment and a growing future for our district. This is a good base on which to build our future prosperity.

CONTACT YOUR MP

Email: mark.garnier.mp@ parliament.uk.

Telephone: 020 7219 7198 or 01562 746771.

Write: 9a Lower Mill Street, Kidderminster, DY11 6UU, or House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.