As we reported earlier today, a contingent of Isle of Wight representatives made their way to Westminster today to talk to Ed Miliband about the prospect of creating more green jobs on the Isle of Wight.
Our many thanks to Newport Cllr Geoff Lumley for taking the time this evening to give us an update on how the meeting went.
Geoff has been pretty active in making sure that his voice is heard by the movers and shakers in Government, calling for action to support the Island’s social and economic regeneration following the significant job losses at Vestas Blades.
He told us that Mr Miliband is clearly keen to get alternative green jobs onto the Island which is very positive news.
He went onto say that development of tidal energy in the Solent, and a scheme for ‘rotawave’ technology, potentially delivering at least 300 Island jobs, will be subject to further urgent Government expert investigation. This will be prior to any support grants being made available, but this is definately promising news for the future.
Mr Miliband also told the IW contingent that he would look into Government support to upgrade some of the available wharfage on the Medina River. Geoff points out that this is something integral to much of the renewables agenda, so again, good news for the Island.
Interestingly, Geoff tells us that Mr Miliband was quizzical about the Island’s absence of any onshore windfarm, stressing this had been real niggle for Vestas when they decided to shut down blade production.
The Secretary of State for Climate Change also told the contingent that he’s keen to be kept in the picture about possible offshore blade production that has recently come into the picture, an opportunity with the potential for 1000 jobs.
It appears that Ed Miliband was very supportive and took the time to thank Geoff afterwards for keeping him well advised on the post-Vestas situation.
Hats off to Cllr Lumley who helped make sure the meeting took place.
Here at VB, we’ll be keeping an eye of what happens next.
Image: Foreign Office under CC BY-SA 2.0
