"NEW ROVER TASK FORCE" CALL

20-12-2006

Northfield MP Richard Burden is calling for the creation of a new Rover Task Force - and he's hit back at claims that local MP's haven't fought hard enough for the community affected by the closure of Longbridge car factory.

As we reported on this site yesterday, more than £50 million allocated by the government after the factory closed has now been returned to the Treasury.

Burden explained that as some of the cash was allocated by the European Union for specific purposes - for example to aid parts suppliers -the rules mean that it simply can't be spent on anything else.

But he admitted that there were other pockets of cash that could be diverted to the struggling south-west Birmingham economy rather than being sent back to the Treasury.

“I think we should be trying to build on the area's motor heritage” Burden said.

“I would love to see some of the money used on a centre for technical innovation and automotive excellence.”

The MP is also arguing for the delivery of more cash to the wider south-west Birmingham region, feeling that cash earmarked for components' suppliers has by-passed the people who've been hardest hit.

“Many of the components suppliers were in Redditch or Sandwell and because there had been so much work put in after Rover almost went down in 2000 to help them diversify, they weren't so badly hit.

“But the workers at Longbridge were more concentrated in south-west Birmingham and there wasn't enough done to reduce the area's over-reliance on one big employer.”

Although there are plans to create a technology park at Longbridge, the MP feels that this is being managed as a "top down" exercise without enough reference to the locals.

He's now calling for a re-energised Rover Task Force, capable drawing on the expertise of community groups such as the Rover Community Action Trust led by Gemma Cartwright, rather than leaving decision-making to the likes of Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham Council.

“A new task force which is locally based and locally focussed could do so much more” he said.

As for the criticism that local MP's hadn't fought hard enough to keep Rover in the public eye, Burden pointed out that he'd raised the issue in parliament on October 25th.

(For yesterday's Rover story click here).