Labour Assembly Government must ensure European funding benefits Bridgend

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 8th Jul 2006

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has written to the Assembly Minister responsible for economic development to express his concern at the lack of impact of European funding in addressing some of the problems in the Bridgend area.

Mr. Black has written following representations from Council Leader, Cheryl Green, who is also concerned at the failure of European money to turn around the local economy. She has also raised particular concerns about the funding for the next phase of this programme.

"The present Objective One programme resulted in a projected spend of £15.4m on projects in the Bridgend County Borough, which was not enough to maintain Gross Value Added, the measure by which economic success is assessed," said Mr. Black. "This fell from 75 to 69 between 1999 and 2003. Nor was this funding enough to prevent the unemployment rate increasing to 2.9% from 2.2% in 2004."

"In addition to this the percentage of working age population with no qualifications has also fallen. The latest data for Bridgend County Borough is 20.4%. This compares to 17.8% for Wales and is the sixth highest across the 22 Welsh Authorities. The number of 16 year olds not in education, training or employment has risen from 7.6% in 2002/03 to 9.6% in 2005/06. Because of the regional approach being taken to the new programme of funding there are fears that this will result in even less funding being available to the Bridgend area."

"In principle the Council and I support a more strategic approach to the new programme but we are concerned that the focus will be placed upon other areas of the region and that the way it will be implemented will further disadvantage Bridgend. For example the Heads of the Valleys inititaive is a priority, but this should not be at the expense of other valley areas."

"If Bridgend is to have a diverse and vibrant economy and a strong social infrastructure it needs more substantial support through objective 1, to ensure that the programme addresses low GVA, is able to compensate for the 20% loss in our manufacturing base, addresses the number of people of working age with no qualifications and targets the number of 16 year olds not in education, training and employment."