Making a difference to the people of Medway

Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Investment will benefit all who live here

Article posted on Friday, 3 July 2009

Medway Council has been working for several years on how to Put Medway On The Map. There are big benefits to be gained from this wider recognition of Medway as a place, and these are often on a scale that would not be easily achieved by one of five towns.

Big companies expect to invest in and around major cities - cities which can cater for all their needs. Here in Medway we can provide the infrastructure and facilities, both physical and social, that are necessary to attract big investors.

Government, too, now recognises Medway the place, and is investing large sums of tax payers' money here in regeneration projects that will ultimately benefit all who live here.

At some point we will claw our way out of this recession, and that will be the time when we will need all the external investment we can get. The government has already ordered us to build more than 16,000 new houses in Medway; now we need to attract the jobs to go with them if Medway is to prosper.

Last weekend I was privileged to attend Armed Forces Day at Chatham Historic Dockyard; 30,000-plus people came to throng the streets in a celebration not just of our marvellous armed forces, but in a celebration of all that is good about Medway. The people lined the streets and rightly cheered the parade to the echo.

Later I listened to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, echo our thoughts about our service personnel, but did so with mixed feelings.

I knew that after the weekend it would be back to our task of improving Medway, and this against a backcloth of a devastated economy, the like of which most people have not seen in their lifetime.

As the PM spoke I realised that I was listening to a man who has done more than any other to bring about this recession and the huge financial debt for which our successors will be paying for decades.

The PM might have brought about Armed Forces Day - for which we salute him. But as Chancellor and now PM he has brought Britain almost to its knees - something which our armed forces have always protected us from in time of conflict.

Cllr Alan Jarrett is Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group and represents Lordswood and Capstone