Members of the Great Yarmouth Chamber Council recently met with Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth, to highlight issues affecting local businesses. Among the topics discussed was the need to highlight the many and varied opportunities available to local businesses from the offshore and renewable industry; Assisted Area Status and the benefits this could bring to Great Yarmouth; skills and careers advice; and infrastructure.
Brandon outlined that Great Yarmouth’s Assisted Area Status case was being well supported and that he was cautiously optimistic that Great Yarmouth stood a good chance of being awarded Assisted Area Status, which would bring our region into line with the offerings that other Centres for Renewable Engineering (CORE) areas already benefit from.
Members of the Great Yarmouth Chamber Council highlighted the need for more Government support on the education establishments to ensure that the young people of today understand what opportunities are available to them locally. At present the schools do not have sufficient time or funding within the existing curriculum to cover careers advice in any great detail. Brandon advised that he was organising a Jobs Fair in conjunction with the Borough Council which would be held on 7 March 2014 at Great Yarmouth Racecourse.
Improvements to the A47, including extending the A47 to Lowestoft were also discussed. Brandon advised that the Norfolk Nine MPs were campaigning hard at Westminster and called for the business community to keep raising the profile of the A47 campaign locally. Brandon advised that the business case for the improvements was expected to be finalised by the Norfolk County Council in the next few weeks.
