More than £70 million-worth of funding has been pumped into Cumbrian projects to help boost the economy.
Cumbria Local Enterprise’s annual general meeting was told that the body had delivered it £60.32 million Local Growth Fund programme, which included the Growing Our Potential (GOP) scheme that delivered 19 grants of up to £250,000 to Cumbrian businesses.
Partnership chairman Lord Inglewood and board members Steve Cole, Sarah Swindley, Nigel Wilkinson and Andrew Wren, with chief executive Jo Lappin, told the AGM about the key activities delivered over the past 12 months and the priorities for the remainder of the financial year.
Representatives from some of the businesses boosted by the funding told the AGM how it had helped them with their growth plans.
Mark Brook, manufacturing director at James Walker & Co in Cockermouth said its £2.6 million Growth Deal funding package had helped deliver major flood protection work at its factory, helping secure 406 skilled jobs and looking to create a further 30 jobs by 2023.
Donovan Du Plessis, director at Firehouse, said its £57,000 Growing Our Potential funding had helped to fund the development of a new showroom in Kendal, which meant it was better able to display and expand its cedarwood hot tubs, Jacuzzis and heating products.
The project has created seven new jobs to date.
Stephen Revell, director at Mitchell’s Auction Company in Cockermouth, told the AGM that its £139,000 Growing Our Potential grant went towards a project to create 12 additional small workshop spaces at its Lakeland Agricultural Centre, which have all been let to local businesses.
Sarah Swindley, a partnership board member, spoke on behalf Brewery Arts Centre. The Kendal venue received an £100,000 Growing Our Potential grant, which helped fund a new digital media hub.
The AGM also heard that the LEP had allocated Cumbria’s £10.5 million contribution from the Getting Building Fund (GBF) to two major projects – the A595 Bothel Road Improvement Scheme and The Marina Village project in Barrow.
For the second year running, the meeting was held via videoconference as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and to make it easier for as many people as possible to attend.
Deputy chair Mr Cole updated the meeting on the LEP’s investments while Professor Andrew Wren, the LEP’s diversity champion, explained that the organisation remained committed to gender equality on its board by 2023; increased protected characteristics representation and enhanced age, geographic and sectorally balanced representation.
The meeting also heard from Morgan Kasiera, of the Futures Forum, about how it was ensuring that the views of young people aged between 18 and 35 were informing the partnership’s strategic thinking on the economy and Cumbria’s opportunities and challenges.
Lord Inglewood said: “The annual general meeting is an important visible demonstration of our commitment to operate in a very open and transparent manner, which allows all of our partners to hear about what we have been doing and ask us any questions that they might have.
“I am really encouraged that so many of our partners take the opportunity to join us.
“This year we had some excellent case studies from businesses that CLEP had funded to help deliver their growth plans, which is really what we are all about – supporting our businesses to deliver their ambitions.”
