Minister praises college's links

A Government minister has praised the work of an award-winning Shropshire college in building links with businesses.Liam Byrne, Minister for West Midlands, toured Hortonwood firm Eurofilms yesterday during a visit to the region. The firm has been collaborating with Telford College of Arts and Technology with training for about five years.

Mr Byrne said the college was pioneering new ways of businesses developing their skills and said: "The whole region needs to learn from what TCAT has mastered."

The minister has been touring the West Midlands for the last few months and said the success of the county was important to the success of the region as a whole.

He said: "The region will not succeed and grow and prosper unless we succeed in Shropshire because our region is a beautiful region.

"We are four-fifths rural and Shropshire represents some of what is best about the West Midlands.

"Shropshire represents the need for us to balance the rural and urban successes that is exactly the challenge we have to master in the entire West Midlands.

"I think unless we get it right in Shropshire we will not get it right in the West Midlands as a whole."

He recognised the importance of the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site where millions of pounds is being spent on work to stabilise the area.

Telford & Wrekin Council has already spent about £5.5 million on the stabilisation scheme but another £86 million is needed.

Mr Byrne, who visited the Gorge in November, said: "The message is no action is not an option. It's a lot of money but the money will have to be spent because there is just no way we are prepared to risk anything disastrous happening there."

He said he had asked the Cabinet Office and Civil Contingencies Directorate to make a rapid decision on how the Government was going to help to solve the funding problem.

Mr Byrne said they also needed to provide more affordable homes, which would inevitably mean more properties would need to be built and people would get the chance to put forward their views during an inquiry to be held over the next seven months.

All sectors of the community are also due to come together over the next month for the first time to draw together priorities for transport and how to boost the economies of counties like Shropshire.