04/12/2011 The Politics Show North East and Cumbria


04/12/2011

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It is tough on High Street this Christmas, with many support

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businesses struggling to get help they need. As the Chancellor

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brought them festive cheer? Could council cutbacks undermine the

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2018 seconds

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Hello, and welcome to your local part of the show for Cumbria and

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the North East. Coming up: Is there much festive cheer on a high street,

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or indeed among our small businesses?

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A I am on Teesside club finding out why, if the Olympics is supposed to

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make us a sportier nation, facilities like this face an

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uncertain future. The government has taken steps this

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week to address the scale of the region's economic problems. But is

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it enough? The Chancellor announced a new �1 billion a regional growth

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fund plus tax incentives for those investing in a North East's two new

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regional enterprise zones. I will be asking what the politicians make

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of it all, but first, the big question - will it help business

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create jobs in the North? At a time when many businesses are

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cutting back, this County Durham firm is keen to expand. It is

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invested in new equipment and become the first in Britain to

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produce this type of flooring. But it now needs more money to run pub

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production and take on new staff. After eight months of talking to

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banks, the firm has not been offered a single penny. All of the

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banks are keen to talk to us, but none of them have said yes. So we

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are in between a rock and a hard place. This week, the Chancellor

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did promise more help for firms like this who want a grave. But to

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Terry, those words sounded pretty hollow. -- want to grow. It sounds

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great but we have heard it all before and it is just not happening.

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I have been in business 32 years and I am more concerned now than I

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have ever been. We just cannot get the finance we require to do the

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work we need to do. There is little growth in the High Street, either.

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South Shields, like many towns, has its share of empty shops. This

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locally owned store has managed to stay profitable -- stay profitable,

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but the owner says that when they looked for short-term help they

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found out they were on their own. If you look in the papers,

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apparently there is a lot of support, but we have found out

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there is very little support. We just found out there we have not

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been able to get any more support from the bank we have been with for

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five years. We were told that Allah ratable value for a new store that

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has been open for two months around the corner, we asked for a rent

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rebate all for it to be looked at, and we told there was no rebate

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available. That is �18,000 on top of the rent. Whereas the help

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there? There is none whatsoever. these are tough times for retailers

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and for manufacturers. The challenge for George Osborne this

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week was to offer hope both to the businesses and workers, but it

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doesn't seem he has offered much festive cheer to either. We wanted

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to see more support for exporters and we did not really see anything

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there. We wanted more support for infrastructure and the projects we

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got were ones that we were already committed to, and only two out of

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500 for this region. On the other hand, encouraged by what was on

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offer in terms of energy for businesses. But there are firms

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that have got help. Jarrow cat brewery has also managed to get

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help. It is just got a grant from the Government's regional growth

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bond. It plans to grow jobs and move into bigger premises. We have

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been a capacity and we have had to stop sending be a right across the

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country. This grant will fast track the brewery and allow us to push on

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with quadrupling the size of our plant in a regeneration area of

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South Tyneside. If this grand had not come along, we would not have

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been able to progress. So, cause for a celebratory drink. But

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putting the fizz back in the rest of the North East economy will be

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more of a challenge. The Chancellor is convinced there is room for

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autism -- optimism, but for many the economic class still looks a

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half-empty. With bitterness both bat is the Labour MP for

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Middlesbrough, Sir Stuart Bell, but Conservative Euro-MP, Martin

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Callanan, and Keith Burge, a business experts based in the North

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East. Do you think George Osborne has done anything to help this we?

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I hope he has. It is a real issue, where businesses are going to banks

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and banks are being encouraged to lend them the money they need, and

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if it has not been forthcoming. Measures have been introduced to

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facilitate bank lending and to keep them lending, which will benefit

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local businesses. Is the support there for local businesses? The

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government says it is there to help with jobs. I think, more broadly,

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it is not. There was a welcome announcement that came through in

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the Autumn Statement, in terms of businesses that want to invest in

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research and development, assisting it heavy energy users and

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encouraging firms to take on young people will stop but if you take on

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what was being spent in terms of encouraging young people three or

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four years ago, it does pale into insignificance. If the region gets

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its share of the regional growth fund, that will be worth about �50

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million a year. One North East alone was spending �32 million a

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year, so that gives you some idea of the scale. Martin Callanan,

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George Osborne is just trying to come up with inadequate substitutes

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for what he and your government took away, isn't he? Overshadowing

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this is the massive debt legacy that we have. We have got to get

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rid of this. But we are not getting rid of it. We are but it is taking

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longer than we thought because of the recession. We would all like to

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see more investment in infrastructure projects but the

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money is not there. Why isn't the Autumn Statement rowing back a

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little bit? Admission that what had been done in Italy had actually

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damaged the economy, and these are attempts which are inadequate. --

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done it initially. If you look at the situation of some of our

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European partners, look what is happening in Greece, Italy,

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Portugal. These are countries that fail to deal with their debt legacy

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and now they have caretaker government, they are seeing massive

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austerity imposed, cutbacks in wages, cutbacks are prices. They

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are going through a deflationary cycle. These are serious turbulent

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economic times of the important thing is to get the economy on an

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even keel. We would like to see more investment and infrastructure

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projects but the money is simply not buyer. It is borrowed cash. --

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simply not there. There isn't an easy solution to hear, is there?

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we get back to the banks, the point that Keith made - and there was a

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small statement made by the Chancellor, where he taught of bond

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issues. They package the layers together and Securitas them. There

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was also the loan guarantee scheme, in order to have the banks have the

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comfort of a guarantee. It is a serious matter, and I was very

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upset when the Governor of the Bank of England came out at the end of

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the week, telling banks took but even more money aside, rather than

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lend it. This is a critical issue. There was some good news for the

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two enterprise zones, one of which is in your constituency, which will

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get power to offer the tax incentives. That is something

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innovator that Labour never did. stood up and thanked the Chancellor

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of the Exchequer for giving us 100% capital allowance, which means we

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can buy plant and machinery without tax. The fact that the blind

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support is now a part of the enterprise zone. We have got 50

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enterprise zones working out of Teesside. I am not criticising the

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government for those aspects, because we now have to work with

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what we have. If Michelangelo would with clay rather than marble, no

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one would remember him. You say you would love to have more

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infrastructure projects, but only two of those the Chancellor

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announced when the North East. The Chamber of Commerce is concerned

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about that. Are they right? Yes, they are. There were some

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announcements being remade, rather than new announcements. But it is

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not necessarily the case that infrastructure must be in the

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region to benefit businesses in the region, an example being the Aone

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in North Yorkshire. We need to wait for the detailed to come through

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before we make a considered assessment. -- the A 1.

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announced the Tarin won, which was first announced in 2000 delayed,

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and a rail service that goes from Leeds to Manchester, which has not

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even in the region. -- of the Tyne and Wear Metro. There is an

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infrastructure investments going on. The high-speed rail link when it

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gets to the region will benefit us. It will get through eventually. The

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improvements on the road in Yorkshire or will help us because

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you have to drive through Yorkshire to get to the south of England.

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There are more schemes we would like to see but we look at the

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crisis across Europe. Our economy is on an even keel and is growing

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slightly. The problem is that what we saw from those businesses there

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is that they hear the rhetoric about things being done to get

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banks lending, but the reality is that one may bring the banks they

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don't get anything. I agree with Sir Stuart's comments on the banks.

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There are countries where banks are going bankrupt and relaxing. Our

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money is lent to those banks so that if God thing to do is to --

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the difficult thing to do is keep resources. There are limited things

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we can do about it but we face of a very difficult economic times. I

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would love to say there was a magic wand we could wait and invest loads

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of money in infrastructure and free up bank lending, but there are no

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easy solutions. This is a long-term problem and it is going to be

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difficult for many years and we have to stick with it. Sir Stuart

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Bell, this is the coalition blaming this on Labour. I think we have

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passed the stage of blaming the last government. We ought to be

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passed the stage of playing the eurozone. We have to look at the

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facts as they are. The timetable is something that concerns me. �20

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billion is going into infrastructure, but when? The banks

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really do have to be lent on very heavily. This is the second scheme.

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We had a scheme before which they never completed. Unless the money

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flows through the system, it is like blood through the body. Martin

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Callanan painted a difficult to picture bed. What is your solution?

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The Labour Party will have to come up with its own solution in time.

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But I say, let's hunkered down, get the investment, get the local

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enterprise partnerships, let them get stuck in for the infrastructure

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products. You sound like an apologist for the government here,

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which confuses me. Looking at the end product figures, that is not

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enough. Being an apologist for the government, you have to bear in

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mind, we deal with what we have. Youth unemployment passed one

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million. We have apprenticeship schemes. We have twice the number

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of apprentices on Teesside that we had before. What I am saying it is

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that this is the programme of the government and we have to make it

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work. Keith Burge, is their grounds for optimism after the Autumn

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Statement? I am not sure there is. Even more concerning is the lack of

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a plan. What is the plan for the North East? How do these

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initiatives come together to form a regional strategy? What are the

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priority sectors? What is the government looking to achieve? How

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is it going to tackle the major problem of unemployment in the

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region, which is pushing 12%? Some welcome things have been brought

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forward but they don't really add up to anything much and they don't

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come together in a coherent way. Thank you very much for now.

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A golden age for sport is what we were promised when London won the

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2012 Olympics, but with a little over eight months to go until the

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opening ceremony, are those ambitions being made? There is some

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money coming from Sport England to improve as it is in the north as

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part of the Olympic Legacy Project, but some feel that could be

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undermined by local councils closing facilities to save money.

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Move over, Jonny Wilkinson, here comes Pontius and's under four

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teams. But for all their ability, these players have a problem. The

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pitches get waterlogged and matters get cancelled. Now their club has

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won eight �50,000 grant to improve drainage. It is all down to the

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Olympics. Our pictures over used and we have not got enough

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facilities and space. -- our picture is over used. A so, what

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has London 2012 got to do with this? Well, according to a Olympics

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organisers, the idea is not just to win medals but to make the rest of

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us more sporty and healthier. are using some of our lottery money

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to help produce a legacy programme to provide more opportunities for

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people to participate in sport. It is an important scheme for us to be

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involved with, to extend the legacy it to 2013 and beyond. We have a

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cricket club being held in the Tees Valley, a rugby club being assisted

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here, and I conical rowing programme at Durham University. A

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whole range of sports. Elsewhere in our region, grassroots sport is not

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so much charging to victory as beating a reluctant retreat. The

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reason is a crunching squeeze on council spending battles left some

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sporting facilities fighting for their future. This pool and gym

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closed in October. Durham County Council says the decision was

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forced on it by the need to make tens of millions of pounds of

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savings, and the failure to find a viable alternative operator pulls

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top bad news for this triathletes, reduced to do has swimming training

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here three times a week. training has been really affected

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by it. Some people may not be able to travel further, so they will

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stay in the house and it will affect their health and lifestyle.

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It is a concern shared hearing Middlesbrough, where the council is

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consulting over a plan to sell this athletics stadium and build what it

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says is a better track elsewhere. But some fear the replace them will

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never materialise. The main concern is whether they will have the money

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to complete what they have promised, a new track, having sold this will

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stop if they can't, it will be devastating. Does the fact that the

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Olympics are approaching make the stakes higher? I think so. Lord

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code taught about a legacy being left following the Olympics. To

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have lost this track will be the wrong sort of legacy. -- Sebastian

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Coe. So will the Olympics really deliver participation as well as

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sporting glory? A final verdict from two of our region's most

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celebrated medal-winners. There has been so little investment in sport,

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in the participation end, and that investment has been withdrawn and

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the last year raw two, for reasons that everybody tends to be aware of.

:51:45.:51:49.

Local authorities have a greater things to spend their money on, and

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so has central government. There will be a big spike after the Games

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because that is what happens. But most Danes struggle to have a long-

:51:58.:52:03.

term legacy which massively increases sport. The only way of

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guaranteeing it to happen it is to put money into local authorities

:52:07.:52:13.

and local clubs, to make sure those networks are there. Let's talk

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about all that now with our politicians. Stuart Bell, you have

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said you are concerned about the cuts Middlesbrough council is

:52:20.:52:27.

planning. Realistically, they have no choice, do they? Social services

:52:27.:52:31.

care for the elderly is one of the things that past have priority.

:52:31.:52:34.

decisions have been made. They will be announced next week by the mayor

:52:34.:52:39.

of Middlesbrough. What we are looking at in Middlesbrough is a

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21st century sporting village, which would have a 400 metre track,

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five-a-side football, a tennis court, a plaza for skating and all

:52:50.:52:53.

that kind of thing. So we are looking to the future but no

:52:53.:52:57.

decisions have been made yet at one thing is certain - no facility will

:52:57.:53:02.

ever close down without a new one being opened. Can you really

:53:02.:53:06.

guarantee that? People are a bit cynical about that because they

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have heard many cases before when you facilities are promised then

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all of a sudden, they can't be afforded any more. This is part of

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the plan. The plan has been announced and if there are

:53:17.:53:23.

decisions made - and let me repeat, they are not made yet - the sports

:53:23.:53:27.

facilities there should state, whatever happens. We are looking to

:53:28.:53:35.

the 21st century. The track goes back to the 1960s and is not really

:53:35.:53:39.

fit for purpose in the days we are living. We need a 21st century one.

:53:39.:53:43.

It is not much a band alone big legacy if there are closed leisure

:53:43.:53:50.

centres and uncertainty over sports facilities. -- much of an Olympic

:53:51.:53:58.

legacy. I accept what Sir Stuart Bell says about that. I think we

:53:58.:54:04.

will see a spike in participation in sports. Everyone I speak to is

:54:04.:54:07.

getting excited about the Olympics. We have to make sure that it is not

:54:07.:54:12.

the same as the local parks being filled with people playing tennis

:54:12.:54:16.

when Wimbledon is on. Let's see how long it lasts into the future when

:54:16.:54:21.

the Olympics is over, because grassroots sport - which has

:54:21.:54:27.

received massive investment through things like the National Lottery -

:54:27.:54:30.

has to continue in the long term. Councils are closing leisure

:54:30.:54:34.

centres. That is not going to help her participation in sport. They

:54:34.:54:40.

say it is down to your cuts. councils are facing cutbacks in

:54:40.:54:43.

funding and they have to prioritise. Some councils are opening new

:54:43.:54:46.

facilities. Mayer and authority in Gateshead have just invested a lot

:54:46.:54:55.

of money in your leisure centres. - - might own authority. It is

:54:55.:54:58.

different positions in different local authorities, and that his

:54:58.:55:00.

local democracy. They make decisions made on the resources

:55:01.:55:06.

available to them. Sir Stuart Bell, your constituency is one of the

:55:06.:55:08.

most deprived parts of the North East. Do you get a sense that

:55:08.:55:13.

people are engaged in a or inspired by the Olympics? They are certainly

:55:13.:55:19.

interested in the stadium, because 6,000 people signed a petition to

:55:19.:55:22.

keep it open. We have a wonderful event that is coming in

:55:22.:55:25.

Middlesbrough. The flame that will come through Middlesbrough next May,

:55:25.:55:30.

or on its way to London. I think that will matter to the people of

:55:30.:55:34.

Middlesbrough - that they are on the map, and there they are. We

:55:34.:55:40.

take a big interest in events. is a fitting moment, isn't it?

:55:40.:55:44.

have been rows about it. One council leader has complained it is

:55:44.:55:48.

not spending the night in his area and has written a formal letter to

:55:48.:55:52.

complain. Every time I go into Middlesbrough, over the flyover

:55:52.:55:57.

into the town, there is the stadium on the left and they are always

:55:57.:56:01.

playing five-a-side football. They are always playing some sport.

:56:01.:56:05.

Every time you go through, there they are. This is the biggest

:56:05.:56:09.

sporting event in the world. The be anecdotal evidence is that sport

:56:10.:56:14.

participation is reducing. The question is, where Labour naive to

:56:14.:56:18.

set these targets? Your party said the targets in the first place -

:56:19.:56:23.

typical New Labour, you might say - when there is no evidence that it

:56:23.:56:28.

would make a difference. It was Tony Blair who brought the Olympics

:56:28.:56:32.

to London in the first place. We should not be so pessimistic. On

:56:33.:56:38.

Sunday morning, go out in Middlesbrough and juicy football

:56:38.:56:42.

being played. Look at the league tables and the local newspaper.

:56:42.:56:45.

Let's not say that we are not interested in the Olympics and that

:56:45.:56:50.

we have no interest. We have a big interest in sport and sports

:56:50.:56:55.

facilities. Labour sold off a lot of school sports fields, didn't

:56:55.:57:01.

they? Perhaps we did but we are living changing societies. Go into

:57:01.:57:04.

leisure centres and community centres. We want the community to

:57:04.:57:08.

be involved in them. If we are facing closure, why doesn't the

:57:08.:57:13.

community come forward, take them over and run them? That is the Big

:57:13.:57:19.

Society, isn't it? The Big Society was a lay-by idea that came back.

:57:19.:57:23.

But it There are going to be closures, either you have closures

:57:23.:57:32.

or participation. -- was a Labour idea. We talk about sport not just

:57:32.:57:35.

for the sake of it, because we are talking about making people

:57:35.:57:39.

healthier, which will save money in the NHS will stop yes and the

:57:39.:57:44.

Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. It is across a

:57:44.:57:51.

huge range of disciplines. You will see interest in a few peripheral

:57:51.:57:55.

sports particularly, and some of the minority activities, which are

:57:55.:58:00.

seeing big upsurge is in investment. Figures showed participation is

:58:00.:58:06.

going down. In individual sports, it is. But in others that are less

:58:06.:58:12.

popular, they are seeing a huge surges. It varies, depending on how

:58:12.:58:17.

active a particular sporting bodies are in promoting their interests.

:58:17.:58:20.

That's it from was this week. But you can remain umbilically attached

:58:20.:58:25.

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