TOTALLY FRANK - MARCH 06

CITY GROWTH GROUP BACKS DLIB AGENDA
Liverpool’s ‘City Growth Strategy’ was launched earlier this month, and the report included a number of recommendations, which DLIB have been suggesting for at least eighteen months.

Liverpool City Council should appoint a ‘Business Champion’; there are too many agencies involved in business support services; Liverpool, rather than Merseyside, is the brand that ought to be used to promote and market the region; and more should be done to encourage graduate retention in the city.

This report follows hot on the heels of the Entrepreneurship Commissions findings, and the Institute of Public Policy Research city-regions analysis, both of which largely identified the same key issues.

So here is another DLIB suggestion for FREE – and hopefully it won’t take the powers that be another eighteen months to adopt this one.

We now have enough reports, strategies and recommendations. Can the agencies responsible now get on and DELIVER them!? As always, if asked, DLIB is more than willing to help.

MERSEY CROSSING SUCCESS
I said last month that the most welcome strategic transport decision that could be made to the advantage of Liverpool was Government support for the proposed second Mersey Crossing, and I am delighted that the money for this initiative has been approved.

The lobbying for this project has been a lesson in how to influence government positively, and compares favourably with the fiasco, which were the trams.

A focused and committed approach from Councillors and Officials from Halton Borough Council, assisted in the united support of all the city-regions local authorities, and effectively co-ordinated by The Mersey Partnership, which deserves great credit for its role in this success.

As so often happens down the road in Manchester, a collective approach has proved to be the right one. This must be the method adopted in future lobbying exercises across the Mersey region.

WELL DONE BRABNERS
Congratulations to DLIB corporate sponsors Brabners Chaffe Street for winning a place in the Sunday Times list of the ‘100 Best Companies To Work For’. This is a tough list to break in to, and the Liverpool legal firm deserves great credit for meeting the benchmark of excellence demanded by the Times.