FOLLOWING the chancellor’s autumn statement last week and the announcement of significant investment into Local Enterprise Partnerships and infrastructure it looks like we are set to miss out.

Disappointingly the indications are that up here in Cumbria we are not receiving our fair share of that investment.

It is anticipated that Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership will receive a growth deal settlement somewhere in the region of £10 to £14m, the list of projects tabled in the growth deal bid for Cumbria is £155m. Cumbria will fall well short of what we require and projects will have to be shelved or cancelled.

The outcome is not a surprise and in my opinion the reason we have been poorly considered is because we have failed to agree a devolution deal.

Manchester, Teeside, Liverpool, Sheffield and Lancashire among others have all progressed devolution deals while Cumbria walked away from the negotiating table.

Earlier in the year government minister Greg Clark issued a letter stating clearly that in the next round of funding those areas that had organised themselves and embraced devolution and combined authorities would receive more funding than those who had not, and at the expense of those who have not.

It appears that is exactly what has happened, in my opinion the governance arrangements for Cumbria must change, the status quo is not an option.

Copeland’s Growth Deal submission has been independently assessed against a criteria set by Cumbria LEP as the strongest of all the bids submitted and is the one that will have the biggest positive economic impact. This borough is delivering national growth in the national interest.

I will be doing my very best as a member of the LEP board to ensure that our case is recognised and the Copeland bid, which is in partnership with Britain’s Energy Coast, is progressed.

Given the strong influence Cumbria County Council exerts on the LEP I will be writing to all of Copeland’s county representatives to get behind our bid and support this borough

Apart from being indisputably the best bid, Copeland missed out on any funding in the last growth deal so some re-balancing also needs to take place. Significantly as Copeland is host to two Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, it is vital it gets all the support necessary to optimise this opportunity which not only benefits Copeland as the host borough but the whole county.

The new nuclear build, west Cumbria mining, National Grid, United Utilities, Electricity North West and the existing nuclear operations are vital to the future prosperity of our borough, clearly there are aspects of all these that don’t please everybody but what we have to do is form a positive partnership with each of them to work towards achieving the best possible outcome for Copeland and its residents.

Mike Starkie, elected mayor for Copeland