Examination of Witnesses (Questions 137
- 139)
MONDAY 8 DECEMBER 2003
TREVOR BEATTIE,
ROB PEARSON,
ALAN CLARKE
AND MARTIN
BRIGGS
Q137 Chairman: Good afternoon.
Thank you for coming. Could we begin, please, with introductions,
for the record. Perhaps Mr Pearson would like to start?
Mr Pearson: I am Rob Pearson.
I am Head of National Programmes, English Partnerships.
Mr Beattie: I am Trevor Beattie.
I am Corporate Strategy Director for English Partnerships, which
includes responsibility for National Programmes and of course
the coalfields.
Mr Briggs: Martin Briggs, the
Chief Executive of the East Midlands Development Agency.
Mr Clarke: Alan Clarke, Chief
Executive of One NorthEast.
Q138 Chairman: Thank you very
much. Does anyone want to say anything by way of introduction,
or can we go straight to questions?
Mr Briggs: Shall I just say, on
behalf of us all, I think we see ourselves as in the middle of
an important programme which has made good progress, and we felt
that, rather than making a series of introductory statements giving
the experience to date, it might be a good idea to get stuck into
the questions straightaway.
Q139 Mr Betts: Do you think
that English Partnerships and the RDAs are working effectively
together to regenerate the coalfields?
Mr Briggs: I think it has been
a very productive partnership between us. I think actually at
the heart of what Regional Development Agencies have been asked
to do, certainly both in the formation of regional economic strategies
and in their subsequent delivery, partnership is the key word.
It is a much overused word now. There is a complexity both in
terms of the public/private linkage and in the range of different
agencies involved. On occasions one stands back from that and
says, well, in an ideal world, this might look a bit different,
but, in practical terms, I think we have had very good evidence
within the Coalfield Programmes of a very close working relationship,
which has delivered a lot of practical change on the ground.
Mr Beattie: I would just like
to add that, from English Partnerships' perspective, that is entirely
our view. I think what we have shown in this joint working is
that it matters far less who owns the sites, or exactly the pattern
of delivery on the ground, what matters is a very close working
relationship between EP, the RDA, the local authorities and all
the other parties, and that has worked extremely well.
Mr Clarke: At the more formal
level, we have two people from RDAs on the Board of English Partnerships,
so that helps the cross-working as well, and then, on a more informal
basis, in the North East, we have a long tradition of working
very closely together with English Partnerships.
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