British business hails campaign

Nov 24 2006 By Chloe Griffiths, The Journal

The Journal's Go For Jobs campaign last night received national recognition at a prestigious business awards ceremony.

The campaign, which calls on the Highways Agency to stop using powers which block development in the region, won the Campaign of the Year Award in the 2006 Chamber Awards.

It beat off competition from other high profile initiatives to scoop the title at the British Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony held at the Old Naval College in Greenwich, London last night.

After the presentation, Journal editor Brain Aitken and North-East chamber president Maggie Pavlou said the award had highlighted the power of the campaign.

Mr Aitken said: "I feel really proud that a campaign we started little over a year ago has had such a profound effect on Government thinking. That it has now been recognised nationally is extremely satisfying, and it reflects the hard work, endeavour and enterprise that our regional affairs correspondent Ross Smith and the Chamber have put in."

Led jointly by The Journal, our sister paper on Teesside the Evening Gazette and the North East Chamber of Commerce, Go For Jobs called for an end to blocks on developments which would create jobs in the area.

After securing an end to the agency's heavy-handed approach, Go For Jobs now aims to win improvements to the region's road network.

North-East Chamber president Maggie Pavlou said: "I am absolutely delighted.

"It is testament to how well the North-East has pulled together.

"It sends a clear message to Douglas Alexander and Stephen Ladyman about the importance of improving transport infrastructure to enable economic growth in the North-East."

NECC estimated the orders - which give the agency the power to halt developments if it feared they would add traffic to major roads - were costing the region £1bn in investment and 10,000 potential jobs.

The campaign has just celebrated its first anniversary, and figures show it helped secure more than 12,000 jobs for the North-East.

NECC chief executive James Ramsbotham said: "The Go For Jobs campaign has taken enormous strides in raising a serious issue that was crippling development in key areas of the North-East.

"The first phase, tackling the tricky issue of blocking powers, known as Article 14 notices, brought to national prominence the Catch-22 situation facing the region where the Highways Agency was stopping economic growth on the grounds of congestion.

"The campaign has since evolved to highlight the wider and deeper issue of the legacy of under-funding in the North-East's most significant arterial road routes."