Thames Estuary Panel Discussion Kate Willard Opportunity South Essex Purfleet Thurrock Carpenter Ken Dytor Urban Catalyst

Local authorities and other key players in the Thames Estuary should not wait on central Government to give a lead on the area’s development, Thurrock Council’s Chief Executive has urged.

Lyn Carpenter said that the new strategic board, which the Government has backed in its response to Sir John Armitt’s Estuary Growth Commission Report, must be put in place “quickly”.

Expressing disappointment that the Government wants to choose the membership of the strategic board she said: “We should be getting on with doing it. We should set ourselves deadlines. Let’s do it ourselves and get on within it. We have great leaders and business partners to make it happen.”

Carpenter said that south Essex’s authorities had already drawn up a joint strategic plan, which has identified six growth corridors, and the next step for the authorities will be to set up a joint committee structure with the power to make decisions on those area which they have opted to collaborate on.

Noting the role Manchester council’s leadership had played in getting the Northern Powerhouse initiative off the ground, Kate Willard, Chair of Opportunity South Essex, said: “We’ve got some fantastic leaders, let’s use that to give us an edge.”
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Paul Moore, Director of Place, Communities & Infrastructure at the London Borough of Bexley, agreed: “We want to crack on and get some solutions delivered.”

Matthew Norwell, Chief Executive of the Thames Gateway Kent Partnership, said that the estuary is “a bit cagy” about promoting itself compared to other parts of the country: “Everything we need is there. We have to get into a culture of being more ambitious and prouder of this place.”

As an example, he pointed to the opportunities thrown up by the Thames Estuary production corridor, which could enable the area to capitalise on London’s status as a world leader in creative industries.

He added that the Thames Estuary does not require a single body to oversee its development: “It shouldn’t have a single steering committee, every previous attempt to do that has failed miserably. One of the shortcomings of previous efforts in the estuary has been to cure the estuary of its complexity. We have to accommodate the complexity.”

Ken Dytor, Chief Executive of Urban Catalyst, told delegates about plans drawn up by infrastructure developer Metrotidal for a new orbital Thames rail route that will connect Crossrail with the North Sea.

Overseas investors, like those he was just about to visit in Japan, have an appetite for this kind of visionary proposal, Dytor said: “They would eat up these major projects. We need support to make it happen. Now is the time to identify the vision and make sure the financial structures are in place.”

At Purfleet, where his company is working in a joint-venture with Thurrock Council to regenerate the town centre, efforts to improve transport infrastructure could include extending the Clipper river bus service and upgrading the local railway station.

Thurrock’s Carpenter said 2 ha of prime riverside development land in Purfleet is having to be held in reserve because it is one of two potential locations being considered for the future Thames flood barrier, along with its existing site at Greenwich.
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