Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

DML

I feel another campaign coming on. Not the general election, that will snake its way into our lives soon enough; no I am referring to a campaign to make sure that Devonport Dockyard gets a fair crack of the whip in competing for work from the Ministry of Defence.

You may live in a rural community far from the dockyard walls; you may know no one who works in there anymore. No matter: this affects you.

The Dockyard may not be the monolithic employer of old, but it remains absolutely crucial to the economic well being of this entire region. Over 5,000 people work in the yard, making it by far the largest company locally, and many local businesses have important contracts for the supply of goods and services to DML. It is the dynamo that drives the Plymouth economy, that drives the economy if this entire sub-region.

It is ironic that news of the severe turn down in future workload comes during the same week that David Jamieson announced his impending retirement from politics. When we were both first elected in 1992, the struggle to persuade the then Conservative government to award the Trident refit work to Devonport rather than Rosyth in Scotland was the first big campaign we worked on together. And through a lot of hard work by a lot of people, we won!

Now a new battle seems inevitable. The settlement between the two yards meant that DML got Trident and Rosyth had an allocated surface ship programme to keep it alive for a number of years. But outside of that guaranteed programme the two yards and others were free to bid for future surface ship work. For the past decade, DML have been successful in attracting sufficient work to Plymouth because of the quality of their tenders and skill of their workforce. But recently, work that seemed destined to Devonport has been awarded to Rosyth. There are now fears that political influence, by very senior government figures, is being exerted to divert work to the Dunfermline yard, to keep jobs in Scotland. The impact for DML, and on the local economy could be extremely serious.

If Rosyth wins on merit, fair enough, we can hardly grumble. But if contracts are allocated to the second best bid, just because of heavyweight political pressure, that is not acceptable.

It is time to make a fuss about this at Westminster. We are entitled to fair treatment.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, March 22, 2005