Caernarfon's Cibyn Industrial Estate is supposed to be the focus of the growth of a high technology multimedia cluster in North West Wales.
Companies such as Antena and Barcud Derwen have created well-paid and highly skilled local jobs in a fast growing industry. In particular, access to infrastructure such as fast broadband access is critical to their future growth and development.
However, it would seem that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has managed to conveniently forget about the needs of this growing sector, despite it being the largest of its type outside of Cardiff.
Last month, it was revealed that a £30 million WAG scheme to improve high-speed broadband services across North Wales will not extend to the Cibyn Industrial Estate, stopping at Victoria Dock two miles down the road.
Yet again, there seems to be a lack of joined up thinking in the way that the different parts of the Assembly Government manage themselves.
Having trumpeted a £15 million regeneration strategy for the region last month, this latest announcement has given the impression that politicians are more concerned with linking up the penthouses of Victoria Dock to fast internet access whilst conveniently forgetting the needs of knowledge-based firms in the television and multimedia industry in the region.
Clearly, with more business being done online, the lack of high speed broadband facilities will make communication more difficult for these companies and this may eventually force them to move to locations which have access to WAG’s high speed fibre-optic network.
Perhaps that is the strategy of policy-makers, namely to force the television companies to move away from their traditional base in Caernarfon to new premises at Parc Menai or Parc Bryn Cegin in Bangor. If they are playing such a silly game with the location of companies in the region, then it is a very dangerous game as there is also nothing stopping those companies from relocating the majority of their jobs to Cardiff.
When I worked in Bangor, there were frequent stories of television programmes having to be sent by taxi down to the BBC and S4C in Cardiff because the capacity was not available to download them online due to the poor level of broadband in Caernarfon.
With hundreds of millions of pounds having been spent to make Wales a more innovative nation, it is incredible to consider that such practices, which would not be out of place in a third world country, are being allowed to continue through the intransigence and short-sightedness of policymakers.
This yet again reinforces the impression that the Assembly has little concern for anything outside the A55 corridor.
Rather than acting impotently over such decisions, bodies such as the North Wales Economic Forum should press the point home that full broadband access should be a priority not only for businesses along the A55, but also for the Vale of Clwyd, the Slate Valleys, South Gwynedd, the Conwy Valley, the Llyn Peninsula and other rural areas. If those parts of North Wales had world class broadband facilities, it would make the attraction of businesses far easier, creating new jobs and opportunities for local firms in our poorest areas.
We constantly hear politicians saying that Wales is a small and clever country. Well, let’s make sure that this applies to all parts of North Wales, and not just those that are easiest to reach because of their location on the A55.
Companies such as Antena and Barcud Derwen have created well-paid and highly skilled local jobs in a fast growing industry. In particular, access to infrastructure such as fast broadband access is critical to their future growth and development.
However, it would seem that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has managed to conveniently forget about the needs of this growing sector, despite it being the largest of its type outside of Cardiff.
Last month, it was revealed that a £30 million WAG scheme to improve high-speed broadband services across North Wales will not extend to the Cibyn Industrial Estate, stopping at Victoria Dock two miles down the road.
Yet again, there seems to be a lack of joined up thinking in the way that the different parts of the Assembly Government manage themselves.
Having trumpeted a £15 million regeneration strategy for the region last month, this latest announcement has given the impression that politicians are more concerned with linking up the penthouses of Victoria Dock to fast internet access whilst conveniently forgetting the needs of knowledge-based firms in the television and multimedia industry in the region.
Clearly, with more business being done online, the lack of high speed broadband facilities will make communication more difficult for these companies and this may eventually force them to move to locations which have access to WAG’s high speed fibre-optic network.
Perhaps that is the strategy of policy-makers, namely to force the television companies to move away from their traditional base in Caernarfon to new premises at Parc Menai or Parc Bryn Cegin in Bangor. If they are playing such a silly game with the location of companies in the region, then it is a very dangerous game as there is also nothing stopping those companies from relocating the majority of their jobs to Cardiff.
When I worked in Bangor, there were frequent stories of television programmes having to be sent by taxi down to the BBC and S4C in Cardiff because the capacity was not available to download them online due to the poor level of broadband in Caernarfon.
With hundreds of millions of pounds having been spent to make Wales a more innovative nation, it is incredible to consider that such practices, which would not be out of place in a third world country, are being allowed to continue through the intransigence and short-sightedness of policymakers.
This yet again reinforces the impression that the Assembly has little concern for anything outside the A55 corridor.
Rather than acting impotently over such decisions, bodies such as the North Wales Economic Forum should press the point home that full broadband access should be a priority not only for businesses along the A55, but also for the Vale of Clwyd, the Slate Valleys, South Gwynedd, the Conwy Valley, the Llyn Peninsula and other rural areas. If those parts of North Wales had world class broadband facilities, it would make the attraction of businesses far easier, creating new jobs and opportunities for local firms in our poorest areas.
We constantly hear politicians saying that Wales is a small and clever country. Well, let’s make sure that this applies to all parts of North Wales, and not just those that are easiest to reach because of their location on the A55.
Comments
you would have thought that WAG and the Assembly generally would want fast access broadband in Wales for competitive advantage, over the other regions in the UK, it would be some acknowledgement that they understood Welsh Business needs.
Welsh business has shown it can create the type of jobs the politicians want and the economy needs but business success is in spite of the policies in Cardiff Bay no because of it. Are they ever going to learn?
Any chance you can get Rhodri Morgan on board with this and then we will be motoring?
On a lighter note - when we get Channel 5 -still waiting here
as for Owain Cwmtwrch, The Bevan Foundation and Amlwch to Magor all flagged up by other bloggers, your defence is weak.
Kinda exposes your argument for the nonsense it is.
the fact that the blog is posting on UK Government finance and economic matter, the very opposite reason you flagged it up is hilarious you should have e-mailed your colleague to come up with a better cover that that, im still laughing.
If you want to discuss grown up stuff I'll be happy to debate with you. If you merely want to chase conspiracy theories, count me out.