Having just come back to Pwllheli to spend a few days with my family, I picked up the Daily Post tonight to see the picture of the Secretary of State on the business pages with the promise that he would essentially be the saviour of the Anglesey economy.Every point I was going to make on this story has been made on the Druid's latest blog, so I won't repeat the best bits of this excellent posting.
However, the people of Anglesey should be warned that Peter Hain has previous form on promising jobs in areas faced with redundancies and eventually delivering nothing.
Back in March 2003, just before the second Assembly elections, KTH of Llanidloes was under threat of closure with 240 jobs in the balance.
Who promised to come to the rescue by persuading Ford - KTH's main customer at the time - to take on more orders?
None other than the Secretary of State at the time, Peter Hain.
Fast forward to the 12th May 2003 and one of the representatives of the group fighting to save the factory makes the following statement.
"We feel very frustrated because we don't know what to do or who else to turn to...we've been to Westminster and Cardiff and the town council is still waiting to hear from Welsh Secretary Peter Hain about his approach to Ford to try and get business to keep the plant open."
Naturally, they didn't hear anything from the Welsh Office and four months later, the KTH factory closes for good with the loss of 240 jobs.
With the election due to be called in early April, there is little possibility that anything can be done to support the project before the end of the current financial year, especially given the pace that WAG officials are operating at with regard to approving both convergence and grant funding.
Therefore no decision will be taken on the wind turbine factory this side of the general election but I am sure that Mr Hain knows that already, although that hasn't stopped him, yet again, promising the earth to another area hit hard by redundancies.
Plus ca change.....
Comments
"Anglesey's Head of Economic Development, Sasha Wynn Davies, said: "I can confirm that the county council, in partnership with both the Welsh Assembly Government and Anglesey Aluminium, are in talks with a turbine company. These talks, however, are at a very early stage. We will continue to work positively with our partners in order to attract this company to Anglesey."
I guess the "very early stage' means that nothing has been agreed yet and if a grant is to be offered, it won't happen before the summer at the latest. There also seems to be no mention of the Welsh office in the press release which suggests a bit of bandwagon jumping by Hain.
Answers on a posr card please