Mail Weekly Column: 6 November 2023

This week I was delighted to welcome Life Sciences Minister George Freeman to our virtual roundtable to launch Ulverston LAMP (Life science and Advanced Manufacturing Park). A partnership between my office, Westmorland & Furness Council, and GSK, Ulverston LAMP seeks to bring up to 1,000 new high-skilled, high wage jobs to Ulverston, building on GSK’s 75-year legacy.

Following an exhaustive master-planning exercise, proposals are now on the table for a life sciences, advanced manufacturing and research facility on the outskirts of Ulverston, using over 12 hectares of development land. This week’s roundtable brought together potential partners including CPI; GSK; the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre; Lancaster University; the Office for Life Sciences; Westmorland & Furness Council; the Departments for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities, for Business and Trade, and for Science, Information and Technology.

We are grateful that the Minister has agreed to continue to work with the LAMP Steering Committee as we refine and develop our proposals.

There was more good news this week when we heard that the proposals that Northern had put forward to close Ulverston Ticket Office (and most other ticket offices) had been rejected by the Government.

These proposals were particularly bone-headed. They would have left people with accessibility issues stranded, and severely hindered visitors’ and residents’ access to the local area. Having personally lobbied the Rail Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport about this issue, I am delighted by the result.

This victory for common sense would never have been achieved were it not for all of you who very kindly lent your voices to our campaign and filled in my survey to push back on Northern’s proposals. Thank you!

The campaign on rail does not end there – I have just written to Northern about the abysmal service we are receiving at present. For railways to be sustainable we have to be able to rely on their services – the Furness Line is well below the standard we should expect.

Having been in London earlier in the week, I attended two important meetings with my predecessor, Lord Walney. The first was at Number 10 with the National Security Adviser, and the second at the Ministry of Defence to meet the Permanent Secretary. Both meetings focussed on AUKUS, Team Barrow, the potential long-term benefits that they will bring to our area – both in employment and more widely – and our strong belief that Barrow needs a development corporation to help drive our agenda. At the moment, with all that is happening in the shipyard, we have the Government’s attention, as demonstrated by the recent visit from the Cabinet Secretary. But we need a permanent solution to ensure consistent delivery for Furness in the years ahead, regardless of whether the political focus shifts. To be able to discuss this with two such top decision-makers was only the start and, having lobbied the PM to get the Cabinet Secretary here and launch Team Barrow, I will continue to push on this issue for the benefit of the whole of Furness.

Back here for the rest of the week, I had a fascinating few days meeting a couple of Barrow 6th Form students (doing my first TikTok video!), local businesses, the local arm of the CBI, and held a packed and really diverse surgery. Subjects raised there ranged from seal protection at Walney, through to speeding tickets. If you would like to speak to me about something and attend a surgery, please do email me: simon.fell.mp@parliament.uk or call 01229 314 220.