West Midlands City Region propoganda

City link-up would bring prosperity, says report

Telford & Wrekin is on the brink of joining the new "metropolitan city" of the West Midlands - a move which could secure the economic future of the borough for generations to come.

Joining forces with Birmingham, the Black Country, Coventry and Solihull would bring a huge jobs and investment bonanza for Telford, supporters claim.

And they insist it would not mean the borough being hit by big city crime or having its green spaces swallowed up by housing estates and Factories.

The points are made in a report to Telford & Wrekin Council's cabinet on April 24 by Gerry Dawson, the borough's head of regeneration and economic development.

Councillors are being urged to press ahead with the city plan which is likely to be approved by the Government later this month.

Mr Dawson says in his report that the most successful European cities - such as booming Frankfurt, in Germany - are "decentralised and streamlined" in the way they are run.

British cities like Birmingham and Manchester, over which central government retains considerable power, currently languish near the bottom of the economic list.

But creating a new go-ahead West Midlands city, free of red tape and central control, is said to be the way forward.

Telford's strategic location, its excellent road links and potential for helping the Black Country by providing land for complementary housing and economic growth are all big factors in this.

Joining up with the West Midlands, Mr Dawson says, would avoid Telford being "squeezed out" of investment flowing to the rest of the region.