Planned closure of the Selby coalfields may have hit our region like a minequake, but at least action towards damage limitation has been quick, says Graham Hall, chairman of Yorkshire Forward

NEWS of the impending closure of the Selby Coalfield and the consequent loss of more than 2,000 jobs has not only been a big blow to the local economy, but will also have an impact across the region.

It is the job of the Regional Development Agency to minimise the impact of economic "shocks" on this scale. We have shown already that we have the ability to move fast and put the money where it is needed, when it is needed. Last year, at the height of the foot and mouth epidemic, we ensured that more than 280 rural businesses rapidly received financial support, with many of them having the money in their bank accounts within seven days of receiving an application.

It is with the same sense of urgency that we and our partners will deal with the issue of ensuring that the Selby employees receive proper retraining before they lose their jobs and not after.

The region's economic strategy anticipates that restructuring of the regional economy will continue throughout its ten-year lifetime. Selby had already been identified as an "at risk" area and we were able to prepare an initial further funding in the future, partnered by representatives from North Yorkshire Council, Selby District Council, the Government Office for Yorkshire and Humber, UK Coal, Jobs Centre plus, Learning and Skills, Business Links, to reduce the impact of the loss of jobs on the region and the local communities.

Lord Haskins, Yorkshire Forward board member and chairman of the Task Force, has already met up with the miners and people and businesses in the Selby areas.

As a result, an immediate short-term work programme has been devised, which includes a rapid survey of miners' needs during September, followed by on-site support so that training and future career planning can help to meet the needs they have identified. Miners wanting to enrol and take up training opportunities now can forward details to the taskforce to enable them to pursue funding options.

In addition, Business Link is working to aid the firms likely to be affected by the closure. It is also undertaking a rapid study to determine the employment and inward investment prospects.

For example, they are looking at the possibility of creating extra access points to the Selby bypass now under construction in order to open up the economic potential of areas surrounding the bypass.

English Partnerships and Knight Frank are also now assessing other sites in the Task Force area to determine prospects for new employment.

In these situations it is also important to look forward and I am sure part of Selby's future lies in its close proximity to York and Leeds. We are studying with City of York Council the city's role as an economic driver in its hinterland, including the Selby area.

We are also working closely with the region's White Rose universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield - who invest more collectively on research than either Oxford or Cambridge - to attract to the Selby area a new £1 billion European research facility that would secure the economic future of many people in associated jobs for many years to come.

There are no quick-fix solutions, but I know the path that we have chosen - to pro-actively work to attract new investment whilst helping our existing economic base restructure - is the surest way for us to realise our objectives - full employment and greater living standards for the people of this region.

Updated: 09:36 Tuesday, September 24, 2002