Local Conservatives at Corus Paints in Deeside

Flintshire Conservative Parliamentary Candidates Will Gallagher and Antoinette Sandbach, met with the Managing Director and employees at the site, to discuss the issues that they are facing in the economic downturn, as well as their plans for the future. Owen Patterson MP shadow cabinet minister accompanied the local candidates to the Deeside plant. During the past 6 months, there have been over 150 redundancies at the Corus plant in Shotton. On the agenda at the meeting was the action Corus are taking to avoid further job losses, plus the need for more apprenticeships in the local area, as well as Corus’ ambitious plans to develop new green technologies at the Shotton site

The Group toured the new research centre for photovoltaic cells, which Corus has opened at Shotton as a joint venture with Australian company, Dyesol. He saw prototypes for cells that mean new buildings fitted with this technology could generate most of their own electricity themselves, without causing harm to the environment.

After the tour, the Conservative Candidate for Alyn and Deeside, Will Gallagher, said – ‘We have had a really constructive meeting today. Corus have exciting plans for the future, which will help them to weather the current storm. We’ve got to make sure that politicians help, rather than hinder them in their efforts – because what we have seen today shows that it is possible to develop innovative green technology in Wales, that could create new, skilled, jobs at Shotton in the future, and restore our manufacturing base to drive economic recovery.’

Antoinette Sandbach Conservative candidate for Delyn said “Corus are developing an exciting range of products fit for the 21st Century with energy efficiency being of prime importance. The use of Corus’ products from Deeside in the BASF eco house in Nottingham show the strength of Corus’ product base. What is even more important is that Corus has a commitment to train skilled Flintshire workers. This is the type of business whose UK production needs to be supported by sensible financial policies, billions have been spent bailing out banks, but the Government needs to support Welsh based manufacturing. Corus would benefit from the Conservative commitment to sustainable energy policies and from the £50 billion National Loan Guarantee scheme which would help companies obtain finance to enable the kick starting of new construction projects.”

Nearly 60,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Wales since Labour took power in 1997.

The Conservatives have pledged to fund 100,000 new apprenticeships every year in the UK, and to provide incentives for green technologies that create ‘green collar’ jobs.

Following his visit to Corus, Owen Paterson held a number of round-table meetings with small business owners in Wrexham and Denbigh, to hear their concerns, and how government action is currently making things worse for them, not better.