Federation hits out at proposal for LEP

THE Federation of Small Businesses has distanced itself from Hull's bid for a local enterprise partnership, insisting that splitting up the area into two partnerships would be an "absolute disaster".

Leader of Hull Council Coun Carl Minns previously said that the FSB was "relatively" supportive of its proposal for a partnership between Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire and Scarborough councils rather than a Humber-wide approach that would also take in North Lincolnshire.

But Mike Bisby, FSB East Yorkshire branch committee member and liaison officer for the FSB and Hull LEP bid, said Coun Minns had made a mistake.

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"I don't know where he has got that idea from," he said. "We have never given the impression that we would support a two-authority local enterprise partnership bid.

"We favour a pan-Humber organisation which would include East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire and even the whole of Lincolnshire.

"It makes absolutely no sense to go down the other route. It would be an absolute disaster. Creative thinking and regeneration would be dead in the water and we can't have that.

"We should be promoting the whole area as a major docking complex and promoting the agricultural economy. The Humber Bridge was built to put the two counties together and make things happen."

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The deadline for bids to be sent to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills passed last Monday night.

There are five proposals for Yorkshire led by Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, York and North Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire councils.

Coun Minns said he rejected calls for a Humber-wide LEP because he believes the economic areas of the north and south Humber do not match.