Jaguar plant gets green light
i54 SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE SET TO
WELCOME 750 NEW JOBS
Jaguar
Land Rover (JLR) has been given the green light to go-ahead with
plans to build a new £350m high-tech engine facility on the South
Staffordshire-Wolverhampton border which the company says will
create 750 new jobs – and which council leaders say will drive the
local economy for years to come.
Councillors in South Staffordshire last night
(Tuesday 20th December) gave a big thumbs up to the plans which
they say will boost the local economy for Staffordshire and the
Black Country. Plans were submitted to the council in October after
JLR’s initial public announcement that they hoped to move to the
i54 site.
Jaguar Land Rover will now join international
aviation design and manufacturing company, Moog, who have already
started construction of a unit at the site while a second, Eurofins
Scientific, has announced it will locate there too.
It is thought that work to prepare the site could start as
early as January.
Councillor Brian
Cox, Chairman of South Staffordshire Council’s Regulatory Committee
said:
“A huge effort has gone
into getting this application through. It is a very important
project and one which will benefit the entire region for years to
come. We just had to make sure that we got it right.”
Councillor Brian Edwards,
Leader of South Staffordshire Council praised JLR for their new
plans and hailed Staffordshire and Wolverhampton as places where
global companies could do business:
“It goes to show that when
local authorities work together things really do get done. It’s
great news for jobs and great news for the wider region -
Staffordshire and the Black Country are open for
business.”
“This move really could change
the face of the local economy for generations to come. The news
couldn’t have come at a better time so let’s hope that JLR moving
to i54 is just the beginning.”
The bid to attract JLR to the site was
jointly made by South Staffordshire Council, Staffordshire County
Council and Wolverhampton City Council.
Staffordshire County Council and Wolverhampton
City Council will now embark on a new project to construct a new
slip road off the M54 at Junction 2 which will serve the i54 site.
Both councils are investing around £20m into the scheme which they
have said is essential to the site and which was a big selling
point in their bid to attract global investors such as JLR to
i54.
Photograph details: Cllr
Phillip Atkins (Leader of Staffordshire County Council); Cllr Roger
Lawrence (Leader of Wolverhampton City Council) and Cllr Brian
Edwards (Leader of South Staffordshire Council) at the i54 South
Staffordshire site.
This page was last updated on: 12/21/2011