Have you recovered from the excitement of the World Gravy Wrestling Championships in Stacksteads, Rossendale (hushed tones, Lancashire) on Bank Holiday Monday? Do you think Goole should run its own heats?

Against the background of a survey by S & P Global claiming that August saw the strongest growth in the UK manufacturing sector in more than two years, Sambit Banerjee of Siemens Mobility UK and Ireland (online sources say he is Siemens Managing Director of Rolling Stock and Customer Services) was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning (3rd September).

Mr Banerjee did not express any opinions on Gravy Wrestling, but he did say that over the past four months, Siemens has stepped up its “mobilising for production” in Goole “in a big way” and over past 6 months the company has added 150 people to its workforce (the implication being they have been hired for the Goole factory but he did not explicitly say that).

Goole is focussed on manufacturing 79 of the 94 Piccadilly Line trains, Mr Banerjee explained, while £100 million has been invested in the firm’s Chippenham facility to upgrade it as a global centre.

He continued that what Siemens Mobility want from Government is stability and continuity, specifically continuity in the pipeline to new orders. Gaps between orders are very difficult for manufacturing plants to handle, and can require reductions in numbers of staff, which in turn means loss of expertise, and time lags in ramping up production again.

Mr Banerjee also said that Siemens is recruiting from Yorkshire, and specifically Goole’s “catchment area”, and that the new trains will be built mostly by boys and girls on apprenticeships and internship schemes.

If it truly is the case that 150 people from Goole have been hired at the Siemens factory in the last 6 months that is indeed good news. The catchment area qualification means we can’t be certain how many of those are from Goole.

Mention of Chippenham, in Wiltshire, puts a spotlight on a key issue with the concept which has been called “levelling up” by Govt up to the July General Election. Wiltshire is a very wealthy county indeed. The King, his wife, have a home each in the county, lending it a good deal of prestige. The present Princess of Wales went to (private) school in Marlborough – also a centre of significant wealth and prestige. If you go wandering in Swindon, a town famous for railway manufacturing in the past, you will find plenty of wealth and innovation, but you can also walk round corners and find yourself suddenly in the middle of serious deprivation.

Those who have reservations about the Town Deal programme are concerned that while Junction 36 is bringing wealth and prosperity to some, more established parts of town are being neglected and markedly deteriorating, as are many residents living in the more established parts of town. The Freeport status (incentives through reduced taxation) gives a message that paying tax is best avoided, which reduces tax income whereas funds from taxes are key to achieving a fair and equitable society. There has been a lot of adverse comment about the proposal to scrap the winter fuel allowance for all but those in receive of particular pension benefits – arguing rightly that the proposals will cause hardship for sectors or society that are not technically poor by normal definitions. The issues around tax, wealth, prosperity and what is fair are not simple.

The interview with Mr Banerjee can be fond here (about 15 minutes and 25 seconds into the programme): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0022kml?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Before finishing this petition update, I’d like to put in a pitch for a chocolate mousse wrestling competition rather than a gravy wrestling competition. I think that could do a lot for Goole, especially if we can get a lot of visitors into town coming by train, bus, and boost the Town Deal Bus to the point where it is self funding. Maybe extra income could be generated by a raffle to pick those who get to lick off the chocolate mousse after the competition…then a chocolate  production facility could be developed in Goole with the aim of it being a world centre of excellence for chocolate…

Keep talking, keep sharing, keep signing!