Scottish economic plan suggested for Chch

Press, 3 June 1989, Page 9

Scottish economic plan suggested for Chch

By

KAY FORRESTER

A three-way partnership between the Government, business and the community was the key to a community economic development model widely used in Scotland. The scheme will be suggested for Canterbury at today’s Going for Goals forum.

Two Scottish consultants, Mr Colin Roxburgh and Ms Vivienne Hyndman, will outline the model in the business development discussion group of the forum at the Christchurch Town Hall.

They have a consultancy in community

economic development and training in Glasgow. Community development or community enterprise was a concept which had been used for the last 12 years in Scotland, said Mr Roxburgh. It involved the setting up of a legal company with Government, community and business representatives, to chart an economic strategy for an area or town and to act as the. vehicle for that strategy. The community company could act in several ways, Mr Roxburgh said. It could set up its own business enterprises to

run commercially, or to provide services and create jobs while just breaking even. It could buy struggling businesses or support them with funds. It could support businesses with collective marketing programmes or managed work spaces, he said.

Community companies also provided training programmes for workers. “Essentially they are economic development agencies to pull together initiatives in each arm of the partnership to focus the area,” Mr Roxburgh said.

The companies

received funds from the public and private sectors, he said.

The company model was used extensively in Scotland, Ms Hyndman said. It developed in several countries in the late 1970 s and variations are used in Canada and the United States.

The pair said the model could work for smaller centres in Canterbury. It was aimed at the communities of greatest need. The couple have been brought to New Zealand for the Internal Affairs Department to apply the model to the West Coast, Northland and the North

Island’s east coast. The model offered communities the ability to respond to economic opportunities, Mr Roxburgh said.

Glasgow Action, an umbrella community body in Glasgow, was able to secure the contract for the British census which meant 2000 jobs over three years.

“It is a matter of coordination of effort,” Mr Roxburgh said. Eight hundred people have registered for Going for Goals, which will run today and tomorrow at the Town Hall.