WIRRAL’S flagship development schemes will be used to help people from the borough’s most deprived areas get training and jobs.
Neptune’s New Brighton redevelopment and the $4bn Wirral Waters scheme – both recently submitted for planning permission – are among the projects the council hopes will help get unemployed people into work.
Cllr Jean Stapleton, Wirral Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said projects, such as schools, have been mapped out over the next 10 to 15 years.
It is using the Government’s Working Neighbourhood funding, and will particularly target the borough’s most deprived wards, Bidston, Seacombe and Birkenhead.
Cllr Stapleton said: “The timing for this is perfect. If we get this up and running during the downturn and have people trained, then when the economy improves people will be ready to go into projects.”
Two new job schemes have been unveiled by Wirral Council.
An apprentice scheme, similar to one already run by Knowsley Council, will see the authority pay for 100 apprentices this year at private businesses across Wirral for 18 months.
The companies will have to commit to pay the apprentices’ wages for the final six months of the scheme and training will also be provided.
And the Construction Employment Integrator (CEI), which will see more people receive on the job training, will use large scale schemes and those being developed with public funding get training in the building industry.
The proposal has been praised by Neptune Developments who are leading the massive redevelopment of New Brighton, which is waiting detailed planning approval for part two of the £60million-plus scheme.
