Seven new businesses create 140 jobs

By PATRICK WIGGINS
Published 16th Apr 2014, 01:00 BST
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets Patrick Wiggins, chief executive of Irvine Bay Regeneration Company. Picture: ContributedDeputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets Patrick Wiggins, chief executive of Irvine Bay Regeneration Company. Picture: Contributed
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets Patrick Wiggins, chief executive of Irvine Bay Regeneration Company. Picture: Contributed
Life sciences has been identified as one of Scotland’s key economic sectors, says Patrick Wiggins

Efforts to regenerate Irvine Bay received a number of boosts during the past few weeks – with both the Scottish and UK governments making significant announcements that will have a positive impact.

Our area of North Ayrshire – which is made up of the five towns of Irvine, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Ardrossan and Kilwinning – benefits from the creation by the Scottish Government of an Enterprise Area in Irvine, i3.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently announced that 140 jobs have been created or supported in i3 in the first year since it was established in April 2012.

The new jobs have come from seven new businesses that have been established in Irvine’s Enterprise Area and the expansion of existing businesses.

The First Minister, Alex Salmond, visited Howco Group plc in Irvine – where 67 highly-skilled new jobs are being created in the Enterprise Area by the firm’s expansion plans and then made a major announcement of a £1.6 million funding package to support jobs and regeneration in the area – with most of it focused on the Enterprise Area itself.

The new package of funding will support investment and infrastructure improvements to encourage more business to i3 through:

• Work to open up our Strategic Investment Campus – this is currently one of the largest strategic investment sites in the north of the UK, extending to over 120 acres (50 hectares).

Just 40 minutes from Glasgow city centre and 30 minutes from the new South Glasgow Hospital campus, the site is served by excellent road and rail links and two international airports.

In addition to a range of existing fibre and utilities infrastructure, the site has over 35MVA of electricity immediately available through an existing substation and potential for up to 100MVA if required.

This site presents a unique opportunity for a large single user or sub-division into multiple development plots.