PORT SALFORD PART 2
Calculating jobs is all so easy…
AI = [GI x (1-L) x (1-Dp) x (1-S) x M] – [GI x (1-L) x (1-Dp) x (1-S) x M]
This is the simple equation that Amion Consultants, acting on behalf of Peel Holdings, has used to work out the amount of jobs that might be created at Port Salford, Peel's massive road, rail and Manchester Ship Canal project in Irlam.
The final figure is worked out by `employee per square metre' and then slapping in `net additional impact' (Al), `gross impact' (Gl), `leakage' (L), `displacement' (Dp), `substitution' (S) and `multiplyer' (M). It's all very scientific. Until you realise that virtually every document you look at regarding jobs at Port Salford comes up with a different figure.
This particular equation comes up with a total of 3,067 jobs for Phase 1 of Port Salford. Which is a bit of an increase from the Port Salford planning application from 2009, when there were only 1,170 jobs on offer. And slightly different from Peel's own website which states that the Port will generate "3,858 gross permanent jobs". The figures vary by over 2,500 jobs.
Does it matter? Very much so! Because Peel Holdings – one of the richest companies in the country, run by tax exile John Whittaker, the 29th richest person in Britain (who saw his personal wealth grow by £100million last year according to the Sunday Times Rich List) - is using Salford's poverty to gain million of pounds of public money and to destroy the Green Belt in the process.
Yesterday, Salford Council finally approved the agreement to hand over £30million of public money to Peel Holdings for the Port Salford scheme. Within that is a £4million grant from Salford Council, plus an £11million loan for infrastructure which is costing the Council £360,000 per year in repayments for the first five years.
Meanwhile, the Government's Department for Business Skills and Innovation's Regional Growth Fund is chipping in another £15million, and Europe's Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA) has handed over a grant of 998,125 euros for viability studies.
When Salford Star first broke the story of the £30million grants last November (see here), the then Leader of Salford Council, John Merry, justified the payments in terms of jobs.
"This is great news for the city and puts us another step closer to creating 3,800 new jobs for the region" he said "We want to make a wide range of job opportunities available for the people in Salford and I am pleased that this conditional offer means we are getting closer to realising our vision."
According to the Amion equation, of 3,067 jobs it optimistically reckons will be created by Port Salford, only 730, mainly unskilled, low paid jobs will be created for Salford people. And if it pans out that there are only 1,170 jobs, as originally claimed, that would be only around 250 Salford jobs – for millions of pounds worth of investment.
But this is just the first phase of Port Salford that's not even been built yet. Peel Holdings is currently pushing for its future 100 hectare expansion into the Green Belt, with wild claims and job figures that venture into the realms of fantasy…Like, the implication that Port Salford will wipe out two thirds of unemployment in the city…
"If Salford residents with the relevant occupation were able to access the jobs created by the total Port Salford project then there is the potential for up to 63% of claimants within Salford (5,100) to find employment through the Port Salford project" states Amion's Port Salford: Employment, Gross Value Added and Business Rates Impact Paper.
Does anyone, even its authors, seriously believe that? Another wild, mad claim is that an expanded Port Salford, which would be three times the size of Phase 1, would have positive health impacts.
The same Amion `Impact Paper', almost weeping for Salford's working class, implies that Port Salford will bring down the area's shocking mortality rate through giving people what it calls `elementary occupations'.
"It can be seen that residents in the area around Port Salford have very poor average health levels" it states "It is widely acknowledged that economic deprivation has a major impact on health…"
It's also widely acknowledged that concreting over the Green Belt and letting loose 3,780 HGVs per day on the approach roads, plus freight trains thundering past, isn't good for people's health either. But that isn't mentioned.
Salford Council is currently (hopefully) opposing the intended expansion of Port Salford, during this month's `Core Strategy' Planning Inspector hearings at Swinton (see previous Salford Star article Part 1 – click here).
No doubt Peel will be rolling out these `Impact' papers, showing how 10,000 jobs will be created, if only it could concrete over the city's Green Belt.
Peel is using Salford's deprivation figures to squeeze public money and Salford's green heritage in return for jobs. The same arguments were used for MediaCityUK, when the hype suggested 15,500 jobs would be created. Hmmm. What was it? 16 jobs at the BBC for Salford people?
The job figures for Media City were worked out using similar gobbledygook…
AI = [GI x (1-L) x (1-Dp) x (1-S) x M] – [GI x (1-L) x (1-Dp) x (1-S) x M]
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