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Clipper brings jobs as Corus mothballed

As the news of 1600 North East job losses at the Teesside Cast Products site begins to sink in, a ray of hope has been provided by a potential 500 jobs in Newcastle.

The creation of the Clipper Windpower factory at the new Shepherd Offshore Renewable Energy Park on Tyneside will bring with it 500 jobs, in the same week that the mothballing of the Corus plant in Redcar has sparked the possibility of industrial action by hundreds of steelworkers.

Gordon Brown was in Tyneside to watch work begin on the Clipper Windpower factory, which is set to make 72-metre wind turbine blades.

Mr Brown said: “This is a great day for the Tyne, a great day for Newcastle and a great day for the North East. This is an area which had a shipbuilding industry which was renowned throughout the world, respected for the standard of craftsmanship, and the skill of the work done here that was sold to the rest of the world.

“Now again we have the opportunity to lead the world from the North East.”

Blades weighing around 30 tonnes are to be produced for the Britannia Project, an offshore wind turbine prototype being developed by Clipper.

In the south of the region, a consortium is said to be considering an 11th-hour bid for Redcar - at least two companies are said to be interested in the possible sale.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson visited the region on Thursday and said of the Corus situation: “Politically, we are not going to walk away from this plant. We stand full-square behind it. We will do everything we can to bring it out of mothballing and back into production as everyone around here wants to see.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .