Booth ‘relieved’ as Lancashire LEP meets for first time

Directors of the newly formed Lancashire Enterprise Partnership held their inaugural board meeting on Thursday.

List of board members below

The meeting, which took place at County Hall in Preston, saw representatives from major businesses across the county, as well as from Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool councils and a number of other organisations.

Discussion covered bids for enterprise zones, how the partnership will operate, and how it will access money from the government's Regional Growth Fund.

Edwin Booth, chairman of Preston-based supermarket group EH Booths, was named as the chairman of the new partnership.

Approval for the Lancashire local enterprise partnership came later than those for Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Greater Manchester and Liverpool city region. Initially, rival bids were submitted by councils in the west, centre and east of Lancashire.

The approved single pan-county LEP will include "three more localised structures for the Fylde Coast, Mid-Lancashire and Pennine Lancashire to reflect differing local circumstances."

Booth said: "The pan-Lancashire LEP has been a long time in the making and it is a relief to have had the first board meeting.

"There is now an opportunity to put aside sentiment and open a new chapter in our county's economic development."

On Friday, Mark Prisk, business minister, said there would be £5m made available to LEPs across the country to help get them going.

Board members