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JAPANESE DELEGATES LEARN FROM WALSALL REGENERATION - 3 November 2009
A Japanese delegation which came to the UK to study regeneration chose Walsall as an example of what can be done to transform a town and its fortunes.
Walsall Regeneration Company (WRC) hosted the group of officials from the Kanagawa Prefecture who were keen to learn from best practice which they can adopt in their homeland.
The visitors, who also went to London, Manchester and Liverpool during their week-long stay, were given an insight into how WRC works with partners to deliver schemes such as the new Walsall College, Walsall Manor Hospital, Walsall Waterfront and the Gigaport business quarter.
They were given a tour of the college by deputy principal David Wheeler and learned how it would support regeneration and enterprise by providing the education and skills for local people for the jobs of tomorrow.
David said: “We were delighted to welcome the delegation for a guided tour of our brand new Wisemore Campus, which provides our students with an inspirational learning environment. The delegates were extremely impressed with our world class facilities, including our 21st century IT platform. They also had the opportunity to explore our range of fully equipped academies, created in partnership with industry leaders, including our innovative music academy developed with Japan based company Roland. Our new campus is a touchstone for Walsall’s regeneration and is the beginning of an exciting new era for the borough as a whole.”
Akshay Parikh, programme director at WRC, said: “The delegates were interested in how we worked with organisations at local, regional and national level. We were able to showcase our focus on a small number of major schemes that linked in to an overall, clear vision for Walsall’s regeneration, how we engaged the community and stakeholders and the benefits achieved through our strong partnership approach to attract public and private sector investment.”
The Japanese visitors also learned about the ambitious plans for Gigaport, which is around 1.5 million sq ft of quality office space, a business innovation centre, hotel and live-work units all set within high quality inspirational public realm. What will set Walsall Gigaport apart will be its access to a high speed, big bandwidth next generation broadband communications platform that will support a wide range of high technology industries
Akshay added: “The delegation commented on how a town like Walsall was competing to deliver major regeneration initiatives that had international importance and at the same time had the potential of transforming and having a significant impact on the local economy.”
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Caption: Pictured at Walsall College from left are Akshay Parikh of WRC, Takayuki Shimoda and David Wheeler, deputy principal.