OSBORNE FOR ELECTED MAYOR?
Millions of pounds here, millions of pounds there. Greater Manchester is raking in the money for big ideas and progressive projects in culture (£78m), heritage (£3m), material science (£235m), graphene (£60m), while next year the European City of Science will bring in another £30m. Shame that the city of Manchester at the same time is getting slammed by £59m in cuts in 2015/16.
Sir Richard Leese, City Council Leader, at the announcement of the £3m for the Museum of Science and Industry had a thought. He remarked that after the event Brian Cox was giving a lesson to primary school kids on luminescence and George Osborne was attending. He wondered whether the Chancellor would learn anything.
Maybe Leese's own party should learn something. Labour seem out in the cold on Northern dreaming. The Conservatives are providing all the luminescene, thinking about a future beyond austerity.
As the director of the soon-to-start-work Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials said on Monday: "We will speed up the modelling, fabricating and testing of materials. If we can reduce the time by half through which products reach market the impact will be enormous, translating into thousands of jobs."
Osborne himself talked beyond the science money and about 'the bold deal' of the transfer of major powers to Greater Manchester with November's devolution and elected mayor announcement.
The Conservatives have stolen a march on all the other political parties in this region in the year before the General Election. The money for prestige projects is good news, despite the profound funding cuts which will hit the poorest areas of the city hardest. In a very Labour region people are asking when will Ed Miliband and his Labour Party colleagues come up with 'bold deals'.
Maybe Osborne's Plan B, should his party not take up government in May 2015, is to stand for Greater Manchester mayor. He's certainly providing 'the vision thing'. Jonathan Schofield
CHANCELLOR George Osborne has announced another major £3m science investment for Manchester.
"We want to develop ground-breaking exhibitions that can tour internationally, shining a global spotlight on our collections and our great city of Manchester.”
Speaking at the launch of European City Science 2016 at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) on Monday 8 December, Osborne commited £3m to help create an ambitious new temporary exhibtion space for the museum.
The new space - designed to host 'world class exhibitions' - will be housed in the vaulted basement of the MOSI's 1830 Warehouse (the world's first ever railway warehouse, main image) and will cost somewhere in the region of £6m. MOSI hope to raise the remaining amount themselves.
(L-R) Director of MOSI Sally MacDonald, Chancellor George Osborne, Prof Brian Cox and Ian Blatchford, Director of Science Museum Group
MOSI Director Sally MacDonald said: “This new exhibition space will allow us to deliver innovative exhibitions that will further enhance the city’s reputation for cutting-edge science.
"The Government’s invaluable financial support means we can do more to feed the enormous passion for science in the North West, serving our annual audience of more than 700,000 visitors and motivating more people to explore both the science and extraordinary heritage on offer at our Museum.
“In future, with the support of our partners, we want to develop ground-breaking exhibitions that can tour internationally, shining a global spotlight on our collections and our great city of Manchester.”
The £3 million Government investment in the Museum is in addition to an £800,000 grant that funded preparatory work.
MOSI
Plans for £3m 1830 Warehouse conversion
The latest £3m investment comes after a series of major, high-profile investment announcements for Manchester from the MP for Tatton.
Only last week Osborne announced - as part of his aim to create a 'Northern Powerhouse' to rival London's thriving economy - over £300m worth of investment in Manchester; £78m for The Factory Manchester and a further £235m for the Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation - a major new science research centre for the University of Manchester.
Preceding this, Osborne announced in September 2014 a new £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) for the university to compliment the currently under-construction National Graphene Institute (NGI).
And in June 2014 during another visit to the MOSI, the Chancellor outlined an ambition to create a 'supercity' to rival the capital as a global hub by building HS3, a high speed rail link between Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.
Still, it's hasn't all been sunshine, lollipops and major investments for Manchester. In November the City Council announced a further £59m of budget cuts in 2015/16 following reductions in government funding.
MOSI, Liverpool Rd, Manchester M3 4FP.
