THE world wide turmoil in banking and financial services and its possible effect on Chester is due to be raised at a Town Hall meeting next week.
The motion is to be put to the full city council by Kelsall Cllr Andrew Garman (Lib Dem) seconded by the Lib Dem group leader Cllr Paul Roberts (Farndon).
They will tell the council: “Chester's economic revival of recent years has been dependent in part on the growth of the financial services sector.
“With the recent turmoil in banking and the wider financial services world, Chester could suffer significant job losses.
“Furthermore, tourism in Chester is under threat in the short term from recessionary forces and in the longer term by potential visitors being more aware of the climate change impact of travelling long distances to visit Chester, especially by air.”
They will ask the council to recognise “that Chester's economic prosperity is too dependent on financial services and tourism and that it needs to diversify its base to spread risk and build for the future”.
The councillors believe the Town Hall should ask Chester's local strategic partnership to set up a strategic task force, with all party representation from the city council, together with other relevant business and community stakeholders, to identify measures which can be taken to encourage a wider range of business enterprises in the district.
“Such measures might include, for example, the establishment of a new business park specialising in green technologies,” suggest the Lib Dems.
