§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what additional support he intends to allocate to North Devon for economic development in the light of the Government's proposal to run RAF Chivenor down to a care and maintenance programme.
§ Mr. SainsburyBoth Barnstaple and Ilfracombe travel-to-work area—TTVVA—in which RAF Chivenor is located and the Bideford TTWA were designated as intermediate areas in August 1993. Since 1 August 1993, the Department of Trade and Industry has received six formal requests for regional selective assistance from applicants in north Devon which has already resulted in four offers of assitance. In addition, my officials are talking to several other companies about possible projects. The Government have also proposed to the EC that north Devon should be included in the objective 5(b) programme for Cornwall and Devon.
North Devon will benefit from its share of the £736,779 which was recently allocated to Devon and Cornwall under the Konver programme; indeed, one of the projects which has been approved relates specifically to a "one-stop shop" to help people dependent on RAF Chivenor to find alternative employment.