It has been another busy week. This Thursday, I had the pleasure of welcoming the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP, to London Southend Airport which has also been named ‘Best Airport in London’.
The Transport Secretary toured the recently opened, brand-new Stobart Jet Centre and also visited the Control Tower.
On Friday, I met with several businesses in and around the constituency. My first stop was at the HIVE of which I have been a long supporter. They have made significant strides in promoting Southend and in particular, their programmes Southend Tech City-On-Sea.
I was pleased to find out that Southend tech City-on-Sea has been short-listed for the ’Digi Leaders 100’ award in the category for the Cross-Sector Digital Collaboration of the Year in the London category. To put it in perspective of how reputable the award is, they are up against collaborations between The Mayor of London’s Office and Lego, and a collaboration between O2 and the NSPCC!
The award will be decided by public vote, which opened on Thursday, April 12 and will close on May 1 at 12pm. To vote, please visit www.digileaders100.com.
Soon after, I went to meet Barry Robinson, owner of the Seedbed Centre. The Seedbed Centre is a development of purpose-built, fully serviced business units in Shoebury.
There I met some very formidable businesses doing some great work. I met the owners of ITA Instruments, which develops equipment for laboratory-specific applications; Home Instead – Senior Care provides award-winning home care to elderly people, allowing them to stay in their homes for as long as possible and Aspire, who design and assemble interactive learning environments for schools, and finally I met with Audio Wave who build bespoke hand-crafted high-end car audio amplifiers.