I paid my first official visit to the huge new Amazon warehouse at Peddimore. I have been watching closely as the infrastructure is being put in - roads etc - as well as the landscaping, in order to protect my constituents’ quality of life and try to preserve the beauty of the surrounding countryside. 

I was accompanied by Cllr Ken Wood who along with our local town councillors and Cllr Barrie is diligently looking after the interests of local residents - particularly those in Minworth most directly affected by this and indeed in Walmley. 

From the pictures below, you can see the sheer scale of it all: there are 600 people working on the site. The warehouse will stock 30 million items!

The construction sees 7,200 Solar panels producing 3.6 megawatts. 

We always said we wanted to see high quality and highly skilled local employment created if this goes ahead, and that does indeed seem to be the case. Between 1300 and 2000 such jobs are being created with advertising and recruiting locally taking place. We are probably 3 years from opening but there will be high quality apprenticeships, ranging from 14 months to 4 years in duration.

This is the future and of course part of the reason for the decline in our Town centre. However, I thought the Amazon management were sensitive to local concerns (such as light pollution - for which they are putting in blinds), committed to local jobs and bringing in good neighbours.