Region’s on map at last (From Halesowen News)

Region’s on map at last

2:17pm Friday 4th September 2009

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BOROUGH business leaders will be celebrating the launch of the new Black Country map at their annual bash.

Following a long-running campaign to get the region recognised the new Ordnance Survey Landranger 139 edition map now mentions the area and has been retitled ‘Birmingham and Wolverhampton including the Black Country’.

And to mark the feat Professor Carl Chinn, Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham, Francis Maude MP and Pat McFadden MP, Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, will be joining the Black Country Chamber of Commerce at a VIP event @Let’s Celebrate Success’ at Wolverhampton Racecourse on Friday September 11.

Chamber president and managing director of Black Country Metals in Lye, Peter Matthews, who has long campaigned for official recognition for the Black Country as a place of historic and commercial importance, said he was delighted.

He added: “The main decision behind the Black Country map was to attempt to get recognition for the Black Country itself, not simply on the map, but for the businesses, industry and people of the Black Country, our contribution to history and our promise for the future.”

Black Country historian Prof Carl Chinn added: “The Black Country is known for its contribution to industry and heritage and for our accent and dialect, but above all for a sense of belonging. Now, thanks to the Black Country map, the rest of the country knows where we are.”

Stourbridge MP Lynda Waltho also backed the campaign, branding its success a “victory for the region”.

Director General and CEO of the Ordnance Survey Vanessa Lawrence CB will hand over a large framed map to the chamber at the ‘Let’s Celebrate Success’ bash.

And the leaders of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton Councils will be given the first folded copies of the map, which will be available in the shops from October.

The event will also feature a Question Time style debate providing industry bosses chance to hear what the Labour and Conservative parties are doing for businesses.

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