Gloucestershire loses major ally in its battle to be heard

The Raikes Journal broke this story on Friday, but we can now run the official line from the Western Gateway on the funding cut that spells the end of this most powerful voice for Gloucestershire.

Dear readers,

Welcome to the first edition of The Raikes Journal of the week.

Today we lead on a story Raikes broke on Friday about the Government’s decision to cut the funding to the Western Gateway Partnership. Why is that important?

Because it is possibly the most powerful voice Gloucestershire has if it is to be heard in the corridors of power in London, when it comes to investment.

On Friday we ran a story that was half paywalled that allowed our members to see the contents of a letter sent by James Cooke, the deputy director of the Western Gateway, to Business West, which confirmed the news (you can read that here).

We can now officially reveal the Western Gateway’s reaction, and what Business West thinks of it too, as well as what the county’s two biggest chambers of commerce have to say.

With devolution also pending in Gloucestershire, some will be wondering where the economic leadership will come from now.

We asked the county council on Friday last week and again today for a reacti…