According to a round-robin email from PR Week Patrick Edwards has just taken the job of comms director the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation here in the UK. These guys have their work cut out. The Thames Gateway is the term used by politicians to define the geographic area either side of the Thames estuary which stretches out to the east of the Capital. It is hoped that projects like the high speed rail extension in Kent and the Olympics will kick-start regeneration. However, there are challenges. Because the area is so diffuse the UK government has not been able to create a single authority with sweeping unitary powers like the London Dockland Development Corporation of the 1980s. The job is instead being addressed piecemeal by a number of different authorities.
There are at least eight different agencies and organisation, all tasked with overlapping development priorities and agendas in relation to the Thames Gateway.
Do you approach the Communities department?
or join the London Thames Gateway Forum?
or approach the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation itself?
or the London Thames Gateway Partnership?
or the folks dealing with the Thames Gateway at the London Development Agency?
or the Thames Gateway South Essex Partnership?
or the Thames Gateway Forum?
Let’s not forget the Olympic Delivery Authority, who also have an agenda to regenerate the Thames Gateway.
Online at least, the cooperation between these folks does not appear strong. In the meantime the challenge is highlighted by stories like this about missed targets for housing starts.
Patrick Edwards has to make sense of this on behalf of stakeholders. Good luck to him. In relation to online he could start by putting himself in the shoes of the stakeholder and helping to piece together online a picture of what all these organisations do.
