Ms Carol Margey:

In terms of our vision for the future, we have three areas on which we are working. These include funding, regional development and lobbying. We see raising awareness, improving communication and providing leadership at a regional level as being our vision for the future. However, the development of the region will need a multi-layered approach as referred to by our chairman. We feel we have our house in order. There is a lot of work being carried out at the moment by the councils in terms of new structures and putting structures in place to enable this work to continue more efficiently and effectively. That multi-layered approach requires dedicated people in the departments - who work with a steering group or as part of the North West Gateway Initiative - who we can reach out to and say we need some help in terms of policy development and funding. We also need to know how far the committee has been able to advance a particular matter since we last communicated with it. We need an eco-system where we have ongoing communication between the layers involved.