As another year opens and we begin the journey of 2021, the Forest Economic Partnership celebrates its 3rd Birthday.
So what did we achieve in 2020?
Despite national lockdowns, pandemics, Brexit uncertainty, flooding and a complete shift in working patterns, FEP had a productive year. With the publication of not one, but two reports on digital connectivity across the 203 square miles of the Forest of Dean District.
Bridging the Gap and How Fast; How Good? report on different issues and aspects of the challenges and aspirations of the District as we move further into the digital age. Industry 4.0 is very much upon us and the Forest of Dean is well placed to be recognised as innovators in this area.
Since the inception of FEP in 2018, the intuitive minds of Stakeholders have created 7 different projects looking at a wide range of economic issues, including Travel, Connectivity and Education.
During 2020, these projects have been tweaked to enable them to work within Covid constraints and through partnership effort and the Zoom platform (thanks to the generosity of stakeholders) the Forest Economic Partnership continued to meet and were able to overcome uncertainties in funding and logistics.
In March 2020, at the start of the first national lockdown we used our social media platforms to repeat FEP’s core values and re-stated that FEP’s aspirations would not change. We may have re-jigged some of our project work but the key message remains the same.
“We aim to bring together business, education, public sector, people, ideas and resources to give the Forest of Dean a voice and to help deliver a thriving and sustainable economy”
Exciting news will follow shortly on how these projects will continue into 2021 and beyond.
In 2020, we have also grown! At the end of 2019, FEP became a community interest company with a total of 6 board members and as of today, 8 January 2021, our third birthday, we have just appointed our 8th Director to the Board. Find out more about this at the next stakeholder meeting.
We are excited to share with you some more updates on what we are doing as we continue into 2021, so keep an eye out for our monthly newsletters for all the latest information.