Last updated 05:42, Friday, 19 September 2008

A new year beckons with all the accompanying possibilities and promise a turn of the calendar’s page represents.

Opportunities to be grasped or lost are seen in the bright light of a new dawn. Perhaps they were always there but the will to exploit or reject them is keener as an old year passes and a new one offers a launch-pad for renewed energy and reviewed thinking.

Cumbria was never short of opportunity. Possibilities and promise are there for the taking and as the broad blank canvas of a new year begs revitalised attention, there couldn’t be a better time to capitalise on their offers, painting clear vision with bold brush strokes.

The future prosperity and growth of the county’s economy and life quality rely on our willingness to extend our reach towards necessary and achievable innovation and regeneration.

The wish list is known. None of it has suffered from lack of imagination or purpose but in parts a degree of lethargy and prevarication have limited achievement of potential.

The new year is the perfect platform for revitalisation of approach to the county’s need and desire to join the country’s major economic players.

On that wish list is a fully functioning regional airport, expanding economic growth throughout the county and opening new communication and transport links. Carlisle’s Renaissance, aiming imaginatively to grow a modern city of which future generations can be proud and in which graduates of the University of Cumbria may confidently allow their entrepreneurial skills and creativity fully to flourish. Support of and pride in local and regional enterprise and trade – be that in farming, tourism, retail, design or manufacturing – each interfacing sympathetically with the other in a firmly held common purpose of success.

Cumbria is a county of great promise, Carlisle a city of untapped potential. As the calendar’s page turns on Tuesday let our resolution be to make the most of all we and future Cumbrians deserve... and to have a truly happy and prosperous new year.