WHEN Mike Damms first arrived in East Lancashire to take up his post as chief executive with the chamber of commerce the advice he received was not welcome.

Two junior government ministers at the time told him that his job would mainly be to ‘manage the decline’; not quite what you want to hear when you arrive in a new area full of hope and ambition.

But that was almost a quarter of a century ago – about a generation by today’s measures – and as he prepares to retire next month (April) Mike looks back on his role as being far from the poisoned chalice some predicted.

In fact, since he relocated to Darwen in 1993, Mike, 66, says he has witnessed some significant changes, including a digital revolution, a shift in the way people work, improved educational standards and the upgrading of the region’s major centres.

He admits, however, that in reality East Lancashire’s improvements have not fully registered with many people, including some of those who live here.

He said: “There’s been a remarkable transition in East Lancashire but it’s not obvious because we still lag behind other parts of the country.

“More recently there’s been investment from outside, but when I first arrived the only money from government and institutions was to deal with the consequences of deprivation. There was no innovation or education investment.

“Over time that has been slowly but surely corrected. But I was genuinely told when I first came by national politicians that I’d got a tough job and that I’d have to get used to managing decline – and that was true of all manufacturing areas: they were told ‘you’re dead on your feet pal’.”

With big companies closing down or leaving the area, Mike understood why they said this, because if you lost a key employer like the Royal Ordnance Factory the belief then was that only another large employer could save you.

He said: “There was a real misunderstanding of the economy though and that’s not what happened. Instead, lots of little companies sprang up and they are more lively and more agile. But you don’t notice people recruiting one at a time – one company recruiting 600 makes headlines, but 600 recruiting one each, doesn’t.”

Many of those small businesses were helped by the Chamber of Commerce – about 400 each year for the past two or three years, in fact. And while Mike admits that there was some scepticism about who would be attracted to the government-run scheme, those who came forward were high calibre and full of drive.

He said: “Along with the rest of the UK the general shape of East Lancashire’s economy is changing. We still have volume employers like British Aerospace and Capita, but the vast majority in the employment market have been taken out by SME s – many of whom are not just world class, they are world leading - for example Precision Polymers, Pipeline Induction Heat, AMS Neve – the list goes on."

But while he agrees that manufacturing has modernised, our green areas have been preserved and towns have been upgraded so they are cleaner places with a decent retail offering, there are still challenges for the area.

He said: “I’m not convinced we’ve managed to carry the population with us fully. I think if you asked a lot of people in East Lancashire what they think of it you wouldn’t necessarily get the description I’ve been giving.

“There are still challenges and problems - education, low wages in some sectors. We still have too many people on too low an income and because of that it’s hard to have ambitions and aspirations. But you have to start driving your economy to address these and that’s what we’re doing.”

Mike Damms retires at the end of April.