Here at 18a we were excited a few months ago when Bristol’s Temple Quarter was announced as one of the Goverment’s new Enterprise Zones.

After Bristol was named in March as being a spot for one of the new zones, the exact location of 173 acres near Temple Meads was announced in June.

Meanwhile, however, we’ve heard today that in the next round of choosing, Somerset hasn’t been so lucky and the South West area has been named as being Newquay in Cornwall.

I’m from South Somerset and would have liked to see the area given a boost by being selected. But (North) Somerset does border Bristol, with some of the surrounding Enterprise Areas named as part of the Temple Quay development actually being in North Somerset! So maybe it was deemed Somerset was already touched by the advantages anyway.

Companies based within Enterprise Zones will benefit from tax support, good Broadband/communication links and apparently less complicated planning regulations. Plus of course, I would have thought they’ll be a great, creative space to share ideas amongst like minded individuals.