Taunton innovation centre would ‘stop young people leaving the town’ | Somerset County Gazette
He believes we need to tackle the world’s problems from the bottom up and thinks the centre could help reverse the Taunton ‘brain drain’ and be at the heart or a thriving South West region.
He says the facility would be “a centre of activity” tapping into the talent of “people who understand the science and the limitations of science”.
“It would be a centre for thinking and creation involving different sectors of society, education, manufacturing and research and development,” said Mr Khodabandehloo.
“It needs to have presence in Taunton with connectivity to the South West and into a network which is globally connected. “It would be a think tank of people coming together. Hopefully it will be up and running in Taunton within five years and will boost the area.”
Taunton is blessed with quality health care, some of the best schools in the region and wonderful environment, but it suffers from talented young people leaving to go to university and never returning.
PROJECT: How the innovation centre could look
Mr Khodabandehloo said: “We need to identify people with ability and utilise their expertise and skills
“Young people need the opportunity to apply what they’re learning in a way that doesn’t require them to get on a plane and travel round the world.
“We want them supporting local industry. We don’t want our young people leaving the area and local industries recruiting people from other parts of the country. We need local initiatives.” He believes we need to address the problem of a growing carbon footprint by tackling issues such as pollution, how we produce our food and clothing.
He added: “How do we satisfy our needs without impacting on other parts of our existence?
“We need people who are motivated and educated to create that understanding
“We need to add value to the lives of people living locally. We need to look what we’re doing here in terms of using technology to reduce our need for resources to produce very basic needs.
“Should we continue to invest in people who are going to end up working in the City?
“Food needs to be sourced locally without being driven to depots in other parts of the country and then coming back here.
“Why are local souvenirs made in China?
“When we have automation available to us, we should use it for what’s essential, what will be value added.
“We need to bring educated people and business people together, from the bottom up.
“Covid has demonstrated that we have come to a halt. It’s given us an opportunity to look at what we’ve done wrong and how we can put things right.
“We need to educate our children that they need to do things in a different way in terms of the environment.
“While we have restrictions, there are huge opportunities which we can turn into wealth creation.”
The innovation centre would be somewhere for a group of students and industry leaders to come together in “a centre of excellence” where young people can pool ideas to “add value to the area” and give them a reason to never leave Taunton.