It was great to be at Teledyne e2v in Chelmsford and celebrate fantastic news.
900 people work for Teledyne e2v. It is Chelmsford’s largest private sector employer.
In Chelmsford, they make the clever component inner parts of 90 percent of the worlds radiotherapy scanners, helping to cure people from cancer. They also supply to marine radar machines used all over the world in ships and boats.
I brought the trade minister Nigel Huddleston MP along to hear about their business.
Their space division makes the space imaging equipment that forms the eyes and ears of space missions all across the world. Including the recent Indian led project to visit the dark side of the moon.
They have been taking to me for a while about how important their relationship with the European Copernicus Program is. Copernicus satellites orbit the world at a very high orbit, enabling imaging of the world’s surface that help us better understand and monitor climate and other issues on our planet. I have raised the importance of this relationship many times with ministers in writing and in the House of Commons.
Yesterday’s news that enables the UK to rejoin this program could be worth around £100 million in contracts to this Chelmsford based business and will mean the UK’s world leadership in space imaging stays in Chelmsford.
The folks who work at Teledyne e2v are extremely highly skilled.
I am so pleased for them that the negotiations to ensure that the UK will continue to be able to partner with European tech and sience programs have been successfully concluded.
