‘These guys are on to something’ – Prince William’s praise for company
The Prince of Wales cracked a joke about potholes as he toured a plant which is helping tackle the challenge of climate change.
Prince William was in the North East to visit causes close to his heart, including Low Carbon Materials in
Jade Business Park, Murton, which was a 2022 finalist for his Earthshot Prize, set up to champion environmental businesses.
William wore a white lab coat and safety goggles at the business as he learnt how to make and test carbon-negative concrete samples for the construction industry using a material called Osto.
He met officials from National Highways, which has partnered with Low Carbon Materials, and spoke to investors and board members.
During the meeting, William asked: “How do we get (the product) bigger” and joked that the company should say: “There’ll be no more potholes,” adding: “Potholes are the bane of everyone’s life.”
The future king said: “How do we get more people to see it… and know that this stuff is genuinely on the way to providing net-zero roads, in theory, the full cycle of netzero homes?
“I mean there’s a world of things we could be doing here. I just think these guys are on to something.”
Before leaving, William stopped to talk to Andrea Newton, from Houghton, who brought her six-month-old grandson Luca to meet the prince.
The future king also visited Newcastle, attending a centre which helps men who were thinking of suicide will help save lives, one of the service users has said.
Prince William spoke to men who struggled with their mental health during a visit to the newly-opened James’
Place in Newcastle.
It is the third centre to be opened by the charity, which was founded in 2008 by Clare Milford Haven and Nick Wentworth-Stanley, following the death of their son James.
The Newcastle University student took his own life aged 21 after he was unable to find the urgent help he needed to deal with his suicidal thoughts.
William listened intently as Dean Stewart, 31, from Gateshead, told him how he struggled with thoughts of self-harm after he dealt with a gambling addiction.
After the visit, Mr
Stewart said James’ Place had helped him so much in just four months that he was now studying to become a counsellor.
He said that the prince’s visit will “one million per cent” help to save lives of other men by publicising the facility, which takes self-referrals.
Officially opening the facility in the city’s West End, William said: “Every time I come here (to a James’ Place centre) I feel calm, relaxed.”
James’s mother, who is the Marchioness of Milford Haven and is married to the King’s cousin, recalled going to his student accommodation in Jesmond, Newcastle, after his death to empty his room.
She found a note he wrote to his parents, and said: “It was incredibly moving and it professed his love for us and it was also very sad.”