Newcastle Evening Chronicles Hannah Graham.

Here in the North we have some of the best reporter/writers imaginable and few have such a masterly or is that mistressly grasp of the English language than the Newcastle Evening Chronicles Hannah Graham.

She has written an article entitled ‘Operator lined up for seven-screen cinema venture‘. Her extremely well scribed piece contains all of the clues one would expect from a top crime writer whilst allowing those who like to absorb her articles from the page to believe that Advance Northumberland formerly ARCH have found a company to help resolve the ‘Ashington Hole’ problems for the Council.

As and avid Agatha Christie fan I have decided to try to take all the clues and put them into blogging order as my English language skills are nowhere near the brilliance of Hannah’s but I may be able to decipher what is actually happening and what the ‘Secret Council‘ Is doing with your Public money.

Clue 1.    ‘Operator’ is not an owner, investor or developer, it’s a code word for a tenant.

Clue 2.    Advance Northumberland is the Councils development company that we find is even more secretive than its predecessor ARCH.

Clue 3.    £5.53m cost of scrapping previous plans, Galliford Try, was paid £5,530,000 to pull out of a contract to develop a new office block for the Council that would house 900 workers in a town centre that is sited at the head of a rail link that will have a direct connection to Newcastle central station, a through ticketing system with Tyne and Wear metro, developing a public transport link with Newcastle international airport. Ideally placed, this office block would have regenerated the town of Ashington through the planned massive rise in footfall.

Clue 4.    Northumberland County Council set aside a £4.6m loan to its company Advance Northumberland to build a publicaly owned cinema with ratepayers money and rent it to an Operator, effectively buying in a service.

To clarify the ratepayers money reference I have placed the link below to Councillor Oliver’s statement to his Cabinet recently where he clearly indicates the Council has stopped borrowing. Therefore one can only conclude that £4.6m is to be removed from Council ratepayers reserves.

Clue 5.    A grant of £3m is to be provided to Advance Northumberland to develop a Cinema food court. The Council and Advance have not released the cost analysis or local impact assessment on the businesses already sited in the Town. What does it say and why is it not in the public arena? Or may I be so bold as to ask, on surrounding towns?

In summing up, the Ashington Whole Group have asked some valid questions and I’m sure Hannah Graham will make a great job of reporting their thoughts following the public consultation on 17th July at Ashington Leisure Centre, next door to this site. I expect local traders from Ashington and similar representative groups from the businesses in Bedlington, Blyth and Morpeth to press their points home and demand to see the impact assessments on their areas.

So we have a Council exposing serious levels of reserve public cash on a building project for an industry that is renowned for the effects competition has on it, being developed in an area plagued with an epidemic of low wages sitting beside a food court that will affect spending in surrounding towns just to prevent a sustainable and value added Council office project from taking place on this site in future!