Historic Repeat of the ‘Bedlington Cheat’

SOCIAL Media has been running red hot in the Town of Blyth in Northumberland against a planning application for a home of multiple occupancy being sited right beside the centre of the Towns most historic area, its Market Place.

The Town which includes many of the poorest and most deprived wards in the County of Northumberland already has a large number of Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMO’s) many being used by those awaiting sentencing by the Courts, local people use the term ‘Bail Hostel’ when referring to them and accuse the Unitary County Council for allowing as many HMO’s to be developed as the majority of people living in these properties are NOT from the Town of Blyth.

A local facebook page has been running a campaign for a number of weeks and an electronic petition was run to show opposition to the latest development. It is to be heard at the Unitary Councils area committee meeting, called the ‘Ashington and Blyth Area Council’ at 17:00hrs on 11 Sept. to be held at Newbiggin by the Sea, Leisure Centre. and the Councils announcement that it has been chosen to put a second stage bid into the Future High Streets fund has led to messages being posted by known local Tories and ex-UKIP members whipping up an ad-hoc public meeting on the back of the public interest in this matter on Saturday 7^th Sept. 2019. five days before their petition is to be heard.

This is not new ground for Northumberland Conservatives about whom its said pulled the same scam on the people of the nearest Town to Blyth, Bedlington, during  2016 when the then Labour administration for Northumberland County Council were busy putting a land package together to build a new Town centre for Bedlington. Grief was whipped up by local Tories and a march and wild public meeting held to demand change.
Labour put together the land package and plans then through the massive amount of false news put out lost the seats to ‘Secret’ Independents who immediately took the ‘shilling from the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have not delivered for the people of Bedlington and won’t deliver in time for the next election in May 2021.

The same tactics are now being used in Blyth, even though the subject is really a planning matter over an HMO, its expected the Northumberland Conservatives and their allies will run this as an attack against Labour and the way the Town has run down in the last decade. They wont mention that the Tories have been in Governmental power for 90% of that decade and that none of the Tories in power at County Hall live in the Town of Blyth.

The matter is quite complex, to stop a planning application going through, because planning is a quasi-judicial function of a unitary Council a planning reason has to be given.

Is that planning reason available? It was, the Labour Party when in power had developed a planning document known as a Core Strategy and it was under examination by Government. The Core Strategy, which discussed within it the development of unsuitable domestic dwellings in certain areas was removed from inspection by the Tories as soon as they got into power at County Hall.

In place of the Core Strategy which looked at all aspects of planning and development and ensured they aligned with the needs and wishes of Communities the Tories have developed a ‘Local Plan’ its a simple planning only document that can be challenged by developers who don’t get their way.

The costs of running a ‘Local Plan’ are enormous and challenges cost the Council Taxpayer a fortune for lost planning appeals. Northumberland loses the majority of its appeals as their plan is not robust and simply unsuitable for communities.

Its expected that the hearing of the petition will swing the way of the Community on 11^th Sept. But the Councillors who will hear the appeal are not the same ones who will hear the planning application as the ‘Strategic Planning Committee’ of the Unitary Council does not contain a single elected member from Blyth, Northumberland’s largest Town, and normally simply accepts the views and recommendations of Council Officers, but does seem weak when farmers want to develop buildings in greenbelt areas.

This is one to watch as the Tories exploit both the people and their allies to grasp hold and cling to power even if its through ‘fringe benefits' to so called false ‘independent Councillors’.