(By telling the Truth )
I am 71 yr old and have lived in Ashington all my life and have always been proud of my heritage and the way my local Council's, both County and District have managed things until now.
I can not stand the way my Town and my MP have been treated over the last four years by people who call themselves Tories. As their professionally adapted lies began the rounds in 2015 well before 2017 when they took power in Northumberland on the back of deceit and false news.
I have worked on both Colliery engineering and private engineering projects around the County and have worked for some of the most ardent Conservatives, the majority were a little bit tight with their cash but I suppose that's what conservatism is about, but none were as aggressive and nasty as the new breed of Tories running Northumberland County Council. It is my considered opinion that they are only pleased when setting communities against each other instead of trying to manage the needs of everyone who lives here which is what they are charged to do by the Acts of Parliament that formed this new and awful Unitary Council. Parliament should have demanded a different name so that people could not hide behind the old County Councils solid and untainted history.
This story is as close to the truth as I can recall so I have spoke with my pals from around Town and Ashington Community Football Club to try to fill in the gaps.
The story really begins in 2004/5 when the former Wansbeck District Council was approached by the grocery chain ASDA to sell Portland Park and develop a huge superstore on the site.
This was a huge project for the District Council who hadn't seen this coming and did not have the introduction of a shop of this magnitude into the urban setting of the Town in any of its planning documents. The Council sat on this matter for a few months, took advice and eventually released the information to the public and began a consultation that led to the production of a supplementary planning document by Northumberland County Council in 2010 that steered a new shape for the Lintonville area of the Town.
For the football club this was probably an ideal time to look for a new home, the Council were in receipt of regeneration funding from one North-East and had formed a regeneration and development arm which looked after the Colliery housing in Ashington, 'Wansbeck Life' it was busying itself with the remodelling of the Hirst Welfare and managed to secure land for a Community Football Club at the Woodhorn Lane end of their massive sports site.
Eventually ASDA moved forward with the purchase of the site and I attended the clubs last game in February 2008 at Portland Park before moving over to Woodhorn Lane when unfortunately Seaham Red Star beat us 3 goals to 2.
Because during 2008 the District Council was rapidly racing toward the formation of an interim Council which would eventually become the new Northumberland Unitary County Council a sum of money to help the football club relocate correctly and build a new stand, changing rooms, seating area, club house etc similar to Portland Park was not immediately available the money known as Community gain funding, or section 106 funding for this type of development and the club was given a grant and planning permission by the closing district council to erect a temporary pre-fabricated home which it duly did.
The section 106 funding worth many £M's at the time reported as £6.5M sat in the County Council coffers but was earmarked to develop a new Stand etc., for Ashington Community Football Club and draw down funding to assist in renewing the Leisure Centre in Ashington. A matter that the Tories in Northumberland would like to keep secret but unfortunately sometimes the 'truth will out'.
Late Councillors, John McCormack, and Jimmy Sawyer along with Jimmy Lang and Ken Parry took up the cudgel to locate this funding within the County Council's coffers and begin the good works for the community it was designed and given to produce.
The LibDems ran the new Council Council then and closed down Wansbeck Life renaming it ARCH who were given the task spend the section 106 money in the correct manner.
This is when the spin doctors from Northumberland Tories began their attacks on my Community and decried ARCH and our MP at every turn, inventing lies that I've been told the Councils and Arch's external auditors and the Police were not able to locate and attempting to criminalise the workers and board of the regeneration company. They weren't that successful as people could see with their own eyes the quality work that was being undertaken right across the County and although they threatened to close the company down in their pre-election manifesto it was so good and so effective they simply had to do as the LibDems did and change its name.
When at school I enjoyed my history lessons and it was said by Jospeh Goebbles the top Tory spin doctor of his day “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” I wish this story was going out to a newspaper and not to a blog but the power of social media is hopefully such today that by sharing this story the reputation of My Town, My MP and My Football Club can be restored, I hope enough dissent against these lies and liars is generated so that the stability of my Community can be returned to normal and the attacks on communities and the lies told about them right across this County should be highlighted against these dirty game players and they should be forced to cease immediately.
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