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!
