The news from Northumberland conservative cabinet member Councillor Richard Wearmouth that the reopening of the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line is to be put back for 10 years following the massive internal splits in their Northumberland political structure coupled with the recent press exposure of the massive almost £900m debt the Council has accrued since May 2017 without any sign apart from press spin of the urgently required regeneration of either South East Northumberland Towns of Ashington and Bedlington which are home to the now infamous ‘Whole’ sites.
The recent happenings at County Hall which has shattered the Tories across the County and region, splitting them into two distinct rudderless rabble groups with their administration accused by Senior Council officers of running a corrupt, bullying, racist organisation which is being forensically investigated by a number of agencies.
The Council has also been weakened further by the news that their Chief Finance Director (section 151 officer) has submitted his notice and is leaving the organisation shortly. The Conservatives are now in the hunt for their fifth person to hold this post since May 2017 but with the dreadful reputation that has been gained since the Castle Morpeth Tories took power, very few top officers will want Northumberland County Council to appear on their CV.
On
the subject of the decade long delay in the rail line reopening we spoke with
Councillor Lynne Grimshaw from Bothal Ward in Ashington who said ” the work put
in by the last Labour administration at County Hall to have the line reopened
was a huge undertaking. The Labour Group organised the GRIP studies which are
essential before a rail line can be reopened and agreement was reached with the
Metro for through ticketing to open up most of the North East public transport
network to workers from South East Northumberland.” “But I feel that with the
announcement of a 10yr delay, both Bedlington and Ashington will lose out
massively. The line was to bring workers in and out of the mammoth Labour Group
project of energy central in the Port of Blyth through its Bedlington Station
halt and Labour also wanted to develop new Council offices in Ashington to
regenerate the Town yet the Tories have spent a fortune on modernising an ugly
1980’s building in Morpeth that is far to large for the trimmed down workforce
they have developed to deliver less for our residents”.
