Residents of Malvins Road and its feeder streets have been forced by Northumberland Tories to wait four years to have their street resurfaced, one of the busiest roads in Blyth, while those same Tories spent £100M each year re-engineering and renewing roads to remote rural farms and hamlets.
Way back in 2016 an application was made to close Malvins Road for six months to bring services and drains to supply the new homes being developed on that street. Labour County Councillor Susan Davey lodged a formal objection on behalf of residents which was withdrawn with the agreement of residents when they were informed that the developer would contribute heavily to having the road resurfaced on completion of their services work. That contribution was later planned to be increased as the road was closed for over a year.
Labour’s candidate for the 2021 elections, Town Councillor and deputy Mayor of Blyth, Margaret Richardson who was brought up in the area said: “ I have been watching this closely since the Tories took over in 2017, they have sat on this job which was placed in the Local Transport Plan to be resurfaced for almost four years until they could boast that they are having the road repaired”.
“The Tories brought up their MP for Blyth valley for a photo shoot as this is the only job anyone can name that the Tories have bothered to do in Blyth since May 2017.”
“All of my friends and relatives in Cowpen cannot believe the gall of the Conservatives who in the light of top level investigations into their activities as a Council administration have shown their disdain by blowing this resurfacing job up as a success story”.