Compromised by Tory MP ?
Working in the area of investigative social media our blog team unearths a number of stories that sometimes take a little time to come together, this has been one of those investigations.
A social media item was put out a few weeks ago by a resident of the Square in Kitty Brewster praising Ian Levy MP, stating that he had voted conservative because he had been told that he was to get a dedicated parking space outside his home on the Square, also stating that the ‘right to buy plebs wouldn’t get their way’ regular nasty Tory supporter stuff you might say?
A couple of days later we were then brought up to speed on social media by the Labour Candidate for Kitty Brewster ward, Warren Taylor, who is a road safety campaigner and has been up to view the problems in this area. He had made contact with both Persimmon Homes and Ian Levy MP to get more information and was sent the usual holding email by both parties trying to kick the issue into the long grass.
Labours Warren Taylor, the current mayor of the Town of Blyth wasn’t having any of that, so he set out to pursue things much further and went up to talk with other residents of the Square and Haggerston Road who had been slated in the Conservative residents message to get a picture from their perspective.
We contacted Warren to get his view of the issues, he told us “ I was so disgusted with the attitude from the resident of the Square towards his neighbours that I had to talk to other residents who had already expressed fears surrounding road safety problems on this estate”
“I was given access to an email from Northumberland County Councils highways engineering department which stated that in order to adopt the estate highways the developer (Persimmons) should finish the square as intended with two half circle grassed areas and no extra defined parking bays outside of people's houses”.
“This would be an excellent result for lots of residents trying to make that Square safer to enter and exit, and was solid evidence that in order for the estates highways to be adopted and maintained via the public purse, the developer must stick with their original plan”.
Adoption by the County Council is essential to halt the double payments by residents into what has become a national scandal where residents both free and leasehold are made to pay exorbitant charges to maintain public open space, highways, litter cleaning and street lighting which they have no control over and are also expected to pay full Council Tax. This practice has grown rapidly over the last 10 years of Tory Government domination.
Warren also told us “It's not only the residents of this estate which are suffering from double charging for services they already pay for through Council Tax, half a million homes nationally have been caught in this scandal because in many cases developers have won planning permission by appeal and do not want to lose huge service charges by bringing estates up to adoptable standards.”
“If elected on 6th May to represent Kitty Brewster on the County Council I will work my fingers to the bone trying to resolve the problems facing residents on this estate I think the whole situation is deplorable and very stressful for residents and their families!”
