We are facing the same problems as 2017 only much, much worse

In the North East, Northumberland people know what it’s like living under a Tory ‘regime’

After the last two years of worsening services, increased poverty and the non-deliverance of promises, voters in Northumberland are now learning at first hand the problems living under a unitary Council run by Tories who don’t give a damn.

The Council is in a toxic position of being accused of bullying on a number of occasions and although they often deny their guilt they have wasted public money and paid a number of six figure sums out to their victims.

Under their regime, an administration who rely on the votes of some independents they have told will get a new Town Centre if they toe the line to get their demonic policies through, the Tories in the County have managed to deliver nothing but hollow promises on a physical basis but have fallen at the feet of their masters at Westminster on policy when it comes to attacking almost 60% of their population through the application of severe austerity measures across the South Eastern corner and the former rural coalfield areas of this massive County.

People are more often than not fully committed to trying to resolve their own family problems than notice whats happening to them through local political means but we, the laymen have witnessed a massive growth in child poverty over the last two years, the downslide of many of the Council wards in the South East of the County into greater levels of deprivation, a huge rise in the level and use of foodbanks, ever more disabled people being denied access to personal independence payments and people are no longer shocked when we hear of teachers having to bring in food for their pupils.

The Tory answer of course is ‘more people are in work’, that may be correct but to comply with what we would rely on as being true people need to get value from their employment and that employment should improve their standing and position in society, but it doesn’t. We have a County where insecure and seasonal work as well as zero hour contracts and low income environments have become endemic, where poverty is the norm and the Tory business chair of Council Richard Dodd wears a body cam when he speaks to people.

The Tory media keeps telling the public that Labour doesn’t know where it stands on number of items but I can tell the Tories who read this blog that people are very clear as to where the Tories in Northumberland stand and it isn’t in the same queue for help that most of the Counties population find themselves in.

Labours new formula will ‘Benefit us All’

Block Grant and Barnett Formula funding across the UK is not centred wholly on Scotland but Labours policies under a new Government will attempt to equalise public expenditure nationwide and not centre the largest spend in London.

UK Block Grant funding last year was highest in Northern Ireland even without the bribes thrown at the DUP to capture their Parliamentary votes, funding that will be scooped up by Austerity 2 if the Tories win an outright majority in the commons on Dec 12^th.

Last year total block grant spending by the UK Government was £772Bn the highest spending award per head went to Northern Ireland at circa £13,950 but surprisingly for those who attack the Barnett Formula particularly former UKIP supporters, London is the largest Block Grant user at a staggering spend rate of £12,847 per person and with a population somewhere in the region of 8.9M you can see why the Barnet formula is required for smaller places such as Scotland and Wales who receive much smaller public expenditure amounts balanced by the size of their population but are through the Block Grant for Scotland of £10,152 per person compared to an England outside London expenditure per person of only £8,529 per person able to spend 20% more per annum on services for their people.

The ‘Barnett Formula’ itself  is not rocket science, in a UK-Scotland scenario, England has 10 times the number of people than Scotland therefore with a UK spend of £1 the equalisation rate for Scotland would be 10p and for England -3p yep that’s a minus!

The current Labour Party policy team has looked at how, whether we end up with BREXIT or not, can public expenditure be equalised over the next decade and lift the whole of the UK out of its current austerity trap, a trap that even Greece who has suffered major tax evasion problems by its population has managed to dissolve through the input of help from the EU and that includes the Tories austere and miserable UK.

Labour has obviously looked to its Scottish roots and the ability for 20% higher expenditure for 5M people and asked how it can deliver for the remainder of the UK. Its answer is to renationalise those items that the Conservatives under Thatcher and various PM’s since privatised in England and benefit from the nations gift to the Tory investors. Scotland for example has nationalised water, a strong and separate NHS, its own energy grid and Scotrail who run 94% of all trains over the Border are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Scottish Government. It has denied access to carpet-bagging investors to its socially required infrastructure.

Its easy to see Labour’s new thinking and its easy to see how it is affordable and can be achieved to benefit the English, without damaging the benefits from being a union gives to the peripheral populations of the UK who need the taxes paid by the many to assist the few.

Berwick Abandoned by the Tories

During 2014 the handouts from Vladimir Putins friend Alexander Temerko to assist Berwicks Tory MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan were openly criticised in the UK press.

It was recorded that Anne-Marie Trevelyan had received a £50,000 gift from Mr Temerko an offshore energy magnate.

Northumberland Conservatives who’s top table is made up of mainly farmers and those who ply their trade rurally produced a new Local Plan for Northumberland  that has recently been scrutinised by the Government (more to be said on that debacle at a later date) have not supported Mr Temerko  since Anne Marie Trevelyan’s gift was discovered. Instead they have enshrined within their plan the wish to support on-shore wind, which of course pays cash to landowners and farmers.

The support among Conservative voters in Berwick has waned quite considerably since the Brexit antics of the Tories as Anne Marie Trevelyan by her own admission is a staunch leaver , her constituency is the largest rural one in England and it’s the UK’s farmers and rural areas who have most to lose through Johnsons poor deal with Europe.

The recent interviews on TV with Hilary Clinton regarding the Tories not releasing information on Russian interference in the Brexit election and now this sudden snap election and the fact that Anne Marie Trevelyan’s Tory Party will not tell the British public what’s going on with Putin does lead to further erosion of trust in the Tory Party and of course Anne Marie Trevelyan’s position in Berwick.

Notes: https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/mp-responds-to-aps50000-election-donation-claims-400106

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ01KrjTvUY

Are these motions Hate Crimes?

In a county that has one of the smallest Black and Minority Ethnic populations in Great Britain, 1.4%, we Laymen have noticed that the current Northumberland County Council administration who at its last Council meeting opposed a motion to protect staff employment rights and services to the communities across the county, now have two highly controversial motions on their agenda for what we believe to be political purposes.

With 3.6% of the County’s population being ‘born in Scotland’ two and a half times more people than those who recognise themselves as being part of our Black and Ethnic populations, a Scotophile motion calling the possibility of separation from the UK union as a threat that is designed to appoint leading Conservative councillors to steer the population against an anti-brexit population dwelling on the North side of the Border, has been submitted to become Council policy. The historian within our ranks believes that although spies operated on behalf of England in Scotland during the various Jacobite periods and during the English Civil War its thought that members of Councils and local dignitaries have not ‘kept and eye’ on the Scots since the 1680’s. There's also a motion from an administration who this year stopped its holocaust services on supposed cost grounds to re-affirm its condemnation of all forms of racism and hate crime, singling out Anti-Semitism.

In January 2017 the Council accepted a policy on Equality that was designed to clearly state the Councils position with regard to both Communities and Staff so why have Northumberland Conservatives singled out Anti-Semitism if not for political purposes.

Reading Northumberland’s accepted and well supported policy and if re-affirmation was required then why has Islamaphobia or the bullying of women not been singled out, two issues the Tories have been painted with both nationally and locally Is it because they can’t blame Jeremy Corbyn for it. Or is it simply because the Leader of Council, Peter Jackson has the largest ethnic minority groups and the most single women living in his ward of Ponteland South with Heddon? A ward that the dreadful planning episodes and costs to the Council taxpayers to protect Councillor Jackson from his fortunes being exposed to litigation runs as a fiefdom.

Even some of the most zealous Conservatives surely can’t support these motions without asking questions about this Tory Councils stance on equality in general, with the high profile Amber Rudd accusing the Tories nationally of ardent bullying among others and the stance they are taking by accepting these ‘old fashioned’ motions onto their agenda will certainly cost the Tories votes both in Berwick and Hexham where their positions are weakening daily.

The noise from their own membership and supporters on these issues and the acceptance of them as being ‘Valid Motions’ should surely make removal from the agenda essential and we the laymen wish to ask, are these motions ‘Hate crimes in their own right’?.

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/About-the-Council/equality/Equality-info-report-Jan17.pdf

Prudhoe Prison, Residents are up in arms.

The recent news that the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS foundation trust wish to change the dynamics of their mental health unit at Ferndale in Prudhoe to a medium secure unit has come as a shock to residents.

Their shock has been further enhanced by the news that their local County Councillor, Gordon Stewart is in the Hexham Courant fully supportive of the changes and to discolour the people’s view of the project further concerns expressed on social media by local residents show that Councillor Stewart is a very influential member of the administration at County Hall and the agent for the local MP Guy Opperman. People believe they have been overlooked and the planning permission needed to make this change is already set in stone.

The changes suggested are to make Ferndale into a medium secure unit with provision for inpatient treatment and care for young people with complex mental health problems who have been in contact with the criminal justice system, who present a serious risk to themselves or others and have a reasonable potential to abscond.

Residents of Prudhoe and Wylam area have openly commented on the issue and we believe letters were passed out at this weeks meeting of Prudhoe Town Council to Councillor Stewart making it clear that the residents of this part of the County do not want this change at all.

The only area brought up to speed by the Trust and Councillor Stewart appears to be the residents of Humbles Wood leaving the residents of wider Prudhoe in the dark. A message from one resident asks why those living next to the site in Cottier Grange, Park Lane and Moor Grange weren’t brought in at an early stage and why Prudhoe High School has not been brought in as a prime consultee. They have also asked why these young people aren’t being treated at Netherton Park which is already home to a young persons secure unit.

We’re sure Councillor Stewart and his Campaigning MP will roll out some excuse on social media but really this treatment of residents is undeniably objectionable.

Will failed ‘Bids’ lead to shortchanging Blyth?

As we move forward towards the general election,
we will notice all sorts of claims from Northumberland Conservatives, for instance a local town Councillor from Blyth Daniel Carr made a claim on social media just after the House of Lords cleared the calling of the election that Blyth had been awarded £25m by the Government and that people should rally around and tell him how to spend it, this was a completely false and spurious claim.

The truth is that a forum partnership has been set up in the Town of Blyth Northumberland to see how its prospects can be improved through the public and commercial sector working in harmony together.

Following a series of meetings it was agreed by the parties involved to put in a bid to the Governments regeneration funding mechanisms in an attempt to bring in a small, by development standards £25m, to form the basis of funding matches with the regional agency, the LEP, the County Council, whilst involving both the the major energy companies moving into the port of Blyth and the long term commercial operators sited around the Town.

The initial bid failed at the first hurdle and the only town offered cash in the County of Northumberland was Hexham, which may happen to have a slowing high street but doesn’t have the deprivation levels found in the town of Blyth with six of its eight wards sitting in the 10% of most deprived wards in the U.K., but it does have some of the closest links with the farming communities in the County, who will suffer most from Boris Johnson’s version of BREXIT and its beleaguered MP Guy Opperman is an ardent leaver and quietly despised by his communities through his opposition to the safeguarding of the positions of the major families in his constituency.

This picture in words shows how political the doling out of Government funds by the Tories has become. Blyth, possibly the most needy Town in the County has been ravaged since May 2017 through the closure or removal of support for agencies geared towards helping in deprived areas and the delivery of nothing directly by the Tory led County Council at all apart from promises that they may deliver items in the future after the 2021 local government elections!

The Government then moved Blyth into a second string ‘bidding list’ and threw a peppercorn amount of cash towards the County Council to formulate a scheme that may possibly win a £25m bid against 50 other towns across the Country.

This new scheme is being led by Councillor Richard Wearmouth a man who since his election in 2017 was tasked by the Conservative Group at County Hall to manage and grow the Councils Business Improvement District schemes, a task he has magnificently failed in. One scheme in Hexham and probably another reason Hexham has had some cash thrown towards it was shut down following the owners of commercial businesses being prepared to go to jail rather than support a scheme pushed by their MP and pay bills that would in many cases bankrupt them and for which they felt they would gain no benefit. Hexham TV a web based news organisation showed how Councillor Wearmouths team used bailiffs to force payments from businesses into the BID scheme and how Council officers were used to harass those who did not want to be part of it.

He then went on to fail to deliver Business Improvement Schemes in his home town of Morpeth and in the Town of Blyth.

As lay observers we are extremely concerned that this scheme supposedly designed to help Blyth is another designed to fail project that will actually deliver very little apart from the opportunity for Northumberland Conservatives to run out publicity on the back of it.

Getting back to our title for this item relating to how this bid if received would ‘shortchange’ Blyth, we need to ask ourselves what would £25m in money that can only be used to deliver something physical, known as Capital expenditure deliver for Blyth?.

£25m is a third of the cost of building a new high school in Hexham.

Approximately half of what’s it’s already cost to modernise County Hall in Morpeth, possibles the Norths biggest white elephant project this decade.

It may deliver two thirds of the cost of a new Blyth relief road.

So you can see quite clearly that the spend made by the Conservatives in Blyth will not move any of its most deprived wards out of difficulty, will not raise the survival rate of people born in Cowpen, Croft and Kitty Brewster to the level of Cramlington North and will not stop school exclusions, lower the crime rate or get the disabled help to fight for their benefits, but it will mean ever more people using food banks, more deby for the poor, higher drug use and indiscriminate private landlords screwing not only the benefit system but depriving their tenants as well.

Glen’s Delighted to be spending £419 per tree to improve Counties Carbon Footprint?

Councillor Glen Sanderson the head of local services and all matters green at Northumberland County Council department has been awarded through the Forestry Commission’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund £265,000 for a new two-year tree planting programme. 

The initiative will involve 633 trees being planted at 29 locations across Cramlington, Seghill, Seaton Delaval, Blyth, Bedlington, Choppington, Prudhoe and Hexham.

The project aims to improve the county’s urban tree cover, improving the landscape and making them more appealing areas for recreation and for wildlife. The extra trees will also make a contribution to carbon capture. 

His statement in his recent press release reads as follows: Councillor Glen Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Local Services, said: “We’re delighted to have secured this funding. After declaring our climate emergency earlier this year, we must do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint.

This unbelievable level of expenditure per tree shows a vital difference between Northumberland Labour Party’s ‘Green Credentials’ and that of Northumberland Conservatives.

During 2015 the Council unanimously supported the introduction of a tree management policy that was an element of its planning core strategy planning activity, an activity that was completely halted by the incoming Tories in 2017.

The policy allowed an application to Government by a private landowner to plant 600,000 on Doddington Moor, Englands largest private forestry project. It had a number of hurdles to get over but was approved and planting began on this scheme in 2018 that will capture 120,000 tonnes of carbon seriously reducing the Northumberland County carbon footprint.

That reduction will be further enhanced by the planting of 1,000,000 trees by the Forestry Commission themselves designed to capture 200,000 tonnes of carbon each year on 500Ha spread over three sites in the County that will help the County reach its carbon neutral target over the next 10 years.

The Forestry Commission although making a huge investment in their growth plans will not be spending at the same level as Councillor Sanderson which would cost them £419,000,000, as their whole national budget to manage all of Englands tree stock in their estate is only £52M per year, clearly illustrating Councillor Sanderson is another of the Tory wasters sitting in their about to become ‘Crystal Palace’ in Morpeth when its new £16M Conservatory is finished.

For a Council showing an £11M underspend in its accounts that pulled the plug on its sure start schemes supposedly due to a lack of cash through austerity, Cllr Sanderson’s spend on trees is savage amusement indeed.

£419 per tree is an abomination and he should hang his head in shame forever, the Forestry Commission have a list of approved growers who sell Councils saplings of the mighty oak for 32p each.

With the money he received in the latest award he could be planning to plant 828,000 oak saplings on highways and Council owned reclaimed land which when combined with the Forestry Commissions ambitious plans shift the County carbon footprint into a negative position or share the measure across the whole of the North of Tyne combined authority area and when unified with North Tyneside and Newcastles recently enhanced planting program bring the whole North of Tyne very close to being carbon neutral by 2030 an initiative championed by Ashington Labour Councillor Lynne Grimshaw and one we hope the Mayor of the Combined Authority will support her green ideals.

Notes:

http://www.doddingtonnorthforest.com/home

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/News/2019/Oct/Hundreds-of-new-trees-to-be-planted-in-county.aspx

http://www.treesplease.co.uk/product/quercus-robur-english-oak/

https://3fatpigs.co.uk/fruit-trees-bushes/

Beechwood tree nursery where the most expensive tree is £72.