Will Councils be able to adjust to a new shopping order?

Councils at all levels have been struggling with the survival of their high streets for the last three decades.

Various Government initiatives, Regional Development Agencies and more recently Local Enterprise Partnerships have been regularly engaged in this battle to ensure the bottom is missed during their reign.

With our high streets almost closed down and hundreds of people who have sunk their savings into creating a small niche market for themselves have been out on social media feeling they will never get back to recouping the losses they have suffered due to the world-wide pandemic that is Covid 19.

There is some light on the horizon for these traders, the fantastically clever Dr. Chris Smith, senior virologist at Cambridge University explained to the nation that it’s very difficult to catch Covid 19 outdoors!

So the question Councils must find the answer too is, what if we turn our local shopping outlets onto the street until public safety can be ensured through the production of a vaccine?

To those reading this, it sounds really easy, as most of us have experienced card payments via mobile phone when purchasing clothes or shoes at our local markets,and have had to queue civilly on the same markets when buying fruit and veg or meat, sweets or dried goods, almost but unknowingly practising social distancing. But Councils move in mysterious ways and thinking progressively or outside the box isn’t high on their list of priorities.

Thinking outside the box’, whats that got to do with shopping in the open air? we laymen hear you ask. In the world of beadledom selling your wares in front of your property is the sharp intake of breath you expect from second hand car salesmen, for Councils its ‘Street Trading’, a function that needs licensing and inspecting and can build up the number of staff in your department if your paid on a responsibility allowance basis.

Trading on the empty squares that were once full of people in our town centres is ‘Market Trading’ a function that has been much maligned through bureaucracy and even more Red Tape than a Holy Roman Emperor can shake a wobbly stick at. Councils talk of charters and distancing and how you can’t trade within xxx miles of a charter market and in many cases they have been like that since the Magna Carta was signed.

The Councils at every level who get this right will win the race to save their high streets, those who don’t need to bulldoze the empty shops and bus people out to the successful areas.

Unless Councils begin a massive shift immediately, work rapidly and together to deliver safe outdoor experiences for the time being without looking back in anger coveting their old ways we never know, we may all experience a feeling shift and gain an impression that value for money is being delivered for our Council Tax and Business Rate payments.

Come on Councils, forget regeneration and think your way towards getting this nation safely through 2020-2021 financial year and beyond without doing more damage to our centres of commerce than the pandemic.




 

What is the Truth behind the Closure of Local Waste and Recycling Centres?

On 24^th March, Northumberland County Council issued the following information:


 Please note, all Household Waste Recovery Centres are closed until further notice due to Government guidelines regarding coronavirus (COVID-19).

Household Waste Recovery Centres - Service Update

This information was last updated 24 March 2020.

In light of government advice to stay at home and avoid all but essential travel, our provider Suez has advised that all Household Waste Recovery Centres (HWRCs) will close until further notice, from 24th March 2020. We ask all our residents to store their unwanted items until we are able to open the sites again. Thank you.
This was then followed by a message issued on social media stating that Suez the company that runs Waste Recovery sites in Northumberland had decided to close its sites to protect their workforce.

The County Council followed up with this message on their web site:
Northumberland
The council said: “We are continuing to provide waste collection services to Northumberland residents, including kerbside collections, bulky waste collections. We will respond to advice from the government and Public Health England, and will keep residents informed of changes to our waste services.”
The Government issued the following

The government is encouraging councils to keep their HWRCs open to ensure that bulky waste can continue to be disposed of – but only if social distancing guidelines can be adhered to, which many authorities are struggling to guarantee. Fifteen days prior to the decision being taken to close the Centres across the County, 9^th April 2020 a document was issued into the public domain by Suez UK in it they explain how Social Distancing can be organised at Waste and Recycling Centres operated by them


file:///C:/Users/commu/Downloads/COVID19andHWRCOperations202048-3S.pdf
A poll conducted by Suez, which operates several of the North East’s tips on behalf of local authorities, found that not one of the 128 councils surveyed considers a trip to the tip to be an essential journey.
On 23^rd April Chronicle Live reported : Tips across the North East are set to stay shut during the coronavirus lockdown, despite beginning to re-open elsewhere in the UK. North East councils have confirmed that they have not changed their stance
Northumberland County Council said its closures and the suspension of its bulky waste removal service was “being kept under constant review, with the council looking at all options for helping residents”.
Social media is filling up with demands for skips to be placed at strategic places and in response it was reported by West based Councillors from the Administration that they have been instructed to discourage DIY, which is recognised as therapeutic in helping people overcome mental anguish.
With Northumberland County Council and the NHS being inseparable across the County, even sharing top officers across both structures surely discouraging DIY and not following Government guidelines nor their own contractors method statement for Social Distancing does seem like a lack of decent leadership, strategic thinking and truthfulness is rampant in Northumberland.

Planning Appeal over Blyth Homes of Multiple Occupancy plans are dismissed

Applicants appeal over refused plans for more bedsits in Blyth town centre, which proved very unpopular with residents and locals alike, has been dismissed by the planning inspectorate

Leader of Northumberland Labour Group, Councillor Susan Dungworth of Hartley Ward salutes the planning inspector Alison Scott for her strength of application in dismissing this planning appeal.

The planning application was seeking permission to convert a vacant building on Waterloo Road, in the centre of Blyth opposite the Market Place, into an Home of Multiple Occupancy  with 17 en-suite rooms for tenants, while the front section of the ground floor would be kept as a retail unit.

The plan from the Holy Eagle organisation had caused a lot of public unrest, with a huge number of residents concerned that the tenants could be homeless people and ex-offenders, resulting in increased drugs, crime and anti-social behaviour in the town centre and pour cold water over the Towns bid to bring grant funding in to help revive Blyth’s High Street and surrounds.

The proposals were recommended for approval by planning officers, however, the Ashington and Blyth Local Area Council which is made up of mainly Local Labour Councillors concluded at its meeting last September that this was not the right location for such a development.

The applicant appealed this decision.

In papers issued to Northumberland County Council planning department last week planning inspector Alison Scott agreed that ‘the proposal would undermine the vitality and viability of Blyth town centre.

she wrote: ‘Creating well-designed, safe and inclusive places is a multi-dimensional part of successful planning.

‘Crime and disorder and any actual or perceived fear of crime is a material planning consideration. It is not acceptable to merely suggest that anti-social behavioural incidents that may occur at the proposed site could be addressed through other means.

Labour’s Susan Dungworth said: “that while understanding that people need homes, ‘Blyth has more than enough of these types of dwellings’ and that the location was not suitable for this type of housing.

“We spoke to many local people and found there was very little, if any, support for the project,” she added.

“We want to pay tribute to the people who campaigned and we are pleased and relieved, as we are sure they are, that the right decision for Blyth has been made.”

Labour Councillor Brian Gallacher from Ashington said” I know fully,  the hard work that’s been put in by Blyth Labour Councillors to try to improve the future prospects for their town. This application was the wrong one in the wrong town in Northumberland and I’m ever so pleased that the Planning Inspector was of a similar mindset and I’m proud that my colleagues felt they could support the public in the way they did”.

AB&T Line reopening in doubt following Government redefining the ‘North’?

Today's news that following the re-nationalisation of Northern Rail, Local Authorities in the North of the region have been removed from the body which will look at future investments in rail by the Government, Its expected this major change will damage the future of the reopening of the AB&T Line to passenger transport.

 Doubts on the Tories commitment to the re opening of the line following a run down of their blanket news stories issued to bolster PR opportunities for their new MP for Blyth Valley, have been brought to the fore following a visit from the Government's transport minister Grant Schapps, who didn’t pledge anywhere near the £90M required to get this mineral line up and running for passenger transport.

 The chosen by Government service provider for the AB&T Line was to be Arriva, who have just been kicked out of the Northern Rail Franchise by Nick Hurd,  the man who replaced Schapps in Johnson's new cabinet, leaving this headline project up in the air.

 Mainstream media have expressed the opinions on investment cuts by Nick Forbes of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead’s Martin Gannon who represented the North of the region on Transport for the North while Councillor Peter Jackson has remained silent on the AB&T Lines future as the Tory Tees Valley Mayor is promoted by Nick Hurd to represent the north-east.

Climate Emergency? Not in Newbiggin or Ashington!

 Wednesday televised Council meeting from the money maelstrom of County Hall in Morpeth was enormously entertaining until the Independent Councillor for Berwick East and Chairperson of the Audit Committee showed the world that she couldn’t follow a simple instruction from the Chair of the meeting, the Councils Solicitor and its Chief Executive.


Prior to that disgrace we Laymen laughed at Councillor Anne Dale’s very measured put down of Councillor Sandersons puffed chest statements about the Councils Handling of its declared Climate Emergency and his program of  planting trees valued at £419 each. She reported that her family were buying 4 foot saplings complete with a stake for 80p each.

He was then lambasted by Councillors Grimshaw and Simpson who pointed out that their areas, Ashington and Newbiggin by the Sea have been ignored in his program.

We contacted Councillor Simpson after the meeting and she told us “I’m concerned that Newbiggin will be one of the first places damaged by any rise in sea levels yet the Council have cut us out of their Climate Emergency plans, it just shows that its politics first and people second in the eyes of Northumberland Conservatives.”
 

Were led to believe Rick O’Farrell is the Interim Director of Place at Northumberland County Council.

Mr Smith who wrote to Price Waterhouse Coopers said:

“I will be objecting to these payments at the audit but you may wish to take immediate action to prevent any further waste of council taxpayers money.”


What will the audit committee spin doctor in Northumberland make of this?


 

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Tagged: Rick O’Farrell

MAY 27, 2014

South Tyneside: Mr Monkey hunt: New plea to stop spending taxpayers’ cash

Town Hall bosses today faced a renewed call to stop using taxpayers’ money in their pursuit of the notorious ‘Mr Monkey’ internet blogger.
 The website first appeared in 2008, making malicious claims about certain political figures in the borough.
South Tyneside Council backed a bid to discover the identity of those behind the Mr Monkey blogs on behalf of four plaintiffs who came under attack – South Tyneside Council leader Iain Malcolm, Coun Anne Walsh, the late councillor David Potts and council regeneration boss Rick O’Farrell.
It instructed Washington DC lawyers McDermott, Will & Emery to find who was responsible for the website, with the firm producing a dossier which said Mr Monkey was most likely a two-person operation and that a libel action would be “highly successful” if pursued through UK or US courts.
But to this date – and at a cost of about £150,000 – Mr Monkey has yet to be unmasked, some six years after the site first appeared.
That has infuriated George Smith CBE, president of South Shields Conservative Association, who has called for immediate action to prevent “further misuse of council taxpayer’s money.”
Mr Smith  believes the four the plaintiffs in the case – not the public – should have funded the legal action.
Town Hall officials say the legal action was taken because the council has a “duty of care” to protect employees.
But Mr Smith has written to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is to conduct South Tyneside Council’s annual audit, demanding it steps in.
He says: “Although any authority may indemnify individuals in ‘defending himself against legal proceedings brought by a third party’ they are ‘prohibited from indemnifying members or officers for the cost of taking legal action for slander or libel.’
“I will be objecting to these payments at the audit but you may wish to take immediate action to prevent any further waste of council taxpayers money.”
A spokesman for South Tyneside Council said: “This legal action was taken because the council has a duty of care to protect its employees from the kind of intimidation and harassment caused by the wilfully false and defamatory statements published on the blog.
“South Tyneside Council is satisfied that Section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 gives the power to take the action that has been taken.”
June Elsom, who stood as an independent for Cleadon Park in last week’s Local Elections, asked Northumbria Police to investigate the matter, but a force spokesman said there was no cause for a criminal investigation.
The spokesman said: “We have received correspondence raising concerns around legal costs incurred by South Tyneside Council in relation to the ‘Mr Monkey’ blog.
“Advice has been given that as it stands, this is not a matter involving criminality and there is therefore nothing to indicate a criminal investigation should be launched at this stage.
“Should another body looking into the matter decide a referral to the police is appropriate then an investigation would be carried out.”
As part of the council’s courtroom pursuit of ‘Mr Monkey’ a former South Tyneside councillor was hit with a whopping £40,000 legal bill last year.
Mr Khan had launched an American courtroom bid to halt the search for the controversial blogger, which he said was a waste of public money.
But San Mateo County Court dismissed his anti-SLAPP motion (Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation), describing it as “frivolous”.
The council is chasing Mr Khan – who has always denied being behind the ‘Mr Monkey’ blog – for the extra legal costs it incurred as a result of his unsuccessful challenge.
A council spokesman said the authority was continuing to pursue that demand – although it is not known how much, if any, of the amount owed had so far been paid.
> As far as I was aware, Mr Monkey stopped publishing in 2009. Still online, though, at:  http://mrmonkeysblog.wordpress.com
Source – Shields Gazette,  27 May 2014
 

‘Nasty Party Gagging of Councillor Steven Bridgett of Rothbury shows how the Tories expect to Control the Northumberland media in future’

In a recent article we the laymen exposed Northumberland Conservatives designed control of the press through the transfer of responsibility from democratically elected Councillors who represent the people to a series of private companies that will not be covered by laws allowing media reporters into meetings dealing with Council Business.

Today they are going one step further by denying a member of the opposition access to be able to speak with, and report locally on the good works the employees of Northumberland County Council do each and every day.

Councillor Steven Bridgett from Rothbury an independent member of Council has regularly reported on the weather in the Coquet Valley, and which access routes have been gritted and are safe for people to use.

Many people are eternally grateful for his input as it can save locals hours of frustration and for people traveling alone through one of the UK’s most remote areas the ability to reach home or work safely and soundly is paramount. We the Laymen know that this is a service second to none provided by a thoroughly well meaning Local Councillor.

Don’t let these nasty ungrateful Tories who want to stop all news of their misdemeanours and poor management being released to the people across the County drag you down and I hope social media support for your efforts shows just how bad they are.