Jump in Jobless figures ruiness for Blyth.

Croft Ward Councillors Kath Nesbit &Margaret Richardson

The recent news regarding the unemployment rates for the North East of England with the area having the highest unemployment rate in the UK. When this information is dug into, the same old areas of disadvantage and deprivation have been hit hardest. Blyth in Northumberland is one of those areas with a major unemployment jump in October followed by many jobs lost particularly in the beauty and hospitality sector with the announcement of the second national lockdown, steering Blyth into a slump.

Currently the picture looks bleak for Blyth, as it has over the last few years developed itself as a destination for all things edible with a good number of restaurants serving world wide food and an excellent pub-grub reputation even before latest lockdown was announced this sector found that the fear of covid had reduced its turnover considerably with the trimming down of staff to suit the lower customer numbers taking place over an extended period. But the new lockdown has accelerated problems for local people who staff these premises and the Local Councillors for the Town are extremely concerned.

We spoke with Councillor Kath Nisbit of Croft Ward an area that is primarily made up of working family accommodation many of whom work in the industries affected by the current situation. She said “last year things appeared to be improving with the numbers of those in work rising across Croft Ward”. 

“But figures appear to me to mask the problems joblessness pours onto families, it still takes far too long to resolve the claim issues of Universal Credit and I can see in the faces of many whose sons and daughters have lost their jobs and with their grandchildren suddenly locked into poverty how they are also struggling as they try their best to help them through this dark period in their lives.”

“I’m very unhappy that the Council’s adopted policies under the current Conservative administration doesn’t appear to help those in need. The debt level that launches letters starting the legal process is set at only £15 and the Council has thousands of families with attachments for payments from Benefits as well as lowering the amount of help they give those in need by 8% two years ago. The Tories policies are not only ruiness for families in need, the legacy of the debt they are being forced into is unbelievably damaging to our local economy as the payments are still ongoing when they eventually find work and such things as long lying on periods before pay is received is dragging back the incentive of taking some jobs”.

“But my biggest concern regarding the recent leap in unemployment in Blyth is the Chancellor's announcement in his spending review in that the restart program cash will only be issued when a claimant has been unemployed for a full year. I believe this is writing off people from East Coast ex industrial towns like Blyth and it should be made available as soon as a person's job disappears.”

 

Ashington and Bedlington will be badly damaged through Tories putting back Rail line project for a decade

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”.

Tory Male Model kickstarts second decade of Austerity

Rishi Sunaks the Tory Party’s Mr Wonderful's drive to pay for the costs of the pandemic from your refuse collectors and care workers pockets isn’t seen by some media gurus as the wrong thing to do. However for those who are living in communities where the closure and offshoring of traditional industry began during the Thatcher regime turning society into a service industry jungle, those public sector jobs mean a lot.

Austerity over the last decade has reduced the public sector non-NHS workforce by over a third and among the two thirds who have survived, seasonal or part time working has become the norm, with the public very accepting that their streets aren’t clean, full of potholes and their parks are overgrown but the big losers in areas of endemic underpay are children.

Sunaks decision to slash public sector pay and his Governments ‘stagnation not growth’ policies have led to over 1/3rd of all children now living in poverty and that's before hard Brexit hits our shores.

In Northumberland Labour’s Councillors are fully engaged fighting against the Poverty on a daily basis,three of them have chatted with us. Eileen Cartie form Blyth who works in the third sector and has families attending the Centre she works in seeking advice regularly, Lynne Grimshaw from Bothal Ward who has been helping to ensure people in need aren’t bypassed by society and Liz Simpson whose Town of Newbiggin by the Sea has the highest rate of children living in poverty across the whole huge County of Northumberland. All three were keen to point out how this damage to society in general has grown out of all proportion since 2010.

Eileen Cartie said: “During the last decade we have seen the removal of ESA from young people, the Bedroom Tax, Government attacks on the disabled, the introduction of Universal Credit a damaging stretch in retirement age a shortage of much needed social housing whilst the prime growth areas over the last decade have been in food banks, charitable giving TV shows, child poverty, private landlords, slum living and a massive growth in loan sharking. In fact people now ask, what was the welfare state?”

Echoing Eileen, Lynne Grimshaw told us: “The Tory Governments handling of the pandemic has greatly increased pressure on public sector services, everything from Job Centres to Citizens Advice services, as banks are perched to foreclose on families who either the Government haven’t helped or are waiting their post furlough redundancy notice.” “Luckily most people are aware that these Tories if given half a chance would remove the word ‘Compassion’ from all dictionaries but as we move into the second decade of ruinous for society and business Austerity, there task will be made ever easier as Libraries are now facing a very difficult future indeed under the Conservatives and their never ending Austerity program” .

Cllr Liz Simpson said: “I believe the biggest crime facing the nation is the media spin and sentimental statements from this twisted Tory regime who do not care, weasel words such as ‘Hard Decisions’, ‘Get Brexit Done’ ‘Build Britain’ do nothing to put reasonable quality shoes on childrens feet, or bread on the table for those families striving when there's five weekends in a month. Developing poverty instead of top class highly paid jobs and cutting the pay packets of low paid public sector workers whose incomes support businesses in small East Coast towns like Newbiggin by the Sea is beyond me and certainly show a complete lack of Christian values from our democratically elected representatives in power”.

 

Tens of thousands made homeless despite eviction ban

 Tories in Northumberland have given up caring!

Despite Labour’s Cllr Allan Hepple seeking a full report on the plight of evicted homeless people from Northumberland; Nationally, Tens of thousands of people have been evicted throughout the coronavirus pandemic, despite a government ban on the practice.  Since April this year at least 90,063 people in the UK have been threatened with homelessness – and more than half of these have already lost their accommodation. 

Charities say data shows a new cohort of homeless people who were not protected by the ban on evictions and a government scheme to house the homeless during the coronavirus crisis, due to their precarious living arrangements. These include young people who have lost their jobs and are struggling to support themselves financially. 

Jonny Webb, a fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research who specialises on housing and homelessness, said official data showed there was a 69% fall in people being given section 21s this year compared with 2019 but people were still being evicted. The charity Crisis has called for local authorities to be given “clear instruction and sufficient funding to ensure everyone is in safe and self-contained accommodation.

In Northumberland it's believed that Cllr John Riddle has presided over a massive number of without proof evictions in with his Council and local housing associations turning away many of those claiming they have made themselves intentionally homeless via its homefinder service.

Farage and Davey Planning to Split the Tory Vote in the Forthcoming Local Government Elections.

It took the West Country and Scottish Border Tories 20years to wipe out the Lib Dems even without their ‘Glory Grab’ that led to the LibDem brand being poisoned by their Conservative partners in coalition office, but panic among the Tories from the former ‘Yellow Wall’ zones in England and the news that Nigel Farage is planning a new ‘Reform UK party to steal the ultra right and in the words of the mainstream press ‘Tory hard brexit voting nasty party Psychopaths' and Keir Starmer’s popularity rising faster and gelling well with the voting public in the former ‘Red Wall’ Constituencies illustrates that Britain is turning away from chronic neo liberalism towards a much more level playing field which can be understood and recognised as fair and honest.

The noise from Farage will see those who would lie on the rail tracks to halt immigration, even though DNA shows that very few are actually English and that the melting pot of constant immigration from Europe and beyond has been going on for over 2000 years plus doesn’t seem to bother them. They will rally to the flag and steal the show from under Boris Johnson’s feet just after the effects of his granite style Brexit begins to dawn on the English public.

The 2021 Local Government Elections, leaves the door open for traditional parties led by two knights of the realm, Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey, people who are showing strength and honesty to the voting public to regain the broader middle ground lost to the Tory spin machine which pours out short bile tainted statements. The reliance by the Tories on ‘Logo Politics’ which allowed the English public to be suppressed by Austerity measures for the last 10 years has spun its web in the wrong direction letting Labour and the LibDems popularity to grow massivley Growth that will continue through the forthcoming period which will see England sail in the calmer waters after the storms of populist extremism brought on by the bigotted have begun to fade.

Although Labour are easing away in the polls which contain the question ‘Who would you like to see as the next prime minister/ the Local barometer polls in the Red and Yellow wall areas tell a different tale with Labour pulling miles ahead in the North and Midlands and support for the LibDems growing rapidly in the West Country and the Scottish Borders. Both parties are showing strength in coastal communities who feel let down by the Tories where job losses through Covid 19 and hard Brexit will paralyse tourism and the fishing industry who rely on those tourists to eat their catches. Both Labour and the LibDems have investments in environmental improvements ingrained into their new policies which will lead those areas towards much stronger job prospects and the return to a more level playing field from their new party bases in Local Government from next May.

 

NIMBY’s can only blame Northumberland’s Allegedly Corrupt Tories for the new homes that will be developed all around them!

This week Susan Heywood BSc (Hons) MCD MRTPI one of the UK’s top planning experts who was appointed by the Secretary of State to examine the Northumberland County Council ‘Local Plan’ will deliberate on her findings.

Every Council must have a prime planning document in place to guide its growth over the medium term, often thirty years.

Northumberland County Council and its long term planning team had worked hard over the period from 2009-2017 to produce not only a local plan but to have it integrated into all of its policies, this is known in planning terms as a ‘Core Strategy’.

During the run up to the County Council elections in May 2017, Councillor Jackson an extremely wealthy landowner and farmer and his team ran out a campaign to frighten people entitled ‘Labour, Concreting over your County’. He was also openly critical of the Council working with his Government to develop a Garden Village at Dissington on land close to some he was actively involved with.

On gaining office in May 2017 Councillor Jackson informed the Council he was going to remove the County’s prime planning document, its ‘core strategy’ and replace it with a ‘Local Plan’ a document that reports in the press indicated Councillor Jackson the Tory Leader said would be produced in three months. That was in May 2017.

A freedom of information request regarding the advice taken by the Council and supplied to Councillor Jackson’s Cabinet including Councillor Riddle (another farmer and land owner) who is responsible for the planning function shows that the Government didn’t want that to happen and they had suggested a ‘Ministerial visit to talk it through’ particularly as the Government had already sent Lord Mathew Taylor up to ensure their vision of a top notch garden village was delivered in Northumberland  ‘DCLG have offered a Ministerial visit to speak to the new Administration about the potential scenarios relating to the Core Strategy but this would not be arranged until after the General Election on 8th June. It is considered important that this discussion takes place at the earliest opportunity to inform future decisions on the Core Strategy’.  Councillor Jackson, Councillor Riddle and their team did not take any notice of Government ministers, nor the Councils officers and ploughed ahead with the Core Strategies removal as farmers know best! Particularly when its your neighbours land the Government is wanting developed and not yours.

The final outcome of the change is a ‘Local Plan’ not in three months but a further three years without the policies and plans of the Council such as Health and well being, regeneration and job creation etc., only referenced and not included in this new plan.

Susan Heywood’s deliberations that are being heard this week, its out on a zoom link for the public to see. Professionals need to register to get on and its been pointed out to us at the Laymen that dozens of interested parties will be online to listen to her outturn and advice but with Farmer Councillor Jackson being sacked from Council by his cohorts and Farmer Councillor Riddle being publicly accused of dodgy land dealings in the countryside make himself richer, (he’s been allegedly reported to the Police) the outturn may surprise us all. But whatever it is the next Council will have to sort it out and decide how they are going to plan for the future when so many Tory Councillors accused of corruption have had their fingers in the ‘Local Plan’ pie?

 

 

NOTES:

five attachments FOI
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/core_strategy#outgoing-719616

 

Zoom link
www.youtube.com/user/NorthumberlandTV. 

 

Further information

 https://northumberland-consult.objective.co.uk/portal/planning/localplan/lp-exam  

 

Governments pre Tory Council involvement in planning for Northumberland GV scheme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOIDmpkkugA&t=51s

  

Labour Group letter to tory leader

 

Labour Group

	Northumberland County Council  County Hall Morpeth NE612EF

To Cllr Glen Sanderson, Leader Northumberland County Council

Copy to Daljit Lally, Cath McEvoy-Carr, Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson

Provision of free school meals and vouchers over the school holidays

We are writing on behalf of the Northumberland Labour Group and the families of Northumberland in need of support to ask the Council to provide free school meals or vouchers over the school holidays to children who qualify for them. This temporary response to the current Covid-19 crisis should be available up to and including the Easter holidays when it should be reviewed.

As you're aware there has been an 18 per cent increase in children receiving free schools meals between March and October with the actual numbers going from 7,473 in March to 8,818 in October.

These families have been plummeted into needing free school meals through no fault of their own. The 18 per cent rise means 1,345 new children are now requiring free school meal support since the pandemic began and it is expected that this number will continue to rise.

Many families across our county suddenly cannot afford to pay bills and sustain normal lifestyles and are genuinely concerned about the future and feeding their children. 

We should be showing them support during the school holiday and supporting these families over the coming months.

As you know, a number of councils, including our neighbouring councils of North Tyneside and Newcastle, have stepped in where the national government did not, to provide much needed support. We believe this is the right and decent thing for Northumberland County Council to do.

There has been overwhelming support offered from individuals and business in Northumberland who have stepped in, while this failing government shows how little it cares for struggling families.

As generous and selfless as this is, we believe we should not be putting extra pressure on individuals and businesses, many of whom are struggling themselves due to Covid-19 restrictions, to provide a vital lifeline when it is quite clear that government should respond.

We are aware that Northumberland County Council has its own financial pressures, however so do all the other councils who have stepped up to the mark and the government is telling us that they have provided funding to local government to deal with issues such as this.

We are also aware that this is not a long term, sustainable solution to child poverty in our county and we are happy to work with you to develop a much-needed strategy, however urgent action is needed on this issue now.

We look forward to your response

 Susan Dungworth 

Susan Dungworth, Leader Labour Group

 Scott Dickinson

Scott Dickinson, Deputy Leader, Labour Group