County Council Audit’s

Northumberland will not be able to hide behind professional ‘Audit Speak’ any longer

National Government’s new powerhouse secretary Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the man who is 
wielding the axe on public scrutiny over planning issues seems to have had a change of heart when it comes to catching out Local Government’s sometimes dodgy reporting mechanisms for their annual audit.

 

During 2020 the Government had Sir Tony Redmond carry out an independent review into the way Local Government bodies reported on their audits. His report found many Councils wanting when it came to the open scrutiny of their financial arrangements and the number of Councillors his team found who thought that the professional accountancy term ‘qualified’ meant that their Councils audit and its audit trails were fine was enormous. His findings have worried ministers and they have now decided to simplify the reporting mechanism leaving ‘No hiding place’ for Councils like Northumberland who are attempting to appoint their sixth head of financial services in the last four years and have had four sets of ‘qualified accounts’ from more than one external auditor.

 

In fact ‘qualified’ or a qualified opinion is a statement issued in an auditor's report that accompanies a council's audited financial statements. It is an auditor's opinion that suggests the financial information provided by a Council was limited in scope or there was a material issue with regard to the application of generally accepted accounting principles or in many cases a difference of opinion between the Council and its auditor. Qualified opinions may also be issued if a Council has inadequate disclosures in the footnotes or rounding up of Councils papers and the secrecy surrounding Northumberland County Councils scrutiny of its accounts and their public reporting is now famous in local government circles.

 

The Government has now announced new measures to improve the effectiveness and transparency of local government audits.

 

A new industry regulator is being put in place, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) will have new far reaching powers over the protection of public funds and the use and reporting on the use of those funds. They are empowered to ensure Councils are best serving taxpayers and a local audit unit will not only check the audit process but also the quality and past history of Councillors involved with the annual audit process.

 

A new standalone local audit unit will provide annual local reports on the state of the local audit and an updated Code of Local Audit Process will be issued to councils.

 

HCLG Spokesperson said there will be no hiding place for Councils who flaunt this process or use public funds to underwrite errors that may be fraudulent in their application or decisions that have been made unwisely or in secret.

 

 

Open air and traditional Covered Markets expected to see HUGE post pandemic growth.

 

The conditions are now right to see a huge growth in open air markets in the UK.

The Queen's speech included the planning changes from the Government which will change our high streets forever, as developers and builders will now be able to collaborate with commercial property owners and change empty shops and offices into high quality flats and private homes with the minimum of permission from your local authority.

Buying into town centre living has been already sold as a dream by estate agents who will now have a regular supply of property to fill the gap in their portfolios with an advertisable vision backed by Government. We expect to see the current Queen's Speech announcements changed rapidly as Robert Jenrick MP wants to see the large shop windows kept intact; but which Tory doning estate agent would see that as an advertisable feature?

Secondly the pandemic has released a fear of getting too close to people in shops and supermarkets and the daily ramming of dogma by Government into ensuring the separation of people from their fellow’s is well and truly driven home has created another condition to drive open air market growth. The amount of comments on social media about neighbours having been fitted with a reverse gear when getting near in a supermarket is testament to the change in society the Tories love, that of disconnecting communities through their well planned dose of fear fed to you via your tv each night and illustrates that open air markets are possibly the place many will feel secure with and in. 

The third condition is possibly the strongest driver towards the expected growth in open air market trading, that of thousands of talented people from the retail trade being cut off from furlough cash in the near future finding themselves having to live on benefits and handouts. Many will want to use their transferable skills to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads and market trading offers the opportunity to work for themselves rather than compete in a world of diminishing retail job opportunities.

Notes: across Northumberland many markets are run by the County Council here’s the links

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Business/Northumberland-Markets.aspx

https://www.nmtf.co.uk/market-near-me/amble-outdoor-market/

PLANNING Queen's Speech confirms planning changes, Confirming Tory ‘Concreting Over Your County’ Policies

More Traffic Light Garbage to be fed to the unsuspecting public.

No Council Housing in their plan.

The Queen's Speech has revealed plans for a reorganisation of Britain's planning system, with a new traffic light system to be introduced, under which

 areas will be divided up by local councils into zones designated for "growth", "protection", or "renewal".

The policy will reward Tory donors from the development industry by allowing them to develop in high rate of return areas on the edge of Cities rendering local development plans of Towns and Parishes worthless.

Countryside campaigners reacted to the plans by warning they would lead to the "suburbanisation" of the countryside and "rural sprawl" without delivering

much-needed affordable housing. While they leave the  sites of one million homes they have planning permission on over the last 11 years of Tory rule to become overgrown urban wastelands.

 

Meanwhile, the Local Government Information Unit said the changes would "leave local government with the political liability on planning whilst depriving them of the powers to manage it effectively".

Former Prime Minister Theresa May also warned in the Commons that the reforms would "reduce local democracy" by automatically giving the green light to homes in areas earmarked for growth and who chooses the areas for growth? do you need to ask?

 

‘Suffrage’ The right to vote.

 

In the home of Emily Davidson, why do voters not want to get rid of an ‘Anti-women’ regime?

As we move out of the current 14 months of unbelievable series of lockdowns with thousands of workers spending months on furlough and independent self employed people finding themselves having to sign on for the first time in their lives we have an impending very important Local Government election facing Northumberland this week.

Over the last 14 months we have seen the current Tory Council running County Hall in Morpeth accused of all sorts of abuse towards their women employees with a sensational email from the Chief Executive of the County Council Mrs Daljit Lally exposing the Tories to how life is for women who have smashed the glass ceiling under their extremely anti women regime and to how the Tories have mismanaged the Councils finances since May 20, acting more like tribal rulers than  democratically elected representatives of the people.

Their nastiness has not been limited to the circle of women who work for them it has been running for years with the famous attacks against Councillor Anne Dale in the west of Northumberland, Councillor Georgina Hill in the north of the county and recently exposed on gloating Tory social media, extreme bullying stabs at Councillors Grimshaw and the Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Susan Dungworth for asking valid questions regarding the Tories management  or should that read mismanagement of the Council's finances, with the Tories making secret decision which are  damaging to the authorities ability to help the most vulnerable in society over the next few years.

The move against this very horrible Tory regime has seen a small level of success during the last year with the removal from office of one of the chief protagonists Tory Leader Peter Jackson through a truce brokered by Councillor Dungworth between her Labour Group, Cramlington Tories and the independents outside of Bedlington including the two fighters Dale and Hill.

The Tories are making a move through this election to bring Councillor Jackson back to his seat to harry the Council Officers out of their jobs and kick start the tribal anti-women administration back into action. Where did we get this information from you may ask? from the social media pages of the wife of Tory MP Ian Levy thats where!

Nationally, women will suffer most from Tory ‘out of lockdown’ policy with women losing more jobs that their male counterparts as its retail that has taken the biggest hammering and large female workforces finding themselves being subjected to the Governments cut in benefit payments later this month. 

The Tories who think they have this election won hands down through the issue of endemic low voting levels in South-East Northumberland and across the rural coalfield could still get a fright if women whose turnout at the polling booths in Northumberland is historically very low indeed, get moving and embrace like Emily Davidson that the world requires to move closer towards equality for women. Why not go out on May 6th and vote against a regime that shows hatred for your sex everywhere outside the bedroom.

Road Safety at the Square and Haggerston Road

 

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!”

 

Damage the hopes and aspirations of over half of Blyth, Ashington, Morpeth and Newbiggin by the Sea

 

The news that the Conservative led Northumberland County Council have refused to invest capital finance in a new station, public transport hub and cark park at Bebside in the Town of Blyth before a single nail has been knocked in to repopen the AB&T Line from Newcastle to Ashington has shocked many.

With the Tory MP Ian Levy totaly reliant on the news surrounding the reopening of the line to passenger transport were not surprised that he hasn’t furnished the Chronicle with a published quote apologising for the action of his party for abandoning the largest Town in the county of Northumberland. It shows that he is sitting on the wrong side of the Conservative Party split dominated by a Morpeth centric group of Councillors.

The railway station at Bebside in Blyth is situated on the edge of the most deprived areas in Northumberland with endemic poverty running through families for generations, Its reopening has been integral to Labour’s reason for supporting the reopening of the rail line and furnishing the cash from 2013-2017 which paid for the very expensive but necessay GRIP studies which have led to where the reopening position sits today.

We caught up with two of the County Councillors from the area and asked them their thoughts on this matter, Councillor Susan Davey the County Councillor for Cowpen Ward said to us: “The whole ethos for the long term struggle to have this line reopened was to bring equality of opportunity to some of the wards in Blyth which are well entrenched in the top 10% of most deprived wards nationally”. “Cowpen, Kitty Brewster, the North side of Croft and most of the Isabella ward suffer from high rates of deprivation including some of the lowest rates of access to transport for private use in the UK”. “The reopening of the station and transport hub at Bebside would have allowed people to access higher paid jobs on Tyneside and beyond to improve the income of some of the poorest families in the UK”.

“The town of Blyth is geographically cut in two with no easy to use cross town highway or public transport routes to access a station at Newsham and for those who can drive there the pressure placed on the roads in Newsham will be immense and begin to equal the traffic and pollution problems suffered by residents of Cowpen Road.”

Kitty Brewster Councillor Grant Davey said to us: “This act of vandalism as that is what it is, against the population of the North and Central areas of Blyth is somethng we have come to expect from the Tories at County Hall”. “It was in the GRIP estmates that the opening of the new hub and station at Bebside would cost Circa £4.5M that included foot and cycle access over the A189 spine road. Something the Tories had already cut back on with a cheap bridge design that did not include disabled or cycle access.”

 “£4.5m, is only 12% of the capital expenditure frittered away on an academy high school in Hexham that now its built and paid for has nothing to do with the County Council or just over half of the cash set aside from Adult Care reserves to protect the Company ADVANCE Northumberland’s by those same Conservatives who wish to damage the life chances of Blyth residents”. 

“It was predicted that when the station at Bebside opened not only would house prices in the area rise rapidly, new development planned in  Bebside to take advantage of the station would have covered the investment costs of the hubs development via Councl Tax receipts but the short sightedness we see from Tories in Northumberland is undeiably and always will be part of the question of if Blyth is getting something how do the Tories sell that message across Castle Morpeth to protect the administration team from criticism? making it easier to strip out all spend in Blyth to stop the whisper’s from their heartlands” 

“This retraction of investment in the long term plan to raise the opportunity and income bar in the Town of Blyth is a real time digrace, affecting the future of not only the residents who live here but the shutdown of the opportunity to develop high value homes near the station will mean that Council Tax will have to rise year on year to compensate for Austerity 2 which will be announced by the Chancellor after May 6th elections to pay back the pandemic and Brexit costs as rapidly as possible.” 

We also caught up with Wansbeck Councillors Lynne Grimshaw and Liz Simpson, Councillor Simpson said: “This dreadful cut back by Tories at County Hall does not bode well for future extensions of the line to Woodhorn to aid the General Hospital and East Ashington or on to Newbiggin by the Sea.” “The promised run in to Morpeth from Bedlington Station must now be light years away if the Tories on the Council won’t invest such a small sum by County Council standards into its largest town.”

Councillor Grimshaw said:” I’m now very concerned that the project will not be economically viable when the largest predicted user group for the service have been cut off from having a station they can access easily.” “Ashington needs this rail link to keep its population in well paid employment but it also needs the people of Blyth, the Counties largest Town by far to use this service regularly and to cut off the largest population group with the greatest transport needs from access to jobs and a wider social and shopping experience will not benefit Ashington and will affect the the medium and long term viability of running a line into the jobs powerhouse areas of Newcastle and the Tyneside connurbation.”

 “Not only will I fight to get this line opened to Ashington, I will if re-elected put pressure on Labour’s leadership to invest and open the Bebside hub to gift longevity into this reopening passenger service.”

Newsham Tory already in the swing for stealing other people's successes.

 

His latest leaflet sees him claim that he is going to have land at Elliot Street cleansed and secured. Well he must have missed page 93 in the shared by coalition handbook as he should have checked things out before going into print.

Labour County Councillor Deidre Campbell has already had the Council's enforcement team let loose on this site which is known as rear Carr Street. The landowners have been through the full enforcement process and the executive officer of the Council in charge of Street
care has led some of the visits to the site.

 We caught up with Councillor Campbell who said “the effort I have put in to getting these issues surrounding this site resolved particularly with the Tories being in charge at County Hall and their insistence that they will not deliver anything in Blyth has been enormous.”

“But my persistence and harrying of those in charge led to enforcement action being taken and if the landowners don’t keep this site clean in future they will face further action.”

“But its galling that a man who people say lives in Newcastle can just float in and claim he is going to do something, typical Tory.” “Claim it all and do nothing for the people who live here”.