Now its Labour’s Turn to Investigate ARCH.

A leak from the local Labour Party has revealed that they are now beginning an investigation into the costs and findings of Northumberland Conservatives and both its internal and external auditors regarding the former Council owned Company ARCH, following the revelation that Northumbria Police found no evidence at all of criminality at or in the Councils former company ARCH.

The Tory led Council have also capitulated at an industrial tribunal when the true facts regarding ARCH were beginning to come out suddenly paying a former employee a six figure sum for wrongful dismissal which brought the questioning to an end.

Its believed there were some squirmy bottoms in the Conservative ranks when questions were asked at the Industrial Tribunal about the report into ARCH and the release of information to the media being prepared by the same person, rumoured to be the Chairperson of ARCH and the fact that the Leader of Council was unable to answer questions from the claimants legal team stating that they must speak with his solicitor and not him!

Labour’s investigation is to be run by their old sage Councillor Ian Swithenbank CBE. A man well versed in this type of activity being embroiled into investigations of rogue Labour Party members on many occasions.

Kickstarting his investigation at the Councils audit committee on 22^nd May Councillor Swithenbank demanded to see the signed contracts of the Council and ARCH for the employment of the late Graham Harper a person denigrated along with the former Leadership of Northumberland Labour Group by the Chair of Audit Councillor Hill.

She may wish she hadn’t taken on this task of destroying the reputations of fellow Councillors and officers from both ARCH and the Council as her masters in the Conservative Group have no further need for her services now the last Labour leadership has been dissolved and replaced without a stain on their characters following an investigation by Northumbria Police, particularly when she has to reveal the delay letters from the Police which revealed there was no criminality found in ARCH seven months before she took that information to her committee. Its predicted the letters now being sought by all and sundry from the media may not exist in the form she is wholly reliant upon to save her own reputation?

Halt the March of the Developers? Never.

When we read about Peter Jackson launching his manifesto, in early 2017 which featured promises to halt the march of the developers and to transfer power to decide important issues, like planning, to five local area councils. He made statements that have drifted far from his original versions and meaning into what has become a disaster for both the people of Northumberland and the developers he tried to deny a living too.

Over the preceding two years since taking office on a series of falsehoods, his new local area councils have denigrated into miserable affairs that are powerless, have no budgets and are given planning applications to nod through in line with officer recommendations usually unsatisfactorily for the applicant.

I think we all noticed how swiftly after the election he pushed through 500 new houses in Bedlington, not via the Local Area Council system, but via the Strategic Planning Committee, the self same committee he not only routinely denounced but actually removed his members from exploring a new plan to help develop a better County as his mind was and is set to stop any development in villages and Country areas?, ‘sometimes that is the case’!. The serious number of planning appeals lost by the County Council and the serious haemorrhage of public funds to pay developers legal costs shows how hapless his plan was and is.

The only thing more shocking than this U turn was the willingness of Bedlington Independents to stand aside and let It happen after they ran on a ‘NO NEW HOUSES IN BEDLINGTON’ ticket, of course that was prior to then getting a really attractive ‘hole similar to their compatriots and former neighbours in Wansbeck District in Ashington. Poor sods, fancy taking any notice of Peter Jackson.