Higher Costs Drive Fear into Northumberland Residents

The political policies adopted by the Tories both locally and nationally are beginning to financially crush communities and individuals.

• Work undertaken recently by the Trade Unions, GMB and UNISON along with a research survey from SAGA and members views from Age UK show that residents fear the rises in everyday costs and despise the increase in bills brought on through politically motivated Conservative Councils increased costs to the public supposedly designed to offset austerity that are seriously damaging their ability to feel they can ‘pay their way’ in society.
  

Daily bills such as higher Council taxes, the increasing costs of care, public transport costs, phone contract increases, dental charges and now the ‘never ending need to self fund TV licences’ however old and frail or socially isolated you become are felt to be unaffordable by 2021.

Combining all of the reports together, almost three quarters of working age employees in the public sector and four fifths of OAP’s believe they will struggle to cope if the cost of living continues to rise at its current rate following eight years of public sector pay restraint and the triple lock although helping pensioners, is not keeping inflationary pressures at bay for the elderly.

The worry factor that is dividing Britain and creating a huge ‘underclass’ is fuelled by the rapid rise in costs of supermarket food shopping, higher utility bills and massively rising housing costs not helped by Councils who have driven up charges and slashed benefits on a myriad of items particularly over the last two years, and when coupled with the huge cost of hospital parking charges or the public transport costs of rationalised care changes through once locally organised care becoming ever more regionalised. The loss of local maternity units and the lack of Community Midwives being cited as a huge fincial burden on young families.

SAGA who in their report explained rising insurance costs were an additional fear factor with the over 50’s twice as concerned as younger people on that issue but they also explained that more than half of those surveyed believe their incomes will not keep pace with rising prices over the next three years with the same proportion being forced to change their shopping habits due to crippling price hikes.

Another one third of people believe they will have to change the way they shop and will struggle greatly if prices rise further.

Industries such as entertainment and catering are already feeling the heat with GMB stating their members find their social lives curtailed through the hike in household costs.

In Northumberland its Conservative Council forced up Council Tax, cut housing benefit, increased the cost of care, slashed grant aid to the voluntary and charitable sector, have missed out on starting decent homes two for its Council tenants.

Commentators have pointed towards the stoppage of huge domestic housing schemes including a Garden Village that would have brought in regular annual revenue, the spend of massive amounts of cash to protect its members and top officers from litigation and the weaknesses of the link with the NHS and its Clinical Commissioning Group which through poor management and lack of risk appraisal from the Tories forced through the necessity for a tax rise. The Council has no plans to offset the cuts and ensure further tax rises are not required and are losing legal claims on a regular and ongoing basis. This all adds up as a driver or catalyst for the exacerbation of many families’ financial problems in the County.

The dreadful uncertainty regarding price rises means even those who have the capability to plan and budget for their household costs are finding it harder and harder as the huge variation in particularly food prices mean that in seeking the offers available from various shops, that the savings are offset in travel costs to harvest those savings. Many now believe its an ever decreasing circle that only Councils and a Government who embrace price fixing can resolve. The various reports do show however that people living near thriving markets don’t feel as pressured as those who’s markets have failed.

But in a nation where the top seven per cent of earners have made an additional £60Bn pound in the last eight months ordinary people feel left out and alone also through the Tories introduction of Universal Credit, without a welfare state to pick up the pieces.
 

Its now Jamie’s Job To Locate

 Northumberland’s Largest Town

People have said why have a Mayor for the North of Tyne and what benefit will he bring to the County of Northumberland?

The answers are quite simple, the Government insisted that any devolution deal for the North of Tyne region must include a Mayor and in the case of this region the Mayor must seek consensus from the Constituent Councils in delivering its regional plans.

Labour’s Jamie Driscoll won the race to hold that post. The other role the new Mayor has in his remit is to engage the region on transport issue’s.

The BIG ISSUE for people from the Town of Blyth and its Town Council, which is by far and away Northumberland’s largest Town, is how will our new Transport champion help us become a destination, from a backwater?

Blyth has the population to carry a much better retail and business offer than it currently does, it also houses a thriving port, a wonderful theatre and a well historically publicised football team that brings away supporters to the Town no one can find.

So in order to assist the Mayor we have looked at how, without stepping outside of his zone of control he can begin to at least inform his region that Blyth, a town with better beaches than the Costas is worth visiting and that for businesses they can share in whatever new found wealth is created by telling people Blyth exists by opening up a branch of their business in the County’s largest Town.

Jamie will get some help by insisting that the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line remains with that name and drops the local Tories insistence on calling it the Newcastle-Northumberland Line. But in helping Jamie we need to give some pointers to where the road signs at least should begin to direct people to what can be his ‘First’ destination project.

Due to the growth and long term future of the River Blyth Energy Central project Jamie can begin his signposting at the Scottish Border, adding Blyth signs as people enter the County via the A1, the A69 destination Boards also need to include Blyth and at the northern exit at the Tyne Tunnel a sign for Blyth as a destination alongside Morpeth, Berwick and Edinburgh, with Blyth joining Ashington and Cramlington repeater signs along its route in Northumberland on the A19.

Jamie help a town that is suffering through the lack of destination signage and bring Blyth in line with the rest of the UK, where Counties Largest Towns are well signposted.
 

Northumberland County Council is to Two-Tier its Workforce

A recent report issued to the press from Northumberland County Council regarding staff sickness hasn’t only highlighted the increase in ill health being suffered by the workforce in this a Council where bullying is rife and has been reported in the mainstream press on a number of occasions, but has opened the door on the thinking of Northumberland Conservatives in developing a two tier workforce to lower costs and develop an extra fear factor that people are waiting in the wings to take your job.

When speaking to the Northumberland Gazette this week, Kelly Angus  the head of HR  “said staff absence can also have an impact on the use of agency workers and overtime, which is another area of focus for the council’s HR team, with the total overtime costs for 2018-19 exceeding £7.5million”.

“Work is taking place on creating an internal staff bank which will offer employees the opportunity to register for work at any department/area within the council (dependent upon their skills and experience) and ‘this will ensure we have a more flexible workforce and reduce existing costs”.

Following changes recently announced to the Local Government Pension Scheme, (LGPS) a staff bank in the local government sense is not the same as a staff bank in the NHS which have been a feature of the health service for almost 50yrs. In the National Health Service, bank staff are members of the NHS pension scheme and accrue benefits each time they work in the flexible environment.

In Local Government the employers body has agreed that new employees and temporary employees can be excluded from the pension scheme. Hence over a period of time any staff bank in local government that is also used as a ‘detrimental to full time staff recruitment tool’ will severely alter the retirement income of Counties like Northumberland where employers pensions form the basis of the additional costs it takes to dwell in the Countryside where everything costs a whole lot more.

The Trade Unions who have experience of two tier workforce problems are challenging the changes but will be unable to halt the fear factor and bullying element of working for Northumberland County Council.

 

‘Market Forces’ will destroy new retail development in Bedlington Town Centre

Since the exposure of the web of deceit surrounding ARCH from Northumberland Tories and the setting aside of £1M in Northumberland County Councils budget to pay future compensation and protect the Tories pinnacle group from litigation, leaves an associated sub-group of Councillors and Council Officers, unprotected and in danger of replacement at the next election either by the electorate or any future administration.

The Tories spin doctors and advisers have decided that they must now try to legitimise the ARCH replacement, Advance Northumberland by bringing in new Directors from the Bedlington Independent group and the Labour Party to share any future blame.

The Tories are aware that their undivided need to support efforts to reopen the AB&T rail line and its subsequent additional phases linking Morpeth Station into this new route along with the creation of a bought in development by Advance Northumberland in Bedlington is a vote winner. That vote winner,  as people see progression towards physical change along the lines route in timely fashion for the 2021 election could quickly come crashing down around the ears of those who are involved with the decisions Advance Northumberland need to make over the next few months. The Tories of course will use the skill they gained in destroying the credibility of the LibDems nationally in the spin they put out when the ball rolls out of their court to lay the blame at Labour and the Bedlington Independents doors.

Labour who also support their Mayor and the reopening of the AB&T Line had decided to future-proof their planned redevelopment of West Bedlington’s shopping experience, not by buying in retailers for the short term as the Tories now have to do, but by re-invigorating the very shopping experience that has been paramount in closing trade in Bedlington through competition for years. Labour decided to expand the number of outlets at the Council owned Manor Walks shopping centre in Cramlington and raise its footfall from 11,000,000 through the doors to 13,000,000 but to get your foot in the door of this amazing cash cow as a retailer seeking this brilliant opportunity, you had to commit to taking a shop on a very very long lease in the new ARCH development at Pipers Place, Bedlington.

Why you may ask?, well the rail line when coupled with the massive build scheme and future employment hub in and around the Port of Blyth at the ARCH now Advance project Energy Central, will allow the commercial market to expand beyond belief the retail experience in Bedlington East surrounding what will be a very busy station on the AB&T line indeed, weakening the position of retailers at Bedlington West a town centre that has had its commercial troubled for 40yrs plus and without retailers locked in will quickly face further downturn.

The Tories in Northumberland still reeling from the fact that their deceit has been exposed both in Court and by Northumbria Police are content to now spend immense amounts of public money to buy in retailers at huge expense to fill their flagship development and of Course blame Labour and the Bedlington Independents when ‘market forces’ expand the competition elsewhere.


 

What are Peter Jackson’s ‘New Generation’ Council Houses?

In January we heard the boasts of Peter Jackson informing the public that he and his cohorts are planning a ‘New Generation’ of Council Housing for Northumberland and he would be promoting his ‘new plan in March 2019.

The Governments planning policy framework, classifies new  ‘Council owned housing and social housing’  under its descriptive banner of ‘Affordable Homes’ as set out in legislation as follows : Affordable housing

Housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and/or is for essential local workers); and which complies with one or more of the following definitions:

(a) Affordable housing for rent: meets all of the following conditions: (a) the rent is set in accordance with the Government’s rent policy for Social Rent or Affordable Rent, or is at least 20% below local market rents (including service charges where applicable); (b) the landlord is a registered provider, except where it is included as part of a Build to Rent scheme (in which case the landlord need not be a registered provider); and (c) it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision. For Build to Rent schemes affordable housing for rent is expected to be the normal form of affordable housing provision (and, in this context, is known as Affordable Private Rent).

As usual with Northumberland Conservatives they must have almost forgotten their promise to deliver a plan. During March 2019 sometime in a break in the lambing and ploughing activities they love so much they managed a quick think and brought forward an embryonic statement to be released in May 2019 that they would develop 1000 Council Houses over the next three years.

Remembering that this comment piece is being written in June 2019 and the elections for a new, closer to the people Council takes place during May 2021 when decision making changes and a new budget will be formed in that year, their commitment, only has 35 months to run, no planning permissions have yet been approved and they have shrunk the company Advance (formerly ARCH) so much that help, like the cavalry isn’t rushing over the hill to save them, the Council whoever is running it from needs to note in their manifesto’s that from this date in time the Council needs to build 28 Council homes per month to achieve its target. Even the UK’s big builders struggle with figures like that, and the utility companies will be pulling their hair out if sites and plans aren’t shovel ready before an announcement for such a big ambitious build scheme is let out to the public, yet Northumberland Conservatives have let it slip.

So the question Councillor Peter Jackson needs to answer is, ‘What is a new generation Council House’? and will they be ‘truly affordable’ for tenants?. Will they be attractive to live in? and will they be a good use of public money?

Its time that Cllr. Ms Georgina Hill brings her investigation into this promise to the Councils Audit Committee, it sounds a bit criminal to us!

Notes

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/strategy-promised-for-new-generation-of-council-housing-in-northumberland-1-9531257

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/annex-2-glossary

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/goal-of-1-000-new-council-homes-in-northumberland-over-three-years-1-9756812

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.