Bedlington to get a ‘shed’ to keep people happy

Its the summer holiday period and although many don’t wish to chance a holiday abroad staycations and visits to places for a day out are taking off nicely and from home bases in Northumberland, North Yorkshire is and can be a nice place for one of those visits and where nicer that the warm welcome you will receive in the town of Richmond.

After a lovely day out and an explore of this very quaint old town with a great shopping and eating day time environment, nice gardens and a very historic castle to visit, on your way home take a quick look at Lidl in Richmond.

This lay article isn’t an advert for Lidl, its to ask you to envisage the type of architecture and quality of building Labour had planned for the site named by local school children as ‘Pipers place’ thats come to be known through the financial and administrative mess that the Tories and their Bedlington Tory-dependents have created as the ‘Bedlington Hole’.

Lidl in Richmond is of the same quality as was planned for Pipers Place a vision that certainly won’t ever come to fruition under the financially inept handling of cash and expenditure by the Administration in charge at County Hall in Morpeth, who have been exposed for their ineptitude, bullying management and impending commercialisation of your services even after Councillor Nick Oliver has borrowed £880Million and delivered nothing but spin about what they plan to do in South East Northumberland.

The noise leaking from County Hall is that infighting over the ‘hoyoot’ with Tory Councillor’s scrabbling in the dirt for the scraps of cash that haven’t already been wasted will lead to a tin shed to house an Aldi store in Bedlington its all that Councillor Glenn Sanderson who’s portfolio includes regeneration wants delivered to supposedly appease local people and help them forget both the mess their Council and its company Advance Northumberland are in and how from fully priced up and affordable incredibly lovely architecture that was planned and promised, Bedlington folk will have to be satisfied with the allotment style scraps the Castle Morpeth gadgies are going to deliver in a mad rush before May 2021.

Northumbria PCC Kim McGuinness is right on Youth Unemployment

But the Conservatives are split over Johnson and Cummings Tory alternative.

This week saw Northumbria Police Commissioner correctly express her fears that the Government and employers are and will ignore the plight of young people leaving them hung out to dry on the unemployment register post Covid and Brexit by a Government who don’t care. As one of the Northumberland Laymen I can only agree wholeheartedly with her statements.


Keir Starmer continued on with this debate whilst on a visit to Falmouth to talk with people about the plight of Coastal and Tourist Towns


As a region we have seen our youth left on the shelf for far too long with employers banking training cash and bringing in trained people from overseas to fill vacancies instead of ‘Growing our own’ like most of our European neighbours.


Brexit and the pandemic should have case-hardened the Government into asking the question of why we voted to break up with our Euro neighbours and one of the matters at the top of the list was definitely xenophobia.


Boris Johnson whose prime interest is the City and not the nation and its people has shown his hand on employment and is hell bent on offering further UK jobs to people from abroad with his version of ‘Get BREXIT Done’ being interpreted by big business and the Parliamentary Tories as lets bring in trained people from abroad to save £millions and offer jobs valued at £25,000 and above to a world-wide workplace pool of 590 Million applicants. Its expected that seven million trained people will be offered jobs leaving the youth currently needing the opportunity to train and enter the higher paid jobs market slipping into the low paid sector forever more.


This latest money grabbing exercise by big business and the Tories is seen as treason by the Conservatives who support them and the populous who turned to them deliver a ‘Better Britain’ following BREXIT, including those who’s whose support was based on lets take back our borders.


The right wing supporters e-magazine Conservative Woman has explained the reasons for the widening of the split between the Political Tories and the voting Conservatives in a massively hard hitting set of data which exposes why the bottom has fallen out of Boris Johnson premiership. The lies about his deal and the future of our region is now in the hands of a man who has turned his back on our society.


https://conservativewoman.co.uk/breaking-news-an-open-door-to-600-million-madness/










 

Local Labour Pledge to Correctly Develop ‘Pipers Place’

The greed of wanting everything whilst producing nothing and damaging relationships, bullying and misleading the public then using stepping stones to achieve ultimate power is no better illustrated than the destruction of the Lib Dem party by team Cameron.


As Laymen we have been watching the localised use of so called ‘Independents’ as the Tories designed stepping stone to lock the Town of Bedlington into their grasp and keep the Labour Party from gaining a working political majority in Northumberland County Council, a Council that has been ruined over the last three and a quarter years by the ‘talk all and do nowt’ Conservatives.


Its said in Politics that people have short memories, well as a Layperson I remember the current leadership of the County Council being in charge of Castle Morpeth District Council a Council historically famous for failure and I’m sure many of our readers will recall that time period and how Castle Morpeth folk suffered. If it hadn’t been that the County Council was held by Labour the area would have slipped into the maelstrom.


The Independents voted in by the people of Bedlington are really Tory-dependents attempting and failing to pick up the crumbs from the table of their overlords.


They haven’t delivered on Pipers Place or stopped additional house building in Bedlington nor on any of the pledges promised at their election and their time is running out. Minutes of Council show that they voted to support the Tories Local Plan which dumps thousands of homes on South East Northumberland over the next decade, many of them in Bedlington.


Another method the Tories use to change opinion is through local social media and their use of the Bedlington Matters site to excellent effect has locked in the anti-ultra left message into the minds of the Bedlington populous and their Cummings style propaganda marooned Labour in its wake, a wake that has held over the last three years. But Labour has now moved on.


The announcement in the last PM question time before the summer break from Keir Starmer that “Labour is under new management” has rippled cross the Nation with the new ‘Starmer Style’ Party picking up speed rapidly in readiness for next years Local Government Elections and with the recently reborn Militant Tendency once again slipping out of sight the social media messages of the ‘Matters’ groups are being challenged by ordinary voters who can see the light.


We understand Local Labour who are changing with the wishes of their Party still have the plans designed involving Bedlington’s public and schools for the Pipers Place site, they still have the commercial contacts to deliver what was wanted on the site and true to form the Conservatives who have begun to spin in reverse through panic have shown them where the cash is coming from for its development as the Conservatives have now pointed towards County Hall in Morpeth being too large and obsolete in preparation for the sale they were so against in 2017.
 

Society needs to take a new view on Poverty before tackling Obesity and falsely ‘Saving the NHS’ Again!

Boris Johnson, has now begun a national attack on obesity in a new spin war to ‘Save the NHS’.


We now all know how insincere he, his advisors and the central core of Government have been via the handling of Covid 19 on the subject of saving the NHS.


As a leader of this nation, crumbling before our very eyes it has been reported that he missed attending the high level Cabinet Office Briefing Meetings COBRA when this new virus was being discussed as early as December 2019.


Those who follow social media debate were aware of a nasty version of the flu which was pretty rampant in the East Midlands as early as November 2019.


Commentators on the subject of the Governments handling of this matter believe super-carriers working in the Equestrian and Racing industries spread the virus rapidly around the nation and the top level decision to allow the Cheltenham Festival to take place allowed the flow of the disease to transmit rapidly across Britain and Ireland.


In order to cover his personal inefficiencies and faults his spin team have begun to blame overweight people for the spread of the disease and he has decided to wade in and blame fast food advertising and fat people for the state the nation is in today.


Obesity particularly among children is not the fault of the fault of the fast food industry, its not the fault of fizzy drinks manufactures or those who make biscuits etc., its the fault of the Americanisation and glitzyness of success that has been allowed to ferment underneath society for decades and through successive Governments.


The development of TV media from the early 70’s and the shift from industrial Britain into a money go round service society coincided with the media regularly running stories about the need to ensure your children's safety. Programmes dedicated to the horrors of what can happen if your seen as a BAD parent and let your kids out to play with other poorer kids in the street or at the local park without stringent supervision lowered the activity levels young bodies require to stave off obesity in their young adult life.


That vision was reinforced through the Thatcher ‘Loads a Money’ era when to get what your family needed according to the media and big business both parents had to work, and being on benefits was an indicator that you and yours were from a different society.


Those ideas 50 yrs on, are now deep rooted messages which led to the Tories being able to control society and create the vision of those on benefits were a group who caused the nation to fail in its recovery from the crash caused by the UK banking and tax fiddling crisis. The Governments ramping up of that message allowed Ian Duncan Smith to slash the incomes of those who could not find employment or through illness, or the hand they were dealt with at birth were unable to work.


When linked with premier Johnsons new vision of control over the populous as has been seen through the wearing of face masks by the whole of society if you want to shop for food, is designed to take our mind off the truths behind the matters. He has now decided to paint a picture that society is failing because people are overweight.

Taking our eyes off the ball at this moment in time as the number of people claiming benefits is ramping to an all time high is something we shouldn’t do as his latest attempt at control is actually the removal of personal choice from society much more rapidly than the created fear of spending on our high streets has done and this act of spin is contrary to the honest underlying beliefs of most people. As society we must not decry those who have been put out of work through what is becoming a depression and we must resist now labeling them with the Thatcher version of poverty. They are members of your family or friends and neighbours who are suffering and have been let down by a Government who do not care! They are not letting the nation down, in the same way overweight people are not letting the nation down either.

As a nation we need to look at poverty and the poor in a completely different light and not allow communities or the places we live in be blamed for the current situation and certainly not allow fat to blamed for anything but bad Government messaging when developing a consumer driven society over he last 50yrs.
 

Cummings and Jenrick’s planning law reforms will kill off the feudal rights of Parishes and the Darras Hall Committee

Councillor Allan Hepple a retired local government housing expert was interviewed by the Newcastle Chronicle this week where he correctly spoke about the r

emoval of democracy and the interests of the public from Councils through the planning process of the well publicised Dominic Cummings and Robert Jenrick’s led planning law reforms.

His article was very good in essence but simply scratched the surface of these reforms. They are huge and have already opened up a chasm between the ruling Tories and the Conservatives who put them in power. 

Conservative Home, which describes itself as the ‘home of the conservatives’ reported that Jack Airey, who until recently was Head of Housing at Policy Exchange, is now Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Housing when commenting on the forthcoming changes said “When renters pass over half their monthly income to their landlord, they should blame a planning system that protects existing property wealth at the expense of people who work hard and get on in life.”

These changes are not only for now, the Town and Country planning act was introduced just after the Second World War and has served the nation through its various levels of Government and pseudo baronies ever since. These reforms are to make planning fit the here and now and will like its predecessor last at least 70yrs.

The Tories are up for this change but they need to ask themselves how do they persuade the Conservatives who have invested heavily into the private rented sector to gain access to half of family incomes each month to follow their vision?

Also how do they believe they can capture the imagination of Parishes and virtually unelected feudal estate management groups who in the outline changes list pre white paper consultation will lose the power they have over anything but style.

The reason for that is the urgent need for truly affordable and social housing and a short term fix is to allow the unmitigated development of homes of multiple occupancy in any empty property to go ahead through the changes in permitted development rights until they can set up and organise the new ‘Regional Development Corporations’ who will work with and between local authorities and housing associations to develop new social housing which its hinted will include the ability for the purchase of current private rented stock from landlords, changing England to look more like its continental neighbours who this Government say they wish to forget? 

The consultation on the new white paper will be very active indeed and will throw up great opposition from interested parties who currently have power, wealth or income derived from the T&CP Act and can see that power shifting over to the spec builders and RDC’s working with County and Metropolitan councils away from the clutches of unelected groups, minor councils and open public debate.

For instance the change of County Towns to being classified as ‘Urban’ to suit the Oxford/Cambridge Arc type Development Corporations, will certainly pressurise Tory county councillors nationally in having to explain the need for that change by their Government to suit the 21’st century planning governance to their voters. 

But we Laymen who have discussed this issue among ourselves agree with Stephen Hawkins who said: ”We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet”. The changes to the T&C Planning act may cause some angst in the short term but hopefully the effect of the changes may help all levels of society shake off the shackles of the past and benefit everyone in the medium to long term.

Lets see what the white paper consultation brings!


 

Cummings and Jenrick’s planning reforms: a quick look at the headline statements

Homeownership

• Form partnerships with developers and local authorities to be the frontrunners for delivering the first wave of new homes
• Continue with the proposed First Homes scheme, which offers eligible first-time buyers new homes at prices discounted by a third

Planning reforms

• Introduce new permitted development rights for building upwards on existing buildings by summer 2020
• Consult on potential permitted development rights to allow vacant buildings to be demolished and replaced with new homes
• New support for community and self-build housing schemes, including support finding plots of land
• Restart Regional Development Corporations in England
• Support the Oxford-Cambridge arc by setting up a new spatial framework for the area, setting out where housing will be delivered up to 2050, and create four development corporations across the region

Housing Delivery Test

• Review the formula for calculating local housing need to encourage more building in urban areas and review the classification of rural/urban
• Require all local authorities to have an up-to-date local plan by 2023 or government will intervene
• Continue with plans to raise the Housing Delivery Test threshold to 75% in November 2020
• Reform the New Homes Bonus to ensure local authorities that build more homes have access to greater funding

Planning departments

• Implement new planning fee structure to better resource planning authorities and link funding to improved performance
• Provide automatic rebates of fees when planning applications are successful at appeal
• Expand the use of zoning tools to support development that is aimed at simplifying the process of granting planning permission for residential and commercial property
• Make it clearer who owns land by requiring greater transparency on land options
• Support local authorities to use compulsory purchase orders by introducing statutory timescales for decisions and ending the automatic right to public inquiry

Design

• Revise National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to encourage good design and placemaking throughout the planning process
• Respond to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission and take forward recommendations calling for urban tree-planting and giving communities more influence over design
• Implement a new National Design Code to allow residents of communities to have more influence over design. Allow local areas to produce their own design codes for new development.

Climate and sustainability

• Review policy for building in areas at flood risk by assessing whether current NPPF protections are enough and whether further reform is needed
• Introduce Future Homes Standard in 2025, which will require up to 80% lower carbon emissions for new homes
• Create a new net zero carbon housing development in Toton in the East Midlands through a development corporation

 

Virus Easing Use your bus pass before the Tories cut the benefit further.

Many elderly and disabled people fully rely on the benefit they receive through the National bus pass scheme to manage their lifestyles.


The scheme introduced by Labour in 2008 to bring English pensioners a benefit which had been enjoyed by the Scots and Welsh for many years prior and to gift free off peak bus travel to almost 20% of English residents, has untold benefits beside filling empty seats on off peak buses.

Regular travel by bus helps to break the cycle of social isolation something that has been prevalent in the lives of many pensioners during the recent pandemic as well as giving people the chance to exercise whilst shopping and enjoying travel further that their local shops that they may possibly just not be bale to afford otherwise.


In 2008 the scheme benefited everyone over the age of 60, 10 years of Tory austerity changed the face of the scheme and now people can only access the pass when they reach pensionable age, thats now a seven year cost saving to the Government from its original concept.


The affordability of the scheme is currently in question by Councils and the condition the current Conservative Government has left many County and Metropolitan Boroughs in financially through increased Covid 19 social services and public health costs has them considering the price of the scheme particularly when buses are also non-commercial and subsidised in rural areas. With Tory councillors asking about ‘double charging’ e.g. subsidy and covering pass costs as successive austerity led Governments have allowed more and more of the costs fall onto hard pressed local authorities.

The Concessionary Bus Travel Act states that local bus operators should be “no better nor worse off” as a result of the scheme, which meant that reimbursement rates would be less than standard fares to allow for the fact that many extra journeys would be taken by pass holders. This ensured Councils got an excellent rate for journey’s travelled.


Covid 19 has vastly reduced the benefits to the bus companies and the worry that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is running around trying to blame the costs of Covid 19 on anyone but the Johnson Government doesn’t bode well for the continuation of the pass scheme.


Local and National Government spent £985M on the concessionary bus pass scheme last year but that was offset by the £2,9Bn spent by pass holders in local economies on a trip taken with their pass.


State pensioners who make up 20% of England's population are needed to aid the financial recovery of the nation as they make up the prime daytime economy from Monday to Thursday. They support local markets and shopping and have increased their spend as the triple lock which is also being attacked by the Tories has grown their incomes.


We laymen in Northumberland are extremely concerned about the Tories thoughts on double charging and the cost implications on Councils next year as bus companies have taken a huge hit through Covid 19. The Council in Northumberland has recently released figures about supported buses and its those supported buses and the communities they serve which will be hit first so we urge everyone with a concessionary pass to ensure they use it as soon as they feel safe enough to do so and save rural buses in Northumberland and across England.


Northumberland County Council Information


Service Contract Description Operation Annual Cost What it covers
No of Days
DAR 1 Wooler, Whittingham Market day
PC0010 and Lesbury pilot Alnwick Tues £3,900.00 service - one
DAR's return trip
Market day

691 Upper Coquetdale & Morpeth Mon £2,544.00 service - one
return trip
Market day

694 Redesmouth to Hexham Tue + Fri £13,528.00 service - one
return trip
Market day

695 Blanchland to Hexham Tues £3,655.60 service - one
return trip
Market day

696 Carrshield to Hexham Wed £3,725.90 service - one
return trip
Whittonstall, New Ridley Market day

613 and hexham Tues £4,680.00 service - one
return trip

680 Hexham to Bellingham Mon - Sat £81,514.30 full timetable
seasonal

AD122 Hexham to Haltwhistle Mon-Sun & £25,080.00 tourist
B/Hols service full
timetable
Byrness and Otterburn to Market day

885 bellingham Tues £10,400.00 service - one
return trip
Carrshield - Hexham Market day

889 Tuesdays Tues £6,923.80 service - one
return trip
Market day

406 Longframlington and Alnwick Wed £2,100.00 service - one
return trip

131 Jedburgh - Newcastle via Mon - Sat £23,156.83 full timetable
Otterburn

267 Wooler and Berwick via Mon - Sat £94,769.60 full timetable
Milfield

464 Wooler and Berwick via Mon - Sat £76,018.20 full timetable
Lowick

470 Wooler and Alnwick via Mon - Sat £68,625.00 full timetable
Chatton

473 Wooler and Alnwick via Mon - Sat £82,350.00 full timetable
Powburn
Wed Sch & seasonal

477 Berwick - Holy Island Mon - Sat £22,653.18 tourist
(Non Sch) service full
timetable

710 Kelso - Newcastle via Sat £6,630.00 full timetable
Coldstream, Wooler
Market day

460 Eglingham - Alnwick Thur £3,432.00 service - one
return trip
Market day

266 Wooler & Kirknewton Wed £2,915.00 service - one
return trip

448 Guide Post and Bedlington Mon - Fri £18,145.00 school journey
Station (Sch) full timetable

X84 Ovington Newcastle (as now Mon - Sat £63,940.20 full timetable
to Hexham)

692 Newbiggin Nipper Tue + Fri £4,538.14 full timetable

689 Consett & Hexham Mon - Sat £28,233.85 full timetable

681 Slaggyford and Haltwhistle Mon - Sat £56,970.95 full timetable

434 Ashington & Blyth via Mon - Sat £39.81 Off peak
Cambois daytime

X14 Thropton and Morpeth Mon - Sat £52,961.01 full timetable

418 Alnwick & Belford via Coast Mon - Sat £71,065.00 full timetable

309 Blyth and Whitley Bay Mon - Fri £2,368.08 one early am
journey

East Hartford & Cramlington
58 to East Cramlington Mon - Fri £32,510.50 full timetable
Hosipital Holywell &
Hartley Square

Hoppa Berwick Town service Mon - Sat £29,650.00 full timetable

688 Hexham - Allenheads via Mon - Sat £64,580.70 full timetable
Allendale

74 Hexham - Newcastle Via Mon - Sat £53,778.22 full timetable
Stamfordham, Ponteland

808 Otterburn - Newcastle Mon - Sat £36,600.00 full timetable

185 Haltwhistle and Carlisle Mon - Sat £33,916.00 full timetable
now Birdoswald

683 Hexham Town Service Mon - Sat £55,726.55 full timetable

684/686 Hexham and Prudhoe via Mon - Sat £61,695.40 full timetable
Ovingham

15 Thropton and Alnwick Mon - Sat £30,600.00 full timetable

16 Rothbury and Coquetdale Tue + Thur £6,432.00 full timetable
Circular

57A Holywell to Cramlington Mon - Sun £5,585.93 full timetable
In

19 Ashington and North Shields Mon - Sat £28,892.94 Northumberland
- full
timetable
market day

882 Barrasford to Hexham Sat £3,640.00 service - one
return trip
West and East market day

815 Woodburn,Otterburn,Byrness Fri £1,560.00 service - one
and Rochester into return trip
Bellingham

T01 Alnwick and Amble - Mon - Sat £6,100.00 Amble links
Deminimis extension

Alnwick and Berwick via
X15 warenford - Deminimus Mon - Sat £66,431.64 full timetable
Payment

X18 Alnwick and Berwick via Mon - Sat £66,313.80 full timetable
coast - Deminimis Payment

Alnwick to Amble Winter Winter Winter Sundays
X18 Sundays - Deminimus Payment Sundays  £5,062.40 extension to
Alnwick

773 -764 X Border contribution - Annual £8,076.70 Contribution
Townfield - consett Charge to Durham CC
Contribution

67, 67P Berwick to Galashiels Monthly £45,999.96 to Scottish
charTge Borders
Council
 

Will Less Grass and more Council services be cut to support Newcastle Airport?

In the past, many residents of the North-East haven’t put flying out to Benidorm or Prague for a boozy weekend or a hen party as anything to do with the renewal of books in your local library the cleanliness of your high streets or how warm the water is in your local swimming baths, but it does.


Newcastle airport has been one of the North Easts success stories for decades, 51% is in the ownership of the seven Councils of the North East both North and South of the Tyne and your Council has milked the profits to support front line services and more recently linked the aspirational growth in their business plans and core strategies with the economic plans of both the airport and the region.


An example of the power of a top regional airport to Government being the aspirations to reopen and expand the regions rail-network with pipeline projects such as the Leamside line, now on the Governments investment list and the Northumberland line, a simple reopening to passenger traffic for one of the North Easts now less used mineral lines which links South East Northumberland travellers up to the airport via the metro system have only seen progress through the emergence of the airports masterplan which is aspirational in wanting to increase passenger numbers who arrive by public transport from its current base of 13% up to 30% by 2035. The emerging masterplan allowed Northumberland County Council to invest heavily in the study’s required by law to reopen this line between 2013 and 2017.


Covid 19 and the Governments response to Councils has left both the airport who directly employ 3,900 staff and support a further 15,000 full time jobs on airport related activity besides many more in the regional economy, are still waiting for the Government to unveil anything but rhetoric on their support plan for aviation leaving the North-east communities reliant of aviation jobs, mainly Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland suffering a massive jobs black hole that in the words of Unite the Union who have reported their concerns to their members ‘may take decades to recover’.


The Local Government Trade Unions, GMB/UNISON already working with councils to save front line services jobs following the latest Government Covid pressure on Councils and the lack of support for the extra spend the pandemic has placed on social services have the added problems of arguing about where your Council should spend to safeguard most communities this winter, local services or the long term economic miracle of Newcastle Airport.


As Northumberland laymen we are aware that Councillor Oliver of Corbridge has reported in one of his Black Hole papers to the Councils cabinet that the government owes the Council £12M. In recent weeks they have also spun out massive figures and promises of investment County-wide including the statement they will be using reserves to fund the rebuild of Blyth’s Town Centre, pay for new schools in Ponteland and Hexham and a myriad of other undeliverables such as Bedlington and Ashington ‘holes’ prior to the elections in 2021.


He seems to forget when he’s spouting that Northumberland is unique in being intrinsically linked with the National Health Service and Governments experiment to weld social services and health together, they even share a Chief Executive with the NHS and that experiment has a massive cost.


The well reported hatred of public services of Boris Johnson and his Parliamentary Cabinet team and the Covid and no deal BREXIT excuses will allow him to deny access to winter pressures funding to the NHS for the next two years as his support for the City and market forces are rekindled whilst Covid 19 subsides, leaving Northumberland in the funding dilemma of who to support with only enough true reserves to cover the Councils long term borrowing will it be the Airport and its re-emergence as a regional profit maker, front line Council Services or the NHS?


It would be great if the Conservative Northumberland County Council could tell us without the spin but their Dominic Cummings links won’t allow it!