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

 

Corrupt, dodgy 'Secret Council' want to spend more £millions on an empty building?

Northumberland County Council Conservatives, currently operating under a tarpaulin from a farm in the green belt surrounding the only town which has any meaning to their mob have let the Cabinet member for failed finance run his mouth off and insist he is going to spend ever more millions of pounds on County Hall, Morpeth.

Very similar to the antics of the Tories secondary prime minister Dominic Cummings, the member in focus, Councillor Oliver of Corbridge has failed his constituents by not paying the taxes he owes to his employer, the Council on a business he and his wife allowed to fail. Then low and behold an extremely similar if not identical business opened up and this isn't the first time they have been involved in similar activity. His unpaid debt to the Council being reported in County weekly and regional daily newspapers as £31,000.

This is Councillor Oliver's first run as an elected member. He was immediately targeted by the ex leader of the Tories Councillor Peter Jackson who was kicked out of his leadership post by a coalition of fellow Councillors after revelations of corruption, bullying, racism and dodgy land dealings from and by members of his Tory Group were revealed in an email to elected members from a whistle-blower, Councillor Oliver as a true loyal Jacksonite disciple who would shoulder the weight of hades and deliver the message needed to con the public into accepting deceit and secrecy as a norm.

This week a number of other blogs reported on his televised outburst where he attempted to perpetuate the myth that the former Labour administration was going to spend £80m on its proposed move to a new much cheaper to run office block in the nearby town of Ashington one of the UK's most seriously deprived areas. Those other blogs also issued links to a Government Freedom of Information site which proves the real and true total fixed price cost was to be £32m.

We won't repeat that further, instead we will look at the need to hold onto such a gigantic costly building in Morpeth and the published estimated costs of the final outturn bill of staying in County Hall, a currently almost empty building as most of the staff are currently working from home.

Opened in 1981 to house 2000 staff. Situated well out of easy lunchtime access distance from Morpeth's many retail outlets. Freedom of information and media reports inform us that the maximum number of people working at County Hall since the formation of the single Unitary Council for the County for Northumberland in 2009 is 732. During the Labour administration 2013-2017 it fell to around 500 as their market towns strategy increased the number of staff but placed them in the communities where their skills were needed most. New outreach offices were created in Cramlington and Eddie Ferguson House in Blyth saw many social services staff housed in the Counties prime area of need.

The Labour plan was to bring centralised services staff to a site the County Council already owned just off the High Street in Ashington a massively deprived area and not far from its planned station terminus on the Ashington Blyth and Tyne line (Northumberland line) to lower car use and develop ever more sustainability. This it was hoped would bring 400 staff in daily contact with local retail and strengthen hope for that High Streets long term survival.

The Jacksonite Tories created and perpetuated a lie that the new building in Ashington would close down shops in Morpeth and cost the Taxpayer £80m.

This is the true picture as it has unfolded for the Northumberland Conservatives and they have placed the full weight of blame on the myopic disciple Councillor Nick Oliver for the almost uncontrolled escalation of costs as confidence in their long term political grip grew. Now that they have been exposed and are being subjected to internal and external investigations including reports to the Police that grip is slipping on the wet anchor rope and they are being stuck fast on their own kedge.

 

·         Labour had a buyer for the County Hall site for £20m

 

·         The new office block in Ashington was to be built for a fixed price of £32m

 

·         Cost to the taxpayer of £12m.

 

Current list of costs at the Morpeth site

 

·         Loss of the sale of the County Hall site in Morpeth £20m

 

·         Current cost of essential repairs at County Hall including its new roof £21m

 

·         Cost of stopping the contract on the Ashington site with Galliford Try the building contractor and remediation of the site £5.6m

 

·         Cost to the taxpayer for the planned Eat Street and Cinema is estimated circa £7.7m

 

·         Cost of Advance Northumberland (part of the Council) of building a highway to open up the site for potential private development which will kill off and run down the High Street £9m.

 

·         The cost of building an artistic atrium at the front of Morpeth County Hall £7m

 

·         Cost of solar panels in the Car Park £3m

 

These are the current true planned expenditure costs cleared by the Portfolio holder for Tory finance Nick Oliver since May 2017:

 

Cost to the taxpayer of the Tory Model £73.3m and rising.

 

Cost to the taxpayer of the Labour Model £12m fixed price.

 

Therefore the true cost of being a Jacksonite Tory disciple who is incapable of understanding the term 'best value' for the public who pick up the Councils outstanding debt and is solely responsible by signing off the reports that have created the 

waste of £61.3m of public money to ensure the world revolves around EX CASTLE MORPETH.

 

No wonder a major investigation into alleged corruption, bullying, racism and dodgy land dealings is taking place!

Save the NHS did anyone believe them?

 Its been clearly said on numerous occasions that if you repeat a lie often enough people will begin to believe its true. During the early days of the pandemic, the UK prime minister Johnson repeated the slogan 'let's save the NHS' every day until he got bored with having to turn out each evening to speak to the nation.

His latest questionable 'build Britain better may be much more important to the Tory Party nationally than save the NHS as the builders and developers who lash out fortunes into the Tories coffers all want a bit of the NHS his new slogan covers, 40 new hospitals and this week he promised they would be built on new sites, leaving prime building land where the current hospitals stand to be scooped up by their supporters, and he's going to change UK planning law to ensure they get their cut.

Its been said in the mainstream press that his changes to planning law following his first national consultation on the changes (closed 1st October 2020) will be hurried through to begin a retraining program for people who's furlough ends on 31st October to get them to change direction and join the construction industry now they find their current careers defunct as the Governments new job support scheme makes it much cheaper for employers to sack staff than to offer half time work to two people per job as the Tories hoped.

As elements of the construction industry lean in favour of male dominated jobs due to the extremely heavy nature of the work involved we need to know where he is going to house those who's physical attributes require them to locate employment better suited to their needs. So we need to ask where will Johnson pitch his next slogan to hopefully steer people towards a new future. Its the NHS and care work isn't it?

At the very beginning when Johnson was using his original pandemic buzz words his team announced that all non-EU migrant workers in the NHS and care sectors would have their visas extended cost free. This Tory promise ended last week and now workers need not only to fill in forms by the ton to apply for new visas they have to find the hundreds of pounds to cover the costs. Doctors, nurses, care staffs and paramedics from outside the EU will be exposed to the needs of the nation to find jobs for ex- furlough retraining folk at the expense of foreign nationals already in the system. The Home Office and the DHSS insist it isn't necessary to renew NHS workers automatically because they can apply for the newly rolled out health and care visa a computer driven system that is cheaper for applicants but also checks newly trained personnel against the needs of each NHS Trust and overseas applicant.

 EU nationals still have to wait to see if they will be exposed to the same regime after any settlement in the final Brexit agreement.

 

 

.Labour Councillors Concerned for the future of a ‘Fantastic Piece of Public Art’

 

Today marks the unveiling at the head of Blyth Marketplace of a wonderful new piece of public art in the heart of the Town of Blyth.

In Elfin Walk a patch of ground next to St Mary’s church dedicated to the submariners who were based in the Town during the second world war, County Councillors Kath Nisbet and Councillor Grant Davey unveiled the latest tribute to the Towns long history and links with the military and in particular the Royal Navy.

The art work already nicknamed ‘the hub of the universe’ by locals on social media and has been commented on widely in a most positive fashion by all who have seen it since it was placed on site last week, was commissioned by Blyth Town Council and partly funded by the two Northumberland County Councillors.

 We caught up with them today and they are both very concerned regarding the future of this work of art.

 Councillor Davey when asked about the future of Blyth expressed his concern and pointed out that he had been the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration for Blyth Valley prior to its closure and “I was responsible for the commissioning of the ‘Blythscope’ a hyperscope sculpture by the conceptual artist Simon Watkinson and the wonderful water feature that was designed to bring life to the market place. The water feature was decommissioned by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition administration from 2009 to 2013 at County Hall in what I believe to be support for the political statement from Councillor Jeff Reed who publically said ‘Blyth is a Dump’. I’m not sure what the future of this work of art will be but I hope the Tories at County Hall accept it for what it is a wonderful new improvement to the Town”.

Councillor Nisbet echoed Councillor Davey’s concerns and said “This week we have seen the Tory MP for Blyth, Ian Levy proudly standing next to derelict walls in Bowes Street that his Tory Council in charge at County Hall have left to crumble away, claiming it as some sort of achievement that a small amount of funding is being sprinkled by Central Government into the Town. This is  following three years of planning and the offer of sponsorship to undertake the modernisations of Bowes Street from the Labour led Blyth Town Council. I am personally very worried and hope they don’t have this magnificent art work pulled down just to run Blyth down further”.

Starmer slips the Tories noose to prove he's good value.

In January 2020 the daily mirror included the following few paragraphs in an editorial.

 

TORIES TO SMEAR KEIR

A TALKATIVE Cabinet Minister told me that the Tories “can’t wait to get to work” on Keir Starmer if the front runner wins Labour’s leadership race.

The Conservatives’ DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT is plotting to smear a decent public servant as a “terrorists friend” in an all out attack”.

We’re going through every decision when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions,” smirked the Secretary of State. “He won’t know what’s hit him.” Really? I trust that the public is canny enough to separate fact from fiction on this, so these Tory fibs are bound to backfire.

Enemies on the left disgracefully join the mudslinging, inventing false claims that Starmer pressurised Sweden into pursuing Julian Assange.

Starmer was a respected DPP and the working class lad made good who is named Keir after Labour’s founder and should view their malice as a backhanded compliment. They are clearly frightened of him.

First appeared in the Daily Mirror 27-01-2020 Kevin Maguire

Keir Starmer who has taken over the reins of the Labour Party following the party's consultation and democratic election process to find a new leader after the disastrous 2019 general election result has managed over short time he has held his new position to not only to beat off the Tory bully boys but to show the Tories up for what they are.

He has been so successful through the dark months of the pandemic that many are looking  at him to lead the UK as most are less than enamored with the Johnson teams diabolical handling of the pandemic, Brexit and international diplomacy.

Starmer has shown all sections of industry and business that he is the person for the job and his broad brush parliamentary team has warmed to his leadership. From the trade unions through to many leading industrialists have shown a high level of support that is trickling down to grass roots voters in a wider number of seats than those lost in the last general election.

Even sceptics such as us, the 'layman's team' believe we can't go on with a Premier who's only link with ordinary members of the population is through the hands of his extremely disparate spin doctor team. We fully believe that Starmer can deliver for the UK in a way that the Tories haven't managed to find during the last decade.

The obvious failings of the nations Johnson experience coupled with a bleak future predicted for striving families at the end of the pandemic and Brexit, with the nation poised for the poverty downturn millions out of work will cause, we may see a kick-start of the process to force an early General election as the PM loses further control of his struggling back benchers. If that scenario pans out, in Starmer we have a party leader with much closer links to the needs of ordinary people and a wider more experienced group of people willing to pull out all the stops to ensure Labour meets their needs positively and rapidly.

. Tory Councillors simply collateral to damage in order to hook in builders as permanent sponsors

 

This week will see a major split between long serving Conservative Councillors and the Boris Johnson Government as those sitting on silk cushions in rural constituencies, fully Parished and with locked in neighbourhood plans coupled with Local Plans and Core Strategies that have been designed in harmony to keep property prices up and homes in short supply will be expecting that their MP’s will be baying for Dominic Cummings and premier Johnson’s blood and expect a U-Turn on the proposed changes to Planning Law.

The Governments changes include an algorithm to determine the level of new housing in each area its the prime element of the new sweeping changes to planning law being imposed in order to ensure developers and builders continue the money supplies pouring into the coffers of the central party. The assurance builders need is that they will have an unending land supply by being able to develop more and more housing in popular places to develop highly overpriced housing in rural villages and market towns to lock in their returns to shareholders for the next 40yrs until the scope of this planned national policy change runs out.

Testing the proposed algorithm has shown that old Tory Councils will have to supply ever more housing numbers with both Labour held and areas surrounding ‘ex red wall’ MP seats now having to deliver less. The Law changes will also allow urban councils with land shortages to redevelop redundant offices and Council buildings into affordable or social housing stock, the Government would like that to be the norm in town centres to bring back life and vigor to waning high streets whilst in tandem developing a steadier set of family leaning night time economies whilst they continue reaping the bounty from builders who will be developing on former green belt in the Countryside.

But his rural backbenchers, many of whom spent a decade wiping out well entrenched LibDem MP’s particularly in the West Country and the Scottish-English border areas are supporting their Councillors and its known that 40 of them are actively engaged in attempting to develop a coup.

The political media is poised for this activity this week as a U-turn on this matter by Government will see a massive split between the Government, many of its prime sponsors who stand to make £billions and its Party base in the Shire Counties. Any change will bring the Tory grassroots voices into play to remove Johnson from office complete with his ‘Mad Monk’ Cummings and take a chance on losing the massive prosperity of permanent sponsorship to keep them ahead of the game in political cash terms.

Neither a Party split nor the Law changes proposed will please everyone but the winners in this debacle will be the losers over the next two decades at least, so will it be the minion Councillors back in the shires who will be kicked into touch in favour of LibDem and Labour candidates whose popularity growth has shot up while the Country is led by a fool or the developers waiting with baited breath to reap massive harvests for their shareholders for years to come.


Certainly worth a watch.


Ed.