John McDonald MP was Correct in 2019 that’s why Sajid Javid should ignore failed Northumberland experiment and ‘Fix Care for England’

 

Labour’s John McDonald MP was completely correct in 2019 when proposing and pricing a national Care Service for the UK. The only sticking point in his plan would be to create a new costly service to manage and finance joint working between the NHS and Local Government.

Sajid Javid has now suggested that he is investigating if a National Care Service could help smooth out the finance being scooped up through the additional National Insurance Tax being placed on the shoulders of workers to support care which his boss Boris Johnson is steering towards the NHS for the next three years. 

This investigation sits on the back of warnings from Age UK that Council Tax will have to rise by 10% and be held there for three years by which time it will be the norm to cover the cost of care.

The national experiment for integrated care was undertaken in Northumberland and for a look at whether a seamless service could be designed it was an unmitigated success. 

But as Councils are democratic institutions and the NHS a nationally guided body the needs of some elected members to see where they can fit in to the power game of decision making (and probably money making) was always going to defeat the project in the long term, and Northumberland County Council’s sullied reputation for bullying of officers and malice towards opposition members and observers was something that their NHS partners were unable to accept.

With a number of the local Government protagonists being taken through the standards board, who have brought in external advisors to drive investigations forwards and offer protection to decision makers, we here at Murky believe the NHS were correct to step back, but Sajid Javid's new look at Care should be able to correct the mistakes made by Edward Heath's teams in the run up to 1974.

The Heath teams conundrum was to keep as many Tories in office as Councillors as the whole of Local Government was broken down and enlarged areas formed into County Councils with Education and Highways and District Councils with the responsibility for Housing and Planning, in order to ensure Counties had a better role his departments gave Care Services to Local Government and not the NHS, causing the problems that we have in a non-seamless service being experienced by service users today.

Governments of both colours have changed the face of Local Government over the years and the creation of all purpose unitary councils of all sizes are becoming more common. Unitarisation means lower Councillor numbers, now agreed to be spread too thinly to ensure proper decision making leading to lower levels of scrutiny that allows bullying and intimidation to grow; and with the other major problem for the nation ‘Housing Need’ also handled by those same Councillors it's probably time for Sajid Javid to make a decision to really integrate care with health through this opportunity to investigate and allow the democratic process to resolve the nations housing problems without the interference from the worries of running a care service that should be able to show those in need that a true seamless service is available from the the trusted NHS and ‘Fix Care for England’.

What do enforcement officers do during school holidays?

 

Drivers and residents on Cowpen Road are disgusted at the pathetic standard stock response they receive from Northumberland County Council when complaining about the regular and ongoing illegal parking on yellow lines and the footpaths on both Cowpen Road and Craigmill Park every single morning.

When asked why enforcement officers do not patrol or ticket vehicles breaking the law on Northumberland’s busiest and most polluted urban highway, the answer is that the enforcement officers are ‘very busy servicing and checking on parking near schools as its a health and safety issue you know?’.

The root cause of the problems is a branch of Greggs the Bakers takeaway offering warm food and coffee as people travel by for breakfast or lunch. Unlike its neighbours on the same street McDonalds and KFC it does not have a designated off street drive through, just a simple very small car park, leaving customers parking on yellow lines and footpaths causing increased health and safety problems for both drivers and residents on this extremely busy urban highway.

The popularity of the service Greggs provides bring lorry drivers to a halt on the yellow lines or pavements on Cowpen Road causing an extreme hazard for locals and Greggs customers turning right from Craigmill Park onto Cowpen Road.

Its been expressed to us that residents of Craigmill Park and Cowpen Road are extremely concerned regarding planning blight through the inaction of the County Council reducing the value of their homes, a problem that when Greggs was opened the yellow lines were designed to reduce.

We are aware that Town Councillor’s Susan and Grant Davey have raised the issue with Blyth Town Council to be brought at the Partnership meetings with the County Council and residents have made contact with the Mayor of the Town Councillor Margaret Richardson who is also a County Councillor for Cowpen Road but not the affected part near Greggs, but she has also received the same answer, that enforcement officers are fully engaged in the mornings at school sites across the County.

Residents inform us they can see the need to enforce safe parking at schools but the school year is only 39 weeks Monday to Friday what do enforcement officers do on 52.14 Saturdays and 13.14 weeks when schools are on holiday? The stock response now needs to be Oh! they have to attend to indiscriminate illegal parking problems being faced by Drivers and Residents on Northumberland’s busiest Urban Highway, Cowpen Road in Blyth!

Councillor Sanderson needs to grow a backbone before Gove puts him in a body bag?

 

D.I.V.O.R.C.E. as the song goes, often causes problems for those involved but in the case of a major local authority caught up in a personal matter the need for cash has become king and the problems surrounding what was regularly hinted too by our fellow blog the Northumberland Murky Blogspot as a scene from another song, that of Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour has now got out of hand and is dragging Northumberland County Council deep into the mire and ever closer to closure by Government every day.

Councillor Jackson, the former disgraced leader of the Council, one of those mentioned in the hints is central to the degradation of the Council must have had to dispose of his luxury Mercedes Benz sports saloon and can now be seen driving the Land Rover which starred in series one of ‘Vera’ and as we all know, just like him has seen better days.

Regular readers will by now have grasped the picture that the Council has split into three distinct groups, but only two of them feature in this awful mess, the Leaders Group, close to Councillors Sanderson and Wearmouth and the Splinter Group sitting at the feet of lover boy Jackson. The other group from Cramlington and Seaton Valley have already begun secret talks with their Whitley Bay counterparts to get an early run on Labour to try to win a prospective new seat being formed to help the Government, but on voting numbers and the move away from the Tories expected by the press they may wish in future to have supported a different model.

But back to the mess Northumberland is in, the video from the recent Audit Committee is now out on YouTube, the most recent meeting was a rerun for acceptance of the draft accounts which had bumped into a technical hitch at a previous assembly due to the meeting becoming inquorate as a member had to leave early.

The draft accounts have passed the test of compliance and been accepted by Cabinet, led by Councillor Sanderson and the Tory Group also led by him but in an attempt to topple the Leader to get a few more quid to live on now he’s been turfed from his family home Councillor Jackson’s mob who control the audit committee refused acceptance and on video spoke about illegal this and that in the accounts.

With the whole Governance of the Council now being challenged Councillor Sanderson now needs to sack his audit committee or directly face the wrath of Michael Gove the minister in charge of all things Local Government who may choose to sack the whole Council and have it run by professional officers who will report back to him, and all because to manage ‘amour’ a top Councillor and well known bully boy needs more!

What an abysmal administration?

Tories leave independent Councillor to pick up the pieces.

 

When deputy leader of the County Council, councillor Wayne Daley decided to remove Council support for the educational system prefered by schools in the West of the County and along with his public promise that he would bring better teachers from bed sits in London he poured £millions into the development of an academy school cluster in the town of Hexham, leaving Council schools to live on the crumbs from his table.

The new schools were developed whilst Councillor Daley's administration removed the whole council plan from inspection by government leaving developers without proper guidance for the works and infrastructure surrounding the site leaving local people having to shoulder the problems created by the collapse and non-existence of any formal and proper local guidance required to blend new developments into existing local communities.

Time has moved on and Councillor Daley removed himself from his post as deputy leader of the County Council and Local people now find they are suffering from an increase in traffic problems near the school and many are concerned with the speed of traffic on Allendale Road near to the new educational establishments.

Our investigations show that during the development of new schools the removed planning documentation insisted that traffic monitoring took place and Council policy insisted that 20mph zones should be developed near schools when there may be a danger to young people's safety.

The latest news from the Hexham area is that the Tories have deserted their duties towards local people and their children and that following a myriad of public complaints about speeding traffic have left independent Councillor Derek Kennedy with the task of trying to seek volunteers from the local community to monitor the traffic problems.

If the Tories were unable to dump these responsibilities onto Councillor Kennedy they would not be looking for volunteers, they would have highway monitoring equipment laid across Allendale Road whilst they sit in their ivory tower in Morpeth and await the results. Local people should ensure they bring these Tories to heel and ensure that Councillor Kennedy gets the same help from highways services that they would. Letters and messages demanding correct monitoring should be sent to Councillor Sanderson the latest leader of Council and demand the help they really need.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/how-you-can-police-speed-18749977

Northumberland Tories drifting well behind!

With Northumberland's Labour Party members returning from the national conference having their hands covered in cement through the use of the trowel and square to lay bricks on top of the solid foundations Keir Starmer has dug out on behalf of his party we here at murky thought we would inform the joyous delegates what they have been missing whilst away on party duty.

A run around Tory activists social media pages showed how the widening splits among Northumberland Tories have got teams seething, with all three factions trying their best to outdo each other.

Just a week ago it seemed that blind panic had set in when Councillor Oliver had decided to leave the Conservative party through the complete lack of support shown towards keeping the true stories of his activities as the finance portfolio and named senior bully boy as secret as the councils spend and cover up of the whole Jackson gangs activities over the last four years. But it appears that the new Sanderson mob has offered Councillor Oliver the cover he needs, strengthening that segment of the votes at Tory Party meetings in their favour.

This leaves the Cramlington division sitting in the moat as allegedlyall gangs sat balanced previously, but with Oliver's shaky hand sitting in Sandersons velvet glove his group now sits with a minor numerical advantage over their south east of County bedfellows.

Councillor Sanderson, never being famous for even glancing at the big picture now appears to have deserted the population covered by the Cramlington members of council to defend a dead duck from Corbridge to harness his secret vote.

Cramlington is the area being hardest hit in the County this week by national government decisions as its home to high numbers of those on furlough, has the most young people in the county being damaged by the rise in national insurance payments and has a startling number of graduates paid on or around £27,000 a wage that will be subject to the next Tory pocket hitting or is that lining? move to back their dodgy governance, that of lowering the amount of earnings before student loan payments kick in, a Conservative cock-up which will damage local business in Cramlington severely.

With Cramlington also housing many of Blyth Valley's elderly who are to have their purses and wallets thinned down considerably as the retention of the Triple Lock safety net for pensions is abandoned to well below inflation levels leading more to be recognised in the food and energy deprivation group and not helped by Council.

What will the Tories do now?

It'll turn into a right mess whatever it is!, we can smell the shot foxes already.

Not Delivering Best Value for five years should worry us all.

A recent advert for a new head of the internal audit partnership between North Tyneside Council and Northumberland County Council shows that although Northumberland Conservatives working on the ‘Little Britain’ model of politics keep denying they are a £1Bn Council, the advert for this very necessary post shows that the revenue budget of the County Council is circa £800M and when the capital spend and repayments on long term borrowing are added in the outturn is well over £1Bn.

The job, although not unique in Local Government is probably the least attractive career move available at this moment in time for a sum that can be got for doing similar work in much smaller, better organised Councils with far more protection from bullying and where you may return home from work in the evenings feeling you have achieved something for the effort you put in.

Not wanting to dampen anyone's spirits further who feels they have something to offer the County of Northumberland but the record of not being able to show any support whatsoever to officers and where Councillors put their own reports into the public domain to belittle their workforce, ignoring any sort of audit trail leaning towards the truth begins to show why staff turnover is ridiculously high, why the Council has not been able to deliver Best Value and had it accounts ‘qualified’ (thats posh accountants speak for failed) for the last 4 years and is being politically swamped in a ‘weed war’ from both its opposition Councillors and its Parishes, (Northumberland is fully parished) who once believed they were enhancing services and protecting local jobs now finding that unless your Parish is Tory led your being double charged, with many parishes paying more than half of their precept in environmental payments for work that's being done within other parish boundaries than their own.

The basis for that accusation can be simply seen in areas such as Blyth with its forests of street weeds and unkempt shrubberies who paid over £600,000 to enhance environmental services during the last financial year and its neighbour, Tory led Cramlington who kicked Northumberland Local Services out of much of its works program yet the work left with its own Tory led County Council is far superior to that of the Parish of Blyth with only half the cash being spent to have that work completed in a similar sized geographical area.

The weed and litter wars will continue to drag on until a change of administration takes place at County Hall or until the Council and its internal audit partnership begins to get a grip of why delivering Best Value for residents is essential and equity for cash spent is spread across all Parishes within the whole County.

https://www.northeastjobs.org.uk/default.aspx?page=jobdetail&module=jobs-userjobdetails&jid=213772&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Reporting Litter and Street Problems
https://fixmystreet.com/

Nasties show nothing but contempt for Ashington!

The spin surrounding the potential reopening of the Ashington Blyth and Tyne line to passengers when coupled with the national disaster for the north and Midlands of the new Tory tax increases has helped illustrate how badly the Tory led Northumberland County Council and the Government have treated areas sitting in the top 10% of deprived areas nationally over the last decade.

 (if the government ever releases the cash to develop and reopen this rail line with most red wall projects frozen by the Treasury, local nasties now hope that a trimming of the £36Bn new Tory 'red wall' tax may find its way towards fulfilling at least one manifesto promise to the people of Northumberland!). 

If it goes ahead, Ashington will be the only town in Northumberland to get a station smack bang in the middle of its town centre to whisk its population to better employment in the Tyne and Wear conurbation as the proposed rail line reopening will share two stations with the well used Tyneside Metro system.

An application recently went through planning at the County Council to develop its town centre car park in readiness for any 'Royal' nod from Boris Johnson to get this 50year wait to reopen this line to passengers started. 

Immediately, the euphoria this news would develop in and around Ashington had cold water poured all over it when the leading Tory Richard Wearmouth, told the press that he would be placing punitive parking charges just in case people from his home town of Morpeth four miles away used Ashingtons car parks and travelled via this line to Newcastle, effectively destroying any opportunity for growth for the traders of Ashington to retain business on its high street that may been gained through an increase in footfall that a set of free to use car parks near a station brings.

This is another in a series of attacks on Ashingtons population by Councillor Wearmouths mob of nasty party Tories. Now historical newspaper articles show that in 2017, under his top dog control of regional Tory policy, he removed the Council's 'core strategy' document to ensure a Government backed garden village project on land next to his now disgraced mate Councillor Peter Jackson's land became stymied and stopped. Councillor Jackson backed by Councillor Wearmouth  said his new team would "produce a new Local Plan in three months", almost six years since there's still no new plan. But the problem for Ashington folk is that a 'core strategy' is a link to all Council policy including the policy to protect deprived areas. Without that policy in place Ashington and towns with similar problems are simply neglected by their Council. Residents pay all and get nowt.

Another blatant attack on Ashington was to stop the Labour Party plan to build a £32m town centre Council office block to bring 800 jobs to support trade on Ashington high street an element of their deprived area policy. with other workers spread into all of the counties market towns. 

The nasties stopped that job, paying millions in compensation to the development contractor and decided to modernise an aging almost empty out of town building designed to house 6000 workers in Morpeth. That project has run for five and a half years and cost the ratepayer  £53m.* It is expected the trimmed by the Tories workforce that will be housed in their new 'Palace of dreams' will number about 500, plenty of space for staff to dodge the alleged nasty bullies you may think.

*figures provided by a defected Tory from the fracture group to the press.