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Rudderless
Tory led county council licensed a fair but didn’t oversee the event!
Many
people on social media were surprised when Northumberland County Council became
completely embroiled with the City of Newcastle and Gateshead’s need to
suppress Covid 19 with much stricter lockdown procedures as Northumberland
appeared to have very low infection rates as well as much lower former death
from Covid rates than its urban neighbours.
So as the Tory
led Council announced its partnership we thought that Murky should find out
why!
Our online
investigations located the problem moderately quickly, a fair was held in
Ashington which attracted hundreds of young people who after being locked down
and then decried by the media, thought it would be a good idea to let their
hair down and attend an open licensed public event.
Their phones
were red hot and flocks of young people from across the County attended the
Fair put on by Richardson Amusements and licensed to run by the beleaguered
County Council from 10th to 14th September.
Originally this
Fair was to be an element of Ashington Town Councils ‘Fair weekend’ a now major
event in the county calendar of Country Shows, Ex-Miners Galas and Music
Festivals.
Following the
announcements regarding the lockdown by the Government, Ashington Town
Council correctly informed the licensing authority (Northumberland County
Council) that their Fair weekend had been cancelled, yet the County Council
still accepted a ‘risk assessment, fee and issued a licence to the fair company
to hold its event’.
As the only
event in the County of that type this month the licensing officers of the
County Council should have been all over the site like a rash to ensure Covid
safety distancing was being observed. They didn’t bother at all and the number
of attendees swamped the organisers.
The Police
became embroiled in the matter and the County Council eventually turned up and
after a brief conversation the organisers decided to halt what had by the 13th
September become the most popular event in the North East region.
The County
Council ran one of their spin stories out via their web site in an as usual
back covering exercise and we can only hope that this dreadful disease has not
been passed on between the young people in attendance and that the North-east
lockdown partnership becomes a simple paper exercise!
And these
Tories work for us?
https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/News/2020/Sep/Organisers-agree-to-close-fair-in-Ashington-to-sup.aspx
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