Danger level split as new team want to share the spoils with new Leader

 

When Cllr Glen Sanderson took the Leadership of Northumberland County Council a few short weeks ago following the controversial sacking of Cllr. Peter Jackson we at murky expected his reign to be very short indeed as the Morpeth Mob who ran the Council with Cllr. Jackson were allegedly plotting and planning the downfall of Sanderson.

The Jacksonites of course weren't expecting that Cllr Sanderson, who is a Peer of the Local Government Association, would use his links with that organisation to outmaneuver the mob and scoop up new friends from the North. 

Gaining friends in politics costs and that cost can come in many ways including allowing yourself to be pulled from pillar to post and being forced to follow lines of governance that in your heart of hearts you know are really the wrong things to do.

Unfortunately for the people of Northumberland Cllr. Sanderson has been dragged down that road at a time when real Leadership is needed he has allowed himself to be exposed by the greedy and needy who couldn’t wait for the dust to settle to get their hands on the rewards that await political (loyalty) or should that read greed?.

Cllr. Sanderson has brought in or possibly bought in the votes of the three Berwick Councillors, one of whom is an independent or is she? He has been forced to commit his Council to spending cash their portfolio holder for finance Councillor Oliver has indicated the Council can’t afford on the development of a new theatre for Berwick an issue leaked to murky from arts readers of the blog from Berwick and a fact that hasn’t been denied by anyone we have spoken with.

Those same North County Councillors have also been making quite a bit of noise in placing Northumberland in level 2 instead of level 3 where the Government has placed it, probably to get themselves into the Counties weekly papers. Councillor Sanderson supported their position on live TV this week.

Living in central Northumberland he must have forgotten how dangerous that this support to keep his team in power over the other 16 Tories is to residents in the rest of the County he is the current Leader of. Councillor Sanderson farms on the edge of the village of Eshott his closest well stocked general dealer shops will be in Widdrington or possibly Hadston a couple of miles away in Druridge Bay Ward. A ward that is carrying the second highest infection rate of Covid 19 in the County. But that doesn’t appear to matter to him.

Small village living does appear to colour ones view of the world at large. Has Mr Sanderson missed the fact that the County is huge and borders  areas managed by other Councils with much higher levels of the virus than Northumberland? Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Carlisle, North Durham areas of Stanley and Consett all border the County to the South of his abode and if he has Northumberland placed in tier 2 to suit his allies in the North the residents of those areas will pour in to shop, drink and be merry in Northumberland and if Councillor Sanderson hasn’t realised that then the retention of power must have taken over his personality.

Get some backbone Glen before you have hundreds of your residents unnecessarily exposed to the ‘silent killer’ of Covid 19 and put your new mates into their boxes before its too late.

 

Tories puts back rail line and Blyth bypass scheme 10yrs.

Northumberland top Tory, member of the allegedly corrupt Council Cabinet and Chairperson of the Councils operating in the shadows partner company Advance Northumberland is quoted in an article in Blyth and Ashington’s local newspaper the News Post Leader telling Blyth residents that its well promised plans to develop a Cowpen Road bypass and the reopening of the AB&T Line which his party have renamed the Northumberland Line have been shelved for 10years and that he wants to dump busses onto Blyth’s wonderful Marketplace! 

This story ties the accusation of rampant overspend on legal defence of Councillors, compensation of maligned officers cases lost in court, the massive cost of losing unbelievable numbers of planning appeals, the huge costs of unnecessary politically motivated investigations, and the gigantic spend on a ‘lick of paint’ at County Hall in Morpeth, in with the known mess the Council finds itself in financially through political interference.

Northumberland Conservatives have run an administration whose mindset is completely centred on Morpeth and as the driving force for the regional Conservatives Cllr. Warmouth is accussed of pushing through plans pre-2017 to damage Ashington and Bedlington’s Town Centres and by delivering nothing but media spin over the last three and half years seems to be working hard to bring Blyth in line with its neighbouring townships.

The news report also shows that Cllr Wearmouth and his dodgy broken group at County Hall, Morpeth, have abandoned the Tory MP for Blyth Valley, Ian Levy.  His media machine was fully geared towards him taking the plaudits on the announcement of any reopening of the rail line but his carriage has derailed as he is left sitting on the wrong side of the tracks in the split Northumberland Conservative Party.

This news post leader report is really significant for South East Northumberland residents as it shows that the Government who are hanging their hats on recovery driven by huge infrastructure projects using the cash from public sector pension funds to finance them. Those projects include the Tories HS2 program which is designed to benefit the South and stretch the Capitals commuter belt as far North as Birmingham. 

The report also contains a line or two of much weaker spin than usual with Cllr Wearmouth repeating his split tongue tale that £25m will arrive shortly to help Blyth. That help from a Morpeth Tory is to destroy one of the finest tree lined public open spaces in the North of England, Blyth’s marketplace and let busses park on it.

 NOTES:

https://www.newspostleader.co.uk/news/people/proposals-will-help-boost-blyth-3045833

Tory County Councillors act as Pontius Pilate in Alnwick?

After hooraying in a £100m spend on rural roads in recent weeks and an alleged £80M spend on Cllr. Peter Jacksons ‘lick of paint’ at County Hall in Morpeth Tory County Councillors rejected an appeal from the Mayor of Alnwick Cllr Lynda Wearn to have the Town Centre Toilets in the Town's historic marketplace modernised and improved.

Two long serving County Councillors attended the meeting, Cllr. Gordon Castle and Cabinet member Cllr. Jeff Watson. Their response to the Mayor was labeled shocking by opposition members outside of the meeting.

The County Councillors hand washing statement made on the Tories behalf by Councillor Castle ”well don’t hold your breath” illustrated that Northumberland County Council has lost touch with its Unitary status. Since May 2017 the Tories have gone gung ho on former County Council obligations with spend on highways, schools and social services, leaving very little to cover the responsibilities they inherited from the former District Councils in 2008.

In a town whose economy is completely reliant on visitors and out of town shoppers, good quality centrally sited modern public toilets are essential and it's the County Councils job to supply and maintain them.

Since May 2017 the County Council has had huge supplements of cash from both the Borderlands partnership and the North of Tyne Combined Authority yet the waste of Capital cash on matters that only aid the West, Morpeth and the extreme North of the County leaves places like Alnwick floundering and its Town Council finding itself in a similar position to both the towns of Bedlington and Ashington with redundant building sites in both Town Centres (AKA ‘Holes’) and now we find Alnwick joining the list of towns being ignored.

With the Tories financial portfolio holder Cllr. ‘Nick’ Oliver delivering a medium term financial plan with a revenue income for 2020/2021 of £789,310,000 and a Capital sum of £208,959,406 just a little less than £1Bn, without the extras from the Borderlands and the North of Tyne Mayoralty why can’t most areas share that spend?, we believe this is simply because they do not have the foresight to derive a market towns strategy in a similar vein to the last Labour administrations.

The other inability to deliver on behalf on Alnwick is the fact that theTories on the County Council are being investigated by multiple agencies following allegations of bullying, corruption, racism, and dodgy land dealings with many of the complaints coming from  Council officers and when electors look at the amount wasted on legal wranglings against developers, the cost of paying off multiple members of staff who they have fallen out with, the massive cost of changing the name of ARCH to Advance Northumberland and the compensation payments to staff members who won cases of wrongful dismissal in court and more recently now that Advance are being sued for £millions after not following an instruction from the County Council’s CEX.We believe this all adds up to a dysfunctional Council led by chancers who are responsible for wrecking the rulebook they are meant to work with and follow. This waste is central to the County Councils refusal to help towns outside their chosen few.

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/environment/mayor-condemns-state-public-toilets-alnwick-town-centre-saying-they-are-disgrace-3043109

 

Priti or Ugly is Bullying endemic at all levels of the Tory Party. Does Northumberlands experience back up the ‘Nasty Party’ image?

Remember 2017? well we at Murky do. Priti Patel, someone who has shown herself to be not only a nasty party bully girl of the first order but during 2017 she had to be removed from her Cabinet post by Theresa May for holding a series of secret unofficial meetings with the Isreali Government. (was she also trying to ‘fit up’ the tongue slipping Jeremy Corbyn at the time?). Following her talks, Patel asked about sending British aid money to the Israeli army, for funding humanitarian projects in the occupied area of Golan Heights – something she discussed with Israeli officials. This added to the charges against Patel – the UK doesn’t recognise Israel’s occupation there, so public money can’t be spent on it.

Afterwards Ms Patel is quoted in the Guardian saying: “Boris [Johnson] knew about the visit. The point is that the Foreign Office did know about this, Boris knew about [the trip].” He was Foriegn Minister at the time.

Johnson brought her back to life as Home Secretary after winning the 2019 General Election and she began showing some traits that were of serious concern to other MP’s and the general public. Her wish to send anyone who has applied for status as an asylum seeker should be in her words “processed” and bundled off to the Ascension Islands in the South Atlantic. followed by her bullying many more thousands of people when she was ecstatic in June this year on announcing that the 30 recommendations in the ’Windrush report’ would be implemented by the Government.  On live TV she was shown fuming when even other nasties voted with the opposition to set up a compensation scheme for Caribbean families bullied by Patel who were wrongly told they were in the UK illegally. Yet the Tories ‘Corbyn’, Prime Minister Johnson supports her stance and has rushed to her side, what has she got on him?

Her now famous recent events, the bullying of staff who are engaged to work with elected representatives lines up clearly with the accusations being investigated in Northumberland County Council where endemic bullying of staff by elected Tory Councillors is rife, along with allegations of racism, dodgy land dealing, corruption, public cash wasting on refurbishing an almost empty headquarters spending almost double that of building a new office block along with a myriad of power crazy actions down to the level of stopping planned work in Labour voting areas to punish those who dare stand against them.

Luckily the other Councillors including some urban based Tories saw sense and threw out the Leader of Council, Cllr. Peter Jackson. But his nasty gang still survived and are still making the lives of employees and other Councillors as miserable as they can whilst high level investigations go on into their activities.

Labour, LibDem and some Independent Councillors have shown and expressed support for the position the staff find themselves in and with the Tories themselves split into two opposing factions battling each other at the secret societies they belong too, the investigators can carry on and prepare a report into what has really been happening at the Council and its attached companies? But unlike the Boris support for Patel, its hoped the new Leader of Council won’t rally to the sides of his beleaguered Party attack dogs!

Mr Mrs Priti

Green Britain or Rip Off Britain?

Your Murky team has decided to take a very tiny initial look at Boris Johnsons announcement on ‘Greening the United Kingdom in a single decade’ as we believe Tories do nothing at all unless they and their cohorts are going to benefit financially from any, even the slightest effort they put in.

As Boris is a completely true blue then as he announced his green revolution of attempting to change our habits of driving cars which are not powered by Petrol or Diesel had he noticed that somehow he has to raise at least £28Bn annually to replace car fuel duty?

Some his other changes look great but what will they do to society and how will his investor chums benefit from his suggestions, such as rewilding 30% of the UK land mass, including the shoreline areas, mixing natural gas with hydrogen to slow the change over from Gas boilers to the retro 1960’s vision of the ‘All electric home’, as the infrastructure to generate ever more supplies of sustainable electricity and decommission the old high polluters takes place. He also has to tackle the wrath of people who don’t want ever more micro nuclear plant and onshore windfarms developed near their homes.

In some respects his announcement possibly highlights his need to be seen as a republican PM, cutting off the UK reliance on middle eastern oil  and Russian transcontinental pipeline supplied gas over a very short historical period indeed, a single decade. Now that Dominic Cummings has left his employ his vision seems to have changed to building Australian style closed borders (as its hard to build a Trumpian wall around an island). But does his republican vision have anything built in to end fuel poverty?

Raising £28Bn plus annually from domestic and institutional energy users changes many parts of society, those currently living on a state pension the average pension is £131 per week, spends almost one weeks pension each month on their basic energy, water, sewage and percentage of Council Tax they pay, that average has been dragged up slightly through new pensions payments of £174 a week so some possibly pay more than a weeks pension or stay cold in their homes.

To replace the £28Bn the ‘Triple Lock’ annual increase in pension would need to rise at an additional 2% above its annual figure over a decade to keep up with the needs of HMRC and begin to level out although not decrease fuel poverty among those living on basic state pension

We will murkily take a look at this again with a local twist as the Tory spin subsides but at this moment in time we have to agree with the shadow business secretary Ed Millibands view that its a rebadging of funding pots and reheated pledges. 

 Heres the list that constitutes the plan but without his spin team in No10 when will the costed road map appear?

 

A.          Wind energy and the rebirth of the Dogger Banks scheme that has attracted inward investment and is possibly ready to begin its development but in order to do that Johnson is to utilise Scotlands surplus energy supply hoping levelling up of jobs doesn’t require Scotland to use it themselves.

B.          Hydrogen usage and modification to power clean goods transport, buses and trains on non-electrified lines. As well as mixing with natural gas for domestic properties and developing hydrogen driven towns within a decade?

C.          Nuclear Power is to be expanded through the use of micro generators, Planning and Tory member nimbyism may slow those plans down.

D.          Electric Vehicles and some types of hybrids to ensure you can travel further than into the next county before you have to find a charging point.

E.          Public Transport, walking and cycling, he wants to make it more attractive?

F.           Green shipping and planes?

G.          Homes and public buildings to make them warmer and more energy efficient  aiming to retrofit 600,000 heat pumps by 2028.

H.          Leading the world in Carbon Capture

I.             Treeplanting, he wants 30,000 hectares of land planted with deciduous trees  in a new round of forestry. He musn’t have noticed that the wealthy families who support his crazy gang plant them for death duty purposes, lets see those arguments unfold when his MP’s are put under pressure.

J.           Innovation and Finance

To ensure his mates in the city are fully engaged in the investment in and development of green technology Englands biggest city is to become the centre of ‘greeness’ Surely this is something that is innovative and should be devolved to the Shires.

K.          Pressure is on for Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP who on taking up her new energy post possibly missed the fact that the need for knowledge from a greening nation will now sit on her doorstep.

Internal Northumberland Tory Splits are personally and socially damaging across the new divide.

 

The revelations that investigations by a number of agencies are taking place looking into a series of allegations against a number of leading politicians which have spun out from County Hall in Morpeth have created a political chasm between those loyal to the disgraced former Leader Cllr Peter Jackson (the Out group) and those newly triablised personalities who find themselves as the less identity extreme (In group) under the new Leader Cllr Glen Sanderson.

In politics, numbers are the most essential steadying factor and the Out Group however extremely corrupt and bullying the investigations discover they are, don’t have a team large enough to turn over their now hated In Group colleagues.

Over the last few years we have seen those characters within the Out Group moving ever onward towards damaging extremism almost to the point of being radicalised. Their antics have been talked about in the shadows but until now very little has come out into the open.

Division at this level is very hard for MP’s and the wider members of the Tory Party as many have friends on both sides of this divide. The threats issued in the heat of the moment at times like this can destroy friendships which can stretch back decades and in some cases lifetimes. Polarising politics can in turn affect broader social relationships. 

A hostile culture of ‘othering’ political rivals can spill over into social relations but these political rivalries are supposed to sit on the same side in politics, and as time goes on we may see a deepening of these differences as the results of the investigations and audit reports become available for public consumption.

The Out Group have been undeniably secretive in everything they do and have done, so much so that they threw the opposition off the Councils Cabinet, reduced public Council meetings by half to cut the Council Taxpayers off from input, challenge and debate and turned staff against staff in order to keep their secrets. The In Group only have six months to turn this mess around and we know that timescale is immense in local Government terms and with the open sores caused by threats, social and personal breakdowns, deselections of candidates, lost friendships and accusations of collusion failing to heal we don’t believe the good times will return for many years to come.

 

Dumping Housing Growth into the South-East of Northumberland will run down the Counties Market Towns.

 For those who have any interest at all in the area they live in they will have shown at least a smidgen of interest in some of the things that pass through their Council at one time or another which need planning permission. You may agree with the changes happening near you or disagree but at least you will have an opinion.

There has been  a great deal of interest shown in planning matters by people on environmental issues in recent years with wind farms and opencast decisions ending up having to made centrally by Government inspectors rather than through the local democratic processes. In Northumberland their Council processes are so far out of date that people often feel let down by the result from planning inspectors. This is the result of Northumberland Conservatives throwing out the Councils core strategy document in 2017. Planners now have to rely on out of date policies from former District Councils which haven’t existed since October 2008.

 

But things have taken a much more serious turn for the worse in recent months as the very secretive Cabinet in Northumberland have got even more involved than usual in ensuring they only promote building in the South East of the County and ‘conserve’ everywhere else leading to the development of no rural growth making unsustainable communities in our beloved and historic Market Towns.

 

Here’s an extract from the Councils technical papers to illustrate the Conservatives wishes where Cramlington and Bedlington will lose out dramatically with much more housing and no growth in new services.

 

2.8 Therefore the Plan aims to focus most development in the more urban south east Northumberland, together with the County’s market towns. However, it also proposes to encourage some development in rural areas to support the rural economy, maintain the vitality and sustainability of communities and the retention of services. The Plan proposes to direct development to locations where it can support, and benefit from the use of existing local infrastructure and facilities, and support economic growth, whilst protecting the countryside and character of settlements.

The secret Tories have also pulled another couple of strokes to stop those who are interested in their communities from telling their Government whether they agree or disagree with changes suggested to the planning process by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government who asked Councils to consult with their communities on suggested changes to the process. Its believed Northumberland whose Portfolio for planning is Cllr John Riddle, who has been named in allegations by leading officers of the Council and is under investigation over land dealings has had the consultation completed and sent back, but did you see it or have you been able to comment on it? We at Murky are aware very few have
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927157/200805_Changes_to_the_current_planning_system.pdf

 

And its closing date was 1^st October 2020.

 

This consultation followed on with another that had a closing date of 29^th October, the public have also been kept away from this in Northumberland when open consultation was taking place in Councils all around them Northumberland Tories kept this just as secret as everything else that goes on in their ‘Empire of the Sun’ at County Hall in Morpeth.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/907647/MHCLG-Planning-Consultation.pdf

 

It appears that these changes will lead to ever more central control from Whitehall as it places Government hand in velvet glove with the nations developers.

 

For those who voted Tory at the last national or local government elections your loyalty will definitely be tested by these changes which we expect will be rolled out in a hurry by Government and you need to be asking Tory MP’s and Tory Councillors why they wanted building (housing numbers) dumped in the South East of the County and why things can’t be put in place correctly. Is it  because developers have needs towards their shareholders and require the higher profits from developing in the Countryside and popular places like Ponteland and that they in many cases are also huge contributors to Tory Party coffers?

 

What a downright mess Northumberland Tories and John Riddle in particular have this County in?

 

Remember Dissington Garden Village and Clickemin estate well Murky believes they will be back and the Council will have to be less secretive this time!

 

 

Tories Heralding Labour’s AB&T Line Reopening

 Changing its name to the Northumberland Line 

Doesn’t Change History

We at Murky find it very interesting that Northumberland Conservatives are heralding their contribution to the reopening of the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line to passenger traffic so we thought we had better take a closer look at why as it may be purely political?

Their roll out which may include the possibility of a socially distanced visit from Grant Shapps the UK Minister for Transport. But with the County Council Tories in full civil war mode and the Local MP for Blyth Valley sitting with the Stuarts at the bottom of the hill on the battlefield without the opportunity for a U-turn the Government may make an excuse or two and either send a minion or simply send the cash to the holding organisation (NCC) in order to dodge the battlers as a simple look shows that this project also benefits Labour areas in Tyne and Wear to a similar level to that of Northumberland residents and the North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll is best placed to accept the Government and not the embattled County Council or Advance Northumberland considering the former Leadership of the County Council have tried to persuade ministers to place the Council in special measures so they can sack top staff and save their sullied reputations.

This is not a new project and progress has been halted by many Tory transport ministers it has been said on many occasions that the conversations by Labour Councillor Gordon Webb with the British Rail Board just after the coal industry in South East Northumberland was run down should have kickstarted this project to bring passenger trains back onto this very active goods line and link in with the Tyne and Wear Metro but Thatcher's ministers included ‘Onyerbike’ Norman Tebbit who saw the defiance of miners to save their livelihoods and feed their families as an attack on his and Margaret Thatcher's new freedoms and liberties for any employing companies his mantra being  "A person who declines to fall in with new conditions of employment which result from a collective agreement may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Therefore the easing of the ability of Northumberland’s ex-miners and their families to find employment in the Tyne and Wear conurbation was halted in its tracks, (no pun intended).

Circumstances alter cases has been an accepted norm since the 17th century and this project sits fully within the halo of the quote. The growth in road traffic in the Tyne and Wear conurbation on in particular the main arterial roads into the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland has led both national and local politicians into looking at the revival of the AB&T line project. The problems that the linking of the A1 the A189 spine road and the A19’s convergence in the very south east border with Tyne and Wear, the pre-covid traffic jams on the A1 Western bypass also at the Moor Farm roundabout has led to the fear for drivers that pollution charges will be forced onto their wage packets. This fear has spilled out making projects like the AB&T line reopening essential for all. 

Dark Side v Moderates

 Ian Levy MP on the wrong side of the chasm!

Murky noticed that it's almost a year since the Monica Lewinsky letter leaked to probably anyone who has an email address in Northumberland its contents blew the bullying tactics and belief in totalitarianism of Northumberland in-power Tories out into the open.

The letter also highlighted the conditions that staff were working under and how the budgets of the Council were being unfairly twisted towards areas of affluence with cash assistance and help being stripped from areas of greatest need. 

The extension of poverty and disregard for those striving to survive along with the atrocious working conditions being endured by staff loyal to public service festered on and led eventually to the Councils top officer being sent home to rot on extended leave for daring to stick up for her staff and hoping the public at large would pick up the dreadful situation via the press in a cry for help for her beleaguered workforce with a whistleblower email accusing the Council of corruption.

A revolt of strong resistance from the Labour Parties broad church socialists in the chamber aided by the moderate Tories, Libdems and independent Councillors ousted its Leader, Councillor Casanova Peter Jackson from office forcing a resurgence among the moderates who chose the restrained Councillor Glen Sanderson to replace him.

During the last few weeks since these majorly unusual actions from a Council and counter allegations from the former Emperor disgraced leader of council Peter Jackson which are seen as very damaging indeed to the Tory Party and it's been reported that Police, external auditors and both internal fraud & external forensic lawyers have been engaged who have found that the CEX, Mrs Lally, is innocent of any wrongdoings and it's been rumoured to us at Murky that the ex-Emperor and his bully boy battle troops are stepping up their attempts to remove her from her employment. Mrs Lally seen as the prime passionate objector to their totalitarian regime has been backed up by previously introduced government legislation missed from the Councils policies on purpose and if the Castle Morpeth dark siders make another move to sever her from her post the decision would have to be agreed by the whole Council.

Any dark side attack on its new leader and the CEX may be a step too far for the more honest Conservative Councillors among their ranks and support to defeat any threat to depose either may lead the Board of the Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust, the CEX’s partner employer to become embroiled in what the public of Northumberland are beginning to see as damaging to the County’s reputation nationally, and in a County almost totally reliant on tourism where it is essential the clean and pure sentiment that ensures post covid and Brexit tourists flock back in their hoards is not sullied by the events of internal gang warfare between the political factions which make up Northumberland Conservatives.

Coups are difficult to accept if your ultimate goal is forged through secretive organisations sullying your reputations and Northumberland Tories should worry if reputation is something you desire? The nasty party element who now form a minority among Northumberland Tories are in completely sweaty panic mode and are rallying their troops which apparently do not include both of their long serving MP’s to burn the moderates tails and bring in one of their warlords to run the Council as the puppet of the very spiteful Peter Jackson to replace Councillor Sanderson who its believed has refused to sack the CEX since she was cleared of all wrongdoing while investigators crawl all over the worried dark side Tories, their brass necked bullying secretive influence and handling of Council affairs and finances. Unfortunately for him, history will show the MP for Blyth Valley Ian Levey is sitting on the wrong side of the chasm and is supporting both the corrupt former regime and the bully boy tactics being used by the dark-siders. The Cramlington moderates who did his work for him and got him elected have been cast aside in this latest coup and he has even begun removing supporters from his social media platforms. It's rumoured of course that he sits with the nasty party corrupters at their secret society do’s, no surprise there then?

Meetings have been held to garner support to bring a dark sider back into the Leadership to control the County, at first it was thought that the man central to the Morpethgate scandal would be best placed to do in the staff but he was shunned by even some of his own. So they are promoting Darth Vader the Oswald Molesly of the County, Ricky Wearmouth. His promotion may turn the County Council into the type of mess we see at Advance Northumberland and who would want any of that? Luckily for the taxpayer the old Emperor hasn’t got the numbers to win this battle and Councillors Sanderson and Dodds can sit back and watch until May 2021 at least!

 
The dark siders and their sole MP Ian Levy are so vain in their beliefs of their totalitarianism that lies don’t matter therefore if the investigations don’t stop them in their tracks, Peter Jackson will show them that they need to act like Farmers and plough ahead regardless ruining Northumberlands reputation into the bargain.

 

Will Public Accounts Committee cut Blyth off from the Towns Fund?

 Dodgy and Murky selection process for winners questioned by powerful Parliamentary Committee

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has demanded greater transparency over the selection process for the Towns Fund, that’s the Government scheme under which 101 so-called left-behind areas were chosen to apply for up to £25m each. Blyth is one of those Towns.

It’s believed that the 101 chosen places to receive the ‘Golden Ticket’ have been chosen to massage areas politically and although these areas do need some help to regenerate their high streets and towns the judgement used by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick and Jake Berry, his junior minister, appears to be very suspect indeed.

Government MP’s have faced criticism over funding awarded to areas in their own constituencies. Last month Mr Jenrick described the selection process as “robust and fair”, but a new report from the very influential public accounts committee of MPs has concluded that the justifications given by ministers for their choices were “vague and based on sweeping assumptions”.

Many of the areas chosen are in the now very precarious for the Conservatives ‘Red Wall’ areas and other constituencies where Tories have won by a narrow margin and have not been chosen purely on merit. 

The National Audit Office also looked into selection and Blyth on their scorecard is described as a Town in the North West of England. Some Tory MP’s whose towns have lost out are wondering why Blyth in Northumberland a former ‘Red Wall’ seat has been chosen instead?

 

Notes on National Noise against the Governments chosen Few:

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/paying-the-price-of-first-past-the-post-towns-fund-millions-spent-on-marginal-seats/

 

https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/north-east-loses-out-ministers-18635154

 

 

https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/new_towns_fund_is_not_the_answer_to_england_s_forgotten_towns

 

 

 

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/review-of-the-town-deals-selection-process/

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f75b29ad3bf7f243adf6180/towns-fund-accelerated-funding-grants.pdf

 

Have Paper Picking Tories Blown Prudhoe’s Chance for Town Centre Growth.

Way back in the dark ages of 2016 an amazing growth plan was put forward by the Labour Party to help maintain and grow its retail offer in the Town Centre and then once the new offer and peoples travel choice to shop became well developed a new mixed use retail and commercial development would be opened up at Low Prudhoe to capture the huge passing trade between Newcastle/Gateshead and the West of the County and on to Cumbria, trade that has missed Prudhoe since its bypass was opened and its once famous traffic problems eased.

Labour Party gurus worked closely with Northumberland Estates and the Northumberland CountyCouncil Development Company ARCH to form a joint venture organisation to drive up jobs and increase the GDP of Prudhoe which included many new jobs in the two retail offers they were jointly engaged with.

On arrival into office at Northumberland County Council the Tories who are run by a mob from the former Castle Morpeth Borough Council and their chequered history can be found through google decided that they would fulfill their very dodgy manifesto promise and scrap the development company ARCH. 

The Tories work took them into the legal minefield of company scrappage, with the debt coverage and tax problems breaking up a Council owned company would bring, so they decided to slow its growth to a snail's pace and at huge expense to the Council Tax payer change its name to Advance Northumberland.

With the accused of corruption Castle Morpeth team fawned upon by Councillors Ken Stow and the paper picking facebook photo model Gordon Stewart, Prudhoe was forced into the passenger seat. The retail improvement scheme to bring a brighter and stronger shopping offer into the Town Centre on its redundant allotment site was moved back with the Councillors and the JV Company Prudhoe Estates concentrating on hooking in retails big boys and developing its potentially cash rich site at Low Prudhoe on the bypass.

 We have noticed that the new member of the ‘Secret Cabinet’ at County Hall in Morpeth, Gordon Stewart did take some time out to have his photo taken professionally on the Low Prudhoe site and revel in the thought that  the discounter Aldi was projected to join KFC and develop their out of town offer to the detriment of commerce on Prudhoe’s high street.

 

 

Message from the slurry tank!

The Tories Lied about their CEX

Revelations in the Northumberland local weekly press show that the disgraced leader of Northumberland Conservative Group Cllr Peter Jackson may have libeled his Chief Executive Mrs Daljit Lally when he exposed her travel arrangements and costs on behalf of the Council and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

He expressed his opinion that the costs of attempting to win business from far afield was in our murky words ‘a beanie for his CEX’.

Investigations have been opened into his verbal outburst of diarrhoea and they have proven that Mrs Lally is innocent of the allegations Jackson made against her and the business and international department is squeaky clean.

But the reports highlight that the investigations by auditors, fraud investigators  and Northumbria Police into the Council are still going on and the Tory Cabinet at County Hall who have operated in secret since May 2017 have to prepare to defend themselves against the myriad of allegations made by a whistleblower.

We at murky have heard that this band of Councillor farming characters meet regularly in the hot tub of one of their members but some  believe that they would be able to think more clearly if the tub was filled with warm slurry and they can then languish up to their necks and consider their positions in similar company! 

 

NOTES:

https://wwwnewspostleader.co.uk/news/people/no-police-investigations-after-political-row-3024948

 

https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/18845964.no-investigation-northumberland-county-council-claims/

 

 

Levy let down by Bozza, You should have listened to the people!

Ian Levy MP has whinged on about the threats pointed towards him for not supporting the compassionate residents of his constituency who wanted him to show some bottle and support local children.He refused, sucked up to the Nasty Party and took the whip. A whip driven by a Leader who has let him down badly.His public have been shown his full nasty party face and how his loyalty to the  cash rattling in his pocket is worth more to him than driving out child poverty from the constituency who entrusted him to support them!

 

£ 43M cuts Cllr Dungworth is right to show concern

This week Northumberland Labour Group Leader, Councillor Susan Dungworth expressed concern at the Tory Councillor Nick Oliver’s announcements that £43M of cuts are needed to balance the books he will leave behind in May 2021. 

Councillor Nick Olivers abysmal record of having the Councils accounts ‘qualified’ every year for the last three years shows how wrong he can be in everything he does or announces with the word ‘qualified’ technical speak for ‘failed’ Cllr Dungworth was completely correct to express her concern at his latest dodgy statement.

As the portfolio holder for finance he has been exposed by his peers on a number of occasions regarding his inability to understand the process he is in charge of and the accused of bullying administration he is a member of has had four different section 151 officers (head of finance) employed since their progression into office in May 2017. This has allowed him to create within his own mind a number of ‘Black Holes’ in his accounts to cover up his inability to manage the role he has been entrusted with by the allegedly corrupt ousted Leader and the Tory Cabinet at County Hall, Morpeth.

This latest massive cut needed to be challenged with his Government pulling back on Austerity until after the end of covid and Brexit so how does he know how large the cut needs to be unless his errors are to blame for a £43M loss?

With national statistics recently releasing the average costs of employing a worker in the public sector being £31k and with Cllr Oliver ensuring his Council spent nothing on project delivery over the last three years other than those begun by Labour his calculation would have the Council lose 1387 jobs to cover his calculation, leaving the Council in the insidious position of not being able to deliver services.

Here at Murky our thanks go out to the Labour Party for exposing Cllr Oliver’s latest shameful tosh and ensuring the public don’t forget how his grip has stopped the delivery of essential projects that would be life changing for many.

Progressive Labour save Hill

Council meeting geeks like us at Murky couldn’t help but notice the new face on the block at last wednesday's online meeting of full Council in Northumberland, Caroline Elwood the Councils new Governance Consultant she had to endure her first professional viewing of the two faced Morpeth Mafia mob which spins around the maypole of life in full public view. Only time will tell if she is able to help stop the rot.

During the long boring and self patronising from the Tories meeting, Councillor Hill from Berwick corrected the beleaguered Councillor Oliver when the Council debated bringing their arms length development company Advance Northumberland, audit function into a group audit that his accounts had not been accepted and that they had been ‘qualified’ for the last three years. 

An auditor's report is qualified when there is either a limitation of scope in the auditor's work, or when there is a disagreement with management regarding application, acceptability or adequacy of accounting policies. For auditors an issue must be material (real or true) or financially worth consideration to qualify a report. Effectively Councillor (black hole) Oliver’s accounts have failed the test for the last three years.

Following her remarks a well orchestrated attack on Councillor Hill took place and the Tories in the shape of their ex-leader and rich farming playboy Peter Jackson who has aged considerably since his last appearance on TV pushed forward a proposal to bring in an independent chairperson to replace Councillor Hill. Council Audit Committees have independent people on them but the Tories brought in a less than independent into theirs, the former Tory Group Leader of South Cambs Council Peter Topping possibly the person to be promoted to chair.

Councillor Susan Dungworth who instantly saw the move to bring down the CEX Daljit Lally as the ultimate aim of the Tories leapt to Councillor Hills defence and praised both her and her predecessor Councillor Anne Dale as acting independently from Council. 

The debate turned into boiling gruel and legal advice was issued, the new chair of Council, Barry Flux offered a free vote on the matter to try to relieve tension and the Morpeth Mob were defeated.

In the same vein rumours from MP’s offices indicate that Northumberland Conservatives have been begging Ministers for the Council to be put into special measures to stop their personal reputations being damaged through the high probability that a fourth set of ‘qualified’ accounts in as many years will be the result of this years audit as the spun out news in the press from last week that the investigations into Corruption, Racism, Bullying, Malpractice, Mismanagement dodgy land dealing etc were over and the angelic choir of angels at County Hall were innocent of all allegations was a fabrication and the investigations using forensic auditors who will prepare reports that may be used by the Police are still well and truly on and after this weeks dodgy moves were sure the independence of Councillor Hill will allow the truth to leech out.

 

 

Northumberland Tories do they now give a damn for our kids or is a Marmot something we can shoot on our land?

 At the televised Full Council meeting on 04/11/2020 the Council, now led by the puppet of the ousted Peter Jackson, Councillor Glen Sanderson gave out the amount they had hoovered up from Government to service the Covid pandemic as £165,867,000 yet none of it has been earmarked to fulfill the Councils policies adopted 10 years ago following the first Marmot review Councillor Sanderson said his Group would consider food poverty over the next few months. 

He was reminded by both Labour and Independent Councillors of his Councils responsibilities to equality and the reduction of poverty in what is one of the most split Counties in England on both health inequalities and wealth. Its the dream area of right-wing Tories a real time two tier society zone.

The original Marmot review looked at the state of the nations health and the life expectancy of people living a few miles apart under the same Council, his initial findings brought him round to taking a detailed look at Northumberland picking out the South East and the Rural Coalfield areas as places with some of the greatest inequalities nationally, inequalities which have got much worse since May 2017 and the arrival of the Morpeth Mob into power at County Hall.

Murky has been looking at a report written in November 2019 and commented upon by Councillor Wayne Daley showing that since May 2017 under his watch as Portfolio holder for Childrens Services, Child Poverty in the County had risen steadily from the February 2018 report of 14,847 children living in poverty up to 20,493 in eighteen months and apart from the report to Council nothing was done to alleviate the problem and an 8% cut in Council Tax benefit forced through by the Tories simply made matters much worse for Northumberland families claiming benefit and their children.

This failure to tackle a fundamental problem may have been the reason Councillor Daley jumped ship from his portfolio position when the emails claiming corruption were released by the Councils chief executive.

Councillor Daley is the representative of Northumberlands wealthiest ward, Cramlington North which still has over 16% of children living in poverty through the neglect of his Council and his Government.

But the dire face of poverty can be seen much more clearly in the extreme North and across the South East and rural coalfield wards of the County with Newbiggin by the Sea Central and East ward having 46% of its children in poverty. Followed by Seaton Ward with 44% Berwick 42%, Bedlington East on 42% followed by a cluster based in Blyth, Cowpen, Croft and Kitty Brewster hovering on or slightly above 39% child poverty is endemic across parts of the County yet support to feed those worse off during school holidays was denied by Government and its awash with emergency funding County Council.

 

Problems are about to worsen with the rural coalfield wards of Amble, East Chevington and Lynemouth with current figures on or around 30% of children living in poverty expected to take some of the greatest hits from Brexit and the current lockdown position not helping home working employment through the need for improved internet connections in all areas stalling since May 2017. Those watching the televised meeting could see Councillors in urban areas such as Bedlington having to switch off the video element of their connections in order to be heard.

 

Councillor Glen Sanderson the Councils new Leader has inherited a County which has developed a vision for the wealthy at the expense of the poorest in our society, so much money has been granted to businesses linked with farming that the Government has had to pour £166M into its coffers to stop in going bust like the recently announced Croydon Council.  A figure the Tory MP for Blyth Valley Ian Levy got completely wrong yet was crowing about in the press. Considering the poverty his Government has increased year on year across Northumberland over the last decade he should hang his head in shame.