Will Berwick become the Tijuana of the UK?

 

Living in an ever growing right-wing society with the Prime Minister of the UK acting as an ancient tribal deity, judging and pardoning himself from acts of corruption and being able to hide from the creation of a border which alienates citizens dwelling within the land he was ‘democratically’ elected to represent, not rule.

We can also point towards top advisors to the Government outside of the Dominic Cummings revelations stating that No. 10 is ‘anti working class’. This obviously is a pointer towards the creation of a right-wing two tier society and we need to ask if the Home Secretary is considering bringing back the Sumptuary Laws to enable her envisaged police state to instantly recognize your distinct standing in society at the weekends?

That murky rant obviously brings us to the Berwick question and possibly why 48% of Scottish people polled last week regarding a second referendum on independence said they would like to leave the clutches of the UK and their first minister who in recent months has become recognised as the Tom Pepper she is has agreed that a hard border would have to be created between the nations of England and Scotland, currently that border without a referendum being taken on the Northern Counties of England has its eastern crossing point at Berwick upon Tweed.

It's a wonderful but constrained by history border Town with limited room for expansion but unplanned expansion may be what it gets if those now classified as working class by the Tories (thats people who haven’t been elitely privately educated with Eton being the chosen temple) try to escape the ever facshist right-wing England to gain access to greener and more socially liberal grass north of the border begin to cluster near Marshalls Meadows.

At the other land of the free across the proverbial pond we have similar things happening and we only need to take an e-look at the Tijuana/San Diego crossing situation to see how important the feeling of being free is to people. The current crop of Tories have a lot to answer for  and the development of a fear factor of the state is one of those things we must all rally against.

Jamie Clarifies there’s £128m shortfall to reopen AB&T Line

 £34M Tory supercon exposed?

For almost two years the Tories in Northumberland have been leading residents in Northumberland into the fantasy belief that finance regarding the reopening of the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Northumberland Line to passenger traffic is in place for an early finish date. They have had minster after minister up to Blyth, photo after photo taken with the Blyth MP Ian Levy and leading Councillors from Morpeth to show that the former Leader of the Conservatives in Northumberland’s promise that he wouldn’t spend in Blyth or Ashington must be forgotten and that huge investments will be made, as always with Tory Stories (sometime in the future).

The recent reports in the Chronicle that the Government want to cut budgets for rail projects in the rush to start Austerity 2 and that Northumberland County Councils administration had accepted cuts to the much vaunted £34m investment wiping out the new station and transport hub at Bebside which would bring the line so close to opening you could smell it.

Election panic set in immediately into the bleeding hearts of Northumberland Tories and the Morpeth Mob were found quaking so hard that a minister had to be delivered for ever more photos to prove their secret Cabinet decision to slash the project was wrong and that it would be U-turned and the £34M investment stands.

All of the noise surrounding this debacle was sorted yesterday when the North of Tyne Mayor who spoke with Government released a statement that the Station at Bebside would go ahead but his caveat was that the line still wouldn’t open until the Tory Government coughed up another £128m as the project will cost £162m.

Yet the Tories in Northumberland agreed to slash cash from £34M!

Will it ever be reopened?

Not with the fantasy story tellers in the Tory party involved it won’t.

Levy Family ditch Cram Tories to support the ‘nasties’?

On this blog you rarely see us praising our competitor for readership the so called Northumberland Murky Blogspot which over the last six years has poured hot vitriol over any middle of the road blog seeking to tell the truth about the extremists involved with and in Tory politics in Northumberland, but this week we would like to thank them for exposing the Levy family for what they are.

It appears that the NMB is in possession of information that the Levy’s are in full support of bringing back the Leader of the Morpeth Mob, Peter Jackson who was accused of promoting bullying, corruption, dodgy land dealings, racism and numerous other nasty party irregularities including the mass replacement of finance officers who may have caught them out. Whilst pooh poohing the fact that the accounts of the County Council have failed all tests since he became Leader, a very important fact to take into consideration when voting on May 6th.

 He was sacked as Leader of Northumberland County Council in a coup to stop the disgraceful actions against Council Officers by a coalition of Labour, Independent and Cramlington Conservatives, Daley, Dunbar and Swinburn.

Levy's alignment with the ultra right wing mob shows that they have also ditched the Cramlington Conservatives whose wider group were responsible for selecting Ian Levy as their successful candidate for the 2019 General Election.

Ditching your mates is something the Levy’s can ill afford to do as under Conservtive party rules you need your mates backing to ensure the longevity of your career in politics but with the families now public alliance with the Mob via the matriarch of the Levy’s then we now all know what she is, as the clarity that the Tory powerbase in Cramlington is rapidly fading and the ship jumping wife of a sitting MP is now getting used to the big bank balance her hubby is salting away to change her lifestyle forever and will readily face the bulying from the Northumberland Tory Mob in order to keep the goodies rolling in to her purse, as she must know how badly these Tories treat second class women just look at the torture the millionaire lothario Peter Jackson has allegedly put his wife through in recent months when his alleged affair with another power mad Tory was publically exposed.

Good on you NMB for bringing this dangerous debacle to everyone's attention.

Workers and Trade Unions need to know about their futures?

Tory secret Cabinet needs to tell the truth!

Social Media comment surrounding the May 6th election 2021 is beginning to settle on a very small number of issues. In a year when social media is driving election communications like never before we here at Murkey have been watching how much comment which includes questions about the future of Northumbria Healthcare Trust Adult Care sector and workforce is being removed from Tory candidate sites quicker than the proverbial from a stick.

We have spoken with a number of workers across the County who are seriously concerned about their future and the life chances for their families who wish to engage in a career in care in the future.

The only news that workers have is that the much exalted at Government level, partnership between Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust and Northumberland County Council will end in September 2021 and the Tories at County Hall are cock-a-hoop about it.

Its also been revealed through our sources that Councillors outside the single party Cabinet at Northumberland do not have any detail at all regarding the replacement for the Adult Care service for patients and for those workers in the Charities which contract with the Care Trust and deliver in home care to people, rumours are rife about the possible lack of job security in the long term.

We are aware through watching social media that Tory Councillors and candidates outside of the Cabinet structure have been instructed not to get into any debate at all on the breakup which leads us to worry about whats being cooked up.

A short snippet picked up from a leading cabinet members facebook page regarding what he and others were doing one day in October 2019 may lead us to the answer. As well as bullying staff, some Cabinet Members were going to hear about Social Care Co-operatives from an expert in the field.

For those who don’t know, Social Care Co-operatives remove the democratic accountability for patients from care and use a client contractor split basis to deliver care, harking back to how the Thatcher Government dealt with the demise of democracy in Council Housing which led tenants to rush out from the protection of the Council and gift their homes to Housing Associations.

For the Trade Unions who work in the Local Government field they will be able to explain how quickly workers rights and the public sector pension schemes are eroded and replaced with much lesser deals and that's one of the big savings to a co-operative that Tory employers love but will contribute a massive blow to the Counties economy in the future as workers plans for their retirement are eroded or in many cases simply melt away.

If this is to be the future planned by the Tories at County Hall then they need to make an immediate response to our teams question today and come clean about the planned future for the huge workforce which looks after the elderly and infirmed in a county which is well known nationally as home to an aging society.

Tories did Cancel Bebside Station

 

 then tried a cover up: Read

Stories covering up the abandonment of Bebside Station as part of the reopening of the AB&T Northumberland Line have been issued by Tories over the last few days. Some from the MP for Blyth Ian Levy who had to make a climb down from his first position of his pantomime position of ‘Oh no were not’ in the Chronicle when he found out that his Tory Mates on both Northumberland County Council and in Government had said ‘Oh yes we are’.

People from the parts of Blyth affected by the abandonment feel let down and ignored by Northumberland Conservatives who vowed prior to the 2017 Local Government Elections never to deliver anything in Blyth, A promise they have well and truly kept.

Here’s the link to the article in the New Civil Engineer https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/northumberland-line-station-to-be-axed-in-project-speed-cuts-20-04-2021/?fbclid=IwAR0OiBAle6jMo59WxI5MzbCk27aEvdmaDi04WeDTpwBzNt3lT95QTxeO4Jw issuing out the same information as the Chronicle: That the project will go ahead without the transport hub at Bebside due to cost and this will then quicken the service from Ashngton to Newcastle.

Labour members have asked for clarification of the situation and pledged to finance the transport hub if they win a majority at the election on May 6th.

                                            Rebuilding the Red Wall

Murky noticed these lover boy and alleged bully boy has been bullied by others.

 

His black eye shows why everyone should avoid voting for him and his broken infighting Tory rabble. 

Another £300,000 payout of public money for bullying:

When will the bully’s cough up?

The recently released accounts of the County Council for last year read like a tattered book, in a similar vein to European nations after major wars due to the localised mismanagement by the current administration and the recruitment and subsequent loss of five heads of finance since 2017.

Many of the tory administration's cabinet Councillors are well versed in bullying techniques which have been exposed in the press and social media over the last four years. The Council has also paid out six figure sums to people who have been bullied by the Tories including the former CEX of the Council and the head of finance for the Company ARCH whom it was proven they lied about.

They are also quite famous for getting rid of staff who as professional officers know more than the Tories and locking them into skin tight compromise agreements so that they can’t speak about their experiences. The costs have shown in the last three sets of accounts and this shocking spend has affected the Council's ability to deliver services to the expected high standards of other Councils around them.

These new accounts reveal that last year another top officer was paid £300,000 in what we at the murky believe was a serious bullying episode which destroyed the officers public reputation. Yet the protagonists simply shell out public money and sit tight on their own wealth while seriously damaging all around them through fear that they may be next.

We noticed that the kingpin who drives the hub which bullies all, ex leader farming millionaire Peter Jackson wants to come back as the Leader of the mob at County Hall so that he can practice his art as chief torturer and get you the public to pay for his horrific ‘if your a victim’ fun! without any cost to him. A true faschist by anyone's standards.

Northumberland County Council - Statement of accounts

£120m+ spend by Tory dissidents has left County education and capital funding in tatters.

 

In the autumn of 2017 following the release of the Daley and Jackson plan for education, with Cramlington’s Wayne Daley bragging that he would sack Northumberland teachers to bring in London based staff from their bedsits to improve results, a rebellion from educationalists and parents from the West of the County calling themselves Stars marched on County Hall in Morpeth to halt the plan.

The Councils Tory Leaders, Peter Jackson and Wayne Daley, may have said some of the right things to quieten the mob but their stall of the Jackson-Daley plan lasted four weeks until their next cabinet meeting.

A leaked email to Councillors and MP’s not marked confidential has exposed the outcome of their plan on the West of the county with Daley blowing over £40m of public capital finance to build a monolithic memorial to his time in office, namely the ‘Hexham Academy’ a school the Council now has no formal links with.

Councillor Jackson therefore had to spend equivalent amounts in Ponteland sacking the fixed price contractor Labour had brought in to develop the school and leisure complex and increasing spend massively to beat off any criticism that his mate supported Hexham above Ponteland.When this mess is linked with the four year Cllr. Wearmouth build project still ongoing into year five at County Hall in Morpeth on an unending and growing unknown and unaccounted for budget you can see why an incoming Labour administration have said they will begin a professional investigation and audit into this half baked vanity project.

Astley, James Calvert Spence and Holywell schools left to deteriorate.

The financial mess they placed the education service in across Northumberland was felt badly in the west of the County as the leaked e-mail reproduced below states but also in Seaton Valley who were due to have a new build of the creaking, damaged by mining subsidence 1960’s designed Astley High School and the ancient by County school standards Holywell first school and in Amble where urgent repair work was required which was left to deteriorate further and now requires the urgent development of a new school.

 

East Harford, Cowpen and Kitty Brewster lose out!

This uncontrolled spend by Jackson and Daley, sanctioned by the duo’s pal Nick Oliver from Corbridge not only stopped school projects, halted urgent repair works to schools right across Northumberland, but put back other infrastructure projects which required capital finance County wide, such as the Cowpen relief road in Blyth, the entrance gateway roundabout for East Hartford (a major road safety project) and has led to the acceptance of lower quality design by the Tories for projects such as the reopening of the AB&T Northumberland line where disabled and family access to stations and at road crossings linked with those stations has been largely ignored.

Deciding who has the biggest balls and who can spend the most on their pet projects are some of the reasons why Northumberland County Council has had six heads of finance in four years and why the NHS is looking to break the link with Social Services in September this year. Without a change of administration in County Hall privatisation and thus greater costs to the aging client will be the outcome of the financial mess the Tories have left. Please read the email below and see how others view the situation we the public are being left with.: 

Dear Guy

Is this really fair?

Supporters of Bellingham Middle School willingly giving up their free time on a Bank Holiday to brighten up the front entrance to the School.



Bellingham Middle School has had to rely upon a charitable donation of paint and the goodwill and efforts of supporters of the School.​ More paint and effort are still needed.​

The question is, why is this necessary at all when Northumberland County Council has around £40m to spend on two schools in Hexham?​ ​ and furthermore, when NCC spent £5,000 in Spring 2019 on the cost of the Hexham Courant webpage wraparound below​ (according to​ a Freedom of Information request), just to​ promote HMS and QEHS as the ”Ambition for Education in the West”.



Why is Bellingham Middle School (BMS) being treated less favourably than Hexham Middle School (HMS).​ ​ If HMS is the ”Ambition for Education in the West”, then all schools should be resourced equally.​ ​ Or does this statement apply only to the ambition for educational standards?

The DfE’s end​ Key Stage 2 SATS outcomes for 2018/19,​ indicate that​ Bellingham and Haltwhistle Middle schools both had higher Progress scores than Hexham Middle School –​ See Page 4​ .​ ​ Hexham Middle School Average​ Progress Scores are ​ lower than both the national and LA Average Progress Scores, yet​ in 2018, the Council planned for the closure of both Bellingham and Haltwhistle Middle schools from September 2019, on the grounds that it was in the best educational interest of children in these areas.

Something feels very wrong when a Local Authority invests millions in a school with sub-LA and national average progress scores, and promotes that same School as the “Ambition for education in the West”, whilst at the same time engineering the closure of rural schools where children are achieving better Progress Scores.

- 2 –

As my local MP, and an MP who has campaigned for fairer funding for schools, I would like to see you campaigning for​ a fairer deal for Bellingham Middle School, and for the children living in the School’s vast rural catchment area​ (which has not changed).​ They have been dealt an unfair hand by the dishonesty and stealth of the current Tory Council – by the portrayal of the School as underperforming and unpopular in 2018; the invalid statutory proposals of 10 May 2018; the failure to grant the School the right to appeal on 10 July 2018; the introduction of primary schools from September 2019; and the removal of the long established free school transport to BMS for children from the outlying villages from September 2020 – all of which flies in the face of the DfE’s statutory guidance.​ This Tory Council does not conduct the required consultation with those most affected, and is imposing its own preferences with impunity. ​

For the children in Haltwhistle it is already too late, their Middle school has been closed and the best opportunity that they had of achieving their potential at end Key Stage 2 has been lost, since not one Primary school in this area has a sound track record of success at end Key Stage 2.​ The life chances of these children will undoubtedly be affected by this, and when coupled with the fact that they can no longer walk or cycle to school in years 7 and 8, their health and well-being will be compromised too.​ Not to mention the adverse environmental impact caused by having to travel the extra 9 miles each way to/from Haltwhistle to Haydon Bridge High School every school day – even if electric vehicles are employed, the 50% of pollution said to be attributable to the tyres and brakes cannot be avoided.

No self respecting politician, Tory or otherwise, could possibly condone the educational and environmental damage already inflicted upon the rural families in Haltwhistle.​ If the same were to happen to Bellingham, the impact would be even worse.​ Just as in Haltwhistle, none of the primary schools created from September 2019 have any track record of success at end Key Stage 2 - they have never had to help children do this before and are just as likely struggle as the small rural schools in Greenhead and Henshaw.​ Additionally, the impact on children’s health and well-being would be even worse as year 7 and 8 pupils would be​ confined to even longer daily journeys between Bellingham and either Hexham (17 miles each way) or Haydon Bridge (23 miles each way) and the environmental polution would be virtually twice that resulting from the closure of Haltwhistle Middle School.​ ​ What happens to rural children appears to be of no importance to this Tory Council

At​ a meeting with the Governing Body of BMS on 5 March 2018, Andy Johnson, Project Leader for the 2018 Phase 2 “consultations”, related “An example we have done with other schools in this situation is close Belford Middle School and they became Belford Primary School.” – It was implied to the governors that BMS would be unviable in 5 or more years’ time.​ There was no evidence to support this.​ ​ An FOI request confirmed that no viability study had been conducted.​ ​ At the time BMS had a surplus revenue balance of £92K and no record of any deficits.​ The decision to build the new Middle/High schools in Hexham had yet to be confirmed, so how the impact of having a new school in Hexham would affect pupil numbers at Bellingham Middle School was an unknown, yet a comparison was being made with the situation at Belford Middle School.​

It has not gone without notice, that the new Middle school in Hexham has been built with significant spare capacity.​ ​ ​ It seems likely that this Tory Council, by its damaging actions against Bellingham Middle School, is now aiming to render the School unviable so that it can fill up some of the the spare capacity at Hexham Middle School​ with displaced pupils, regardless of the implications for their health and well-being and the adverse impact upon the environment caused by the additional travel.

The DfE recognises that it is not good for children to have to travel long distances to school.and Sparsity funding is awarded accordingly to small rural schools to help them provide local education.​

In 2018, the voice of the minority group that comprises the rural communities in the Bellingham Middle School catchment, were ignored by Northumberland County Council.​ As a Tory MP, you have the power to influence this Tory Council, and for once do something to redress the enormous discrmination exercised by the Council against this minority group, and against Bellingham Middle School.​ ​ Is it too much to ask that Bellingham Middle School be treated in the same way as the Middle schools in the Hexham and Prudhoe Partnerships, where children resident in a Middle school catchment area enjoy free school transport to their local Middle school, for the full 4 years?

- 3 -

Arbitrarily, and without any consultation, bending the free School Transport Policy to deny rural children in the BMS catchment area their rightful 4 years continuity of good education in their catchment Middle is indefensible.​ It is morally and ethically wrong, yet this Tory Council has done just that.

With your legal background and school related experience, I trust that you fully appreciate the damage being done – no-one is in any doubt of the Council’s motive for this action.​ It is in retaliation for the successful appeal made to the Adjudicator, which undermined the Council’s authority.​ The appeal was made by an insignificant minority group, but the Council knew that it would still be possible to engineer closure of BMS if it could starve the School of pupils – creating primary schools and subsequently withdrawing free school transport would serve to render the School unviable, which is what the Council did, albeit in contravention of statutory guidance.

It would be difficult to think of a more cruel way to damage a good school’s viability, and stifle both the educational and socialisation progress of the affected children, regardless of all the statutory guidance which required consultation with those most affected, and regardless of any adverse impact that this might have on the lives and future life chances of the affected rural children.​

Additionally, NCC (Councillor Alan Sharp, Director of the North Pennine Learning Partnership Trust) failed to ensure that the ownership of Bellingham Middle and First School land and buildings transferred to the Governing Body of the two schools when the Trust dissolved in May 2019 - a serious "administrative error" that is not easily, if ever, able to be corrected.​ ​ Transfers were successful for Haydon Bridge High School and Samuel King's School.

You have been repeatedly requested to challenge the Council on the vengeful actions made in response to the Adjudicator’s ruling that the School should remain open.​ It must be clear to you by now that BMS is a good school, that serves our remote communities well and it is the only school in our remote area with any experience at all of delivering the full primary curriculum and successfully and helping children to achieve the expected standard or better at end Key Stage 2.​ Children are happy in this school and there is room for more of them.

The Council’s creation of a mixed economy of primary schools alongside BMS, has done nothing to improve educational provision –​ to quote the Council’s own Report of 10 July 2018, education professionals believe that “a mixed economy causes confusion and threatens the viability of small rural schools”.​ ​ The Council has caused confusion and is threatening the viability of our small rural Middle school.

There is however still time for you to use your influence with the Council, and remind them of their legal duty to support good schools, respect parental preference, and​ restore free school transport to Bellingham Middle School​ (as a matter of urgency),​ in line with the same Policy as applied to children living in Middle school catchment areas in the Hexham and Prudhoe school partnerships?​ ​ Also, that if the Climate Change Policy is to be taken seriously, then children should enjoy 4 years continuity of education in their local Middle school, rather than have to face the prospect of having to ​ travel a long distance to school for years 7 and 8,​ as per the Council’s stated preference.

I trust that this time, you will seriously consider the issues raised here and that you will emphasise to the Council, that rural children should not be placed at a disadvantage simply because of their post code, particularly when there is already a high level of deprivation of services and amenities in their post code area.​ ​ These rural children together with BMS have a right to a fair deal.

Finally, in view of the the Council’s evident discrimination i) in favour of Hexham Middle School and ii) against Bellingham Middle School and the children and families in its rural catchment area, I would be grateful if you could advise upon the likelihood of success, were a legal case be brought against the Council for compensation​ to support BMS and to provide better resources for the children and families in its vast rural catchment area.

I would appreciate a positive response from you by 30 April 2021 at the latest.​ Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further clarification in the meantime.​ The Progress Scores and Overall Outcomes for 2018/19 are provided for reference.

Yours sincerely

 

We hate to say this? Georgina Hill is correct in that the Tories are damaged goods!

Recent messages on Miss Georgina Hill’s facebook page concur exactly with the message this blog has been trying to get out for quite some time, that the Conservatives in Northumberland through the antics of a few are a busted untrustworthy flush.

Miss Hill asks you the public to question Tory candidates and question them as to whose group they sit in and if its anyone who is on the Cabinet then make sure you steer clear of them.

The untold damage to the reputation of the County Council the workforce of the Council and that of former ARCH which is now renamed as the disgraced ADVANCE Northumberland will never be resolved by voting  Conservative or for their recruited quislings who are running as independents to CON the public at large.

At least some of the regional Conservatives chose not to support a Northumberland Tory for the vacant post as the candidate MP for Hartlepool. It will have come as a massive shock to the man from Corbridge who confidently ran his story of being the ‘chosen one’ through the annals of the Chronicle when a women was chosen for the vacancy given the Tories record on bullying women at County Hall in Morpeth.

Lets see who will heed the words of this blog and Miss Hill on May 6th as those who don’t are leaving themselves open to four more years of a do-nowt Council.

 

North Northumberland MP's former press secretary quits Tory party

A self-styled council whistleblower, who resigned as MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan's press secretary after she became embroiled in a heated meeting of Rothbury Parish Council, has decided to leave the Conservative party, blaming '˜toxic' party politics.

By The Newsroom

Saturday, 5th March 2016, 12:28 pm

UpdatedSaturday, 5th March 2016, 12:46 pm

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Berwick Town Councillor Georgina Hill, who, last August, was the subject of a Northumberland County Council standards committee which ruled that she had bullied the clerk, made the announcement to stand as an independent on Facebook last night.

Her page, on which she describes herself as ‘a whistleblower, transparency campaigner, standards botherer and represents St Boisils (Tweedmouth) on Berwick Town Council’, states:

‘I will not be renewing my membership of the local Conservative party and will be moving forward as an independent.

‘There are several reasons for this not least the party backing away from the local government reform and transparency agenda, deceit over Europe and failure to address the concerns facing ordinary working class people in Britain today (such as the tax credit fiasco).

‘I will be standing as an independent candidate for Berwick East in the Northumberland County Council elections and I will be able to look residents of Spittal and Tweedmouth in the eye and say that I will fight for their interests, totally unencumbered by (toxic) party politics.’

 

Hartlepool Failure

 

Just another mess you got yourself into Olly?

Nick Oliver’s Latest book

Chapter 2

‘Rob from the poor to feed me and the rich’

Northumberland Councillor and Finance Portfolio holder of the secret council explains in his new book why and how you should have your pockets filled by the taxpaying public while supporting the starvation of kids and pooh pooh the loss of five heads of finance during his four year reign as the Tory 'Sheriff of Morpeth’ because he knows better than them.

His latest personal mess was made just a few weeks ago when he went public with his expectation that he would be selected as the Tory candidate for the Hartlepool by election.

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/councillor-first-name-linked-tory-20207842

His reputation must have gone before him as the Hartlepudlian Tories chose a North Yorkshire woman before him. 

This rejection of him as an MP candidate must be galling. Especially as his group at county hall in Morpeths are quite famous for the bullying of women and to be overlooked for a female candidate would have him raging. (good job the pubs are closed in Corbridge).

But chapter two in his new book still features how to get away scot free with the responsibilities life throws in our way, such as paying your taxes.

His fame as someone who doesn't bother to comply is well documented in the reply to a recent complaint about his mismanagement of his own family affairs which has featured heavily on social media. 

His teeth skin is well marked into his bottom lip in order that he doesn’t trip over his disappointment as he has been whining and wailing ever since the Legal Services department of the Council responded to one of the complaints made about his activity.

We have reproduced the letter below.

NOT MARKED CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Sir/Madam,

Complaint – NNDR Recovery

I am writing with reference to your complaint dated 21st January 2021 regarding the

Council’s enforcement of particular debts relating to business rates. I will deal with each

part of your complaint in turn.

a) Katie Kerr Ltd. Why were recovery proceedings not followed in these two cases

according to the Council Tax and NNDR Recovery Policy on 6 separate occasions (2

x property) as agreed annually by Full Council ?

Recovery proceedings were followed in this matter as I will set out below:

i) 16 Hill Street, Corbridge, NE45 5AA – Rate Account Number 2800311886

Balance outstanding up to 26.3.20 was £20,087.48

The Council followed the procedure set out in the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and

Enforcement)(Local Lists) Regulations 1989 by issuing a rates bill on 29.11.19 followed bya reminder notice on 17.1.20. A summons was issued on 12.2.20 following which a liability order was made by the Magistrates’ Court on 19.3.20. Before enforcement of the liability order taking place a winding-up order was made on 26.3.20 and the Council has submitted a claim in the proceedings. Based on the liquidator’s report the Council is unlikely to receive a dividend.

The Council was made aware in late 2019 that the company had occupied the property

since July 2015 and therefore would have a rates liability from that date. This impacted on the small business rate relief previously granted for the other property at 22 Hill Street. The company received Retail Discount from 1.4.19 to 26.3.20.

ii) 22 Hill Street, Corbridge, NE45 5AA – Rate Account Number 2620841575

Balance outstanding up to 5.3.20 was £10,701.15

The Council followed the procedure set out in the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and 

Enforcement)(Local Lists) Regulations 1989 by issuing the rates bill on 14.1.20 followed by a reminder notice on 18.2.20. Before any further action took place a winding-up order was made on 26.3.20 and the Council has submitted a claim in the proceedings. Based on the liquidator’s report the Council is unlikely to receive a dividend.

The company was liable for business rates from 27.9.07. The company received partial 

small business rate relief Between 27.9.07 and 31.3.19, as well as retail rate relief 

between 1.4.14 and 31.3.16 and paid the balance of rates due each year without the need for any enforcement action to be taken.

The Council was made aware in late 2019 that the company had occupied the other 

property at 16 Hill Street since July 2015 and therefore would have a rates liability from 

that date. 

The retrospective change was made to the rates records which impacted on the small business rate relief previously granted for 22 Hill Street. 

The relief was reduced retrospectively resulting in the debt becoming due. The Council followed the process set out in legislation, the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement)(Local Lists) Regulations 1989, in a timely manner as outlined above. Once the winding-up order was made the Council became a creditor in the liquidation.

b) Did County Councillor N. Oliver representing the Corbridge Ward, Portfolio 

Holder for Finance, Director of Katie Kerr Ltd. receive preferential treatment ?

 

No preferential treatment was given or asked for. The process followed would be applied to any ratepayer in the same circumstances. 

The liability for rates was that of Katie Kerr Limited and not Councillor N Oliver and the 

billing and collection process was followed in a timely manner after the Council was 

notified of the change of circumstances outlined in a) above.

We are not aware if the external auditor is looking at this matter but if their not, why not?