Broken Administration must now get a grip to play their part helping business over the

 

CHANGE FROM CE MARKING!

The infighting among Conservatives at Northumberland County Council, the cause of their massive turnover of staff through alleged bullying and the investigations into the behaviour of some Tory Councillors came to a head recently with an internal fight among themselves over who should partner with the Council to deliver some Health and Care services on the Councils behalf.

This unnecessary fight about due diligence and the scope of the Tories ‘New Deal’ was blown out of all proportion and defined the three way split in the ranks of Northumberland Conservatives so much that even the Hexham Courant woke up and smelled the coffee, reporting the fact, long known by observers of the activities at County Hall news that the Tories in Northumberland are now a broken force. 

We here at Murky have been reporting on the splits for quite some time and now wish to bring to your attention that former bitchy fingernail scratches have now turned into blackening and festering sores that won’t heal in the lifetime of this Council, but the bigger picture is what the Council is not doing to help local business. Whilst all of this infighting and hatred halts progress of the system of local governance set up in 2008 when the District and County Councils were abolished and an all purpose unitary Council was set up to help the County work for all. Since 2017 the Conservatives have only worked for themselves, business help has diminished dramatically as different landed gentrified Farmers bring their versions of sheep mart rules into the public domain.

An all purpose unitary Council has the responsibility of helping and aiding all business, not just agri-business, through change yet we are hearing from businesses that they need localised help with the change from the EU CE Marking to its replacement the UKCA Mark.

For those who aren’t aware this change is one of the biggest shocks for business through BREXIT as when the transition period ended last December the UK lost its place in CE Certification a very costly consultant led process to gain an administrative marking which affirms products conformity with EU health and Safety legislation and tough environmental standards for goods sold in the EU.

The Government has come up with a new international standard they hope will be globally acceptable, that acceptance will be tested rigorously  through the highly hyped trade deal with Australia. Some may feel that as ‘Les Patterson’ was once their self imposed Minister of Culture to the UK that Australian standards may be lower than the EU but we can assure you they are just as strong and stronger in many cases.

Following almost two years of turmoil for business with only retail recording excess profits, (much of it untaxed by this Tory Government) firms are expecting the business departments of Unitary Councils to help with the necessary change through the sums they retain from Business Rates. Many Councils are on the ball and trying to help with the needs of companies who are struggling, having to engage expensive compliance consultants and some are giving Grants to cover the costs to ensure they aren’t creating future unemployment blackspots on their turf; but apparently Northumberland hasn’t even offered help with the declaration of conformity forms for firms who carry the CE Mark currently and need help with the changeover.

Conformity is essential if business is to survive the imposed changes to a global market and not rely on cover from the EU so we the public need to know why a massive Council set up to serve the whole of the County of Northumberland and run by the supposed party for business is being let down and when a clear truce in the infighting among the Tories will be called to deal with the most important phase of change for manufacturing business in this County for three decades.