Councillor Sanderson is hiding behind a ‘we are learning’ when he hasn’t and didn’t.

What’s going on at Northumberland County Council?

It’s audit committee has received reports that are in the public domain which define how badly the Council has been run over the last six years, yet it’s Leader told the press that he wants to have these unlawful matters dealt with as ‘lessons learnt’ and appears to expect a soft landing which he doesn’t deserve.

The current Conservative leader of Council has been in post since September 2020 following the demise of Councillor Peter Jackson’s term of office, shortened due to several issues involving alleged bullying of staff and his well exposed personal life but Councillor Sanderson told the press last week he had been in post for two years.

In his time we have as Northumberland’s public entered a period when both rural and urban families needed extra help from their local authority yet his administration spent over £1m on ‘unlawful’ in the eyes of the external auditor, compromise agreements to ensure his ‘secret council’ gagged those leaving his employment to keep the whereabouts of his teams buried mismanagement under wraps.

The Tories also signed up to an international trade agreement that has run without proper accounts and unlawfully paid officers huge sums of additional wages each and every year, money that could have been diverted to aid the Counties collapsed social services department deliver help to those in greatest need.

The Council has a rapidly growing social housing list and homelessness grows almost daily yet he has bought an almost redundant shopping centre in the town of Blyth from Northumberland’s richest family for in footballing parlance, an undisclosed sum, breaching his own Councils constitution by not clearing the purchase through full Council. Yet he has had his officers state it’s to be demolished next year and may be redeveloped as this and that. This is from a Council who stopped the redevelopment options of both Bedlington and Ashington in May 2017 leaving both townships with now famous ‘holes’ where new areas of development were under construction.

We have also been led to believe from known Tory social media that the same audit committee led by the former disgraced leader of Council, Peter Jackson and aided by his former financial guru Nick Oliver are to hear about similar matters surrounding the Conservative huge list of arms lengths companies sitting under the banner of Advance Northumberland in private or is that ‘secret session’ as it may be in a similar lawless and parless state. A state the the international auditor EY could not find in Labours company ARCH after a very protracted and costly deep dive investigation. Following criticism for not finding what’s not there EY resigned their commission at the Council.

Giving Councillor Sandersons ‘secret regime’ a soft landing should not be considered by the public as he has had years to change matters and hasn’t. His administration did not take any notice of the Max Caller report nor the forced onto them improvement board which he removed as soon as he possibly could and in the eyes of most commentators a change of leadership and Council direction is required immediately if not sooner. The whole council should interview its next proposed leader and any promises made to issue enough information to scrutinise his or her administration followed to the letter!