Real Northumberland Murky: Well, Well, Well The story of the three little ‘Wholes’

Sunday, 17 March 2024

Well, Well, Well The story of the three little ‘Wholes’

Or is it five or six now?

This is Part 1 of a trilogy that may become part of a quadrilogy surrounding the now famous ‘Conservative ‘Wholes’ in Northumberland and how levelling up is failing communities.

Whole One: Bedlington.

Led by the Morpeth Mob during the 210’s the Northumberland Conservatives began a program of stifling all progress by both the LibDem and Labour administrations on regeneration and improvement projects to deny what today would be labeled levelling up areas to residents they were hoped at that time to serve.

Invented and untrue statements were run out on a regular and ongoing basis on all sorts of matters which has led to the mess many Northumberland towns residents find themselves in today primarily due to the arrogance of members of the apron wearing members of the Morpeth mob.

The first ‘Whole we must discuss has to be Pipers Place development in Bedlington Northumberland. As the County Council has recently lost its prime contractor SURGO owing £152 m to suppliers including we are led to believe the huge local developer Bellway who are owed at least £1.1m.

The Morpeth mob and their supporters who would probably be cut off through the Government's latest ‘Prevent’ strategy, placed a number of stymying rumours out and about regarding Bedlington with one notable activity surrounding the age of a tree on the site where Labour were developing Lidl to extend the towns offer for residents. The rumoured tree was said to be 100yrs old and held great sentimental value to residents of Bedlington. The Council’s experts in tree age believed it was planted in 1974 when the former social services offices were built on the site making the sentiment only 35 yrs old, but anything to halt progress is seen by some to be better than nothing.

The Morpeth mob cleverly decided to tap into the Bedlington Communist protest group, ‘Make a noise for Bedlington’ and through contacts via the apron wearers from both towns hoisted the campaign from the left to the ultra right and did everything but burn the Reichstag.

Preempting the release of the regeneration plans for town by the Labour Party in office at the time the public were riled by the Morpeth mob. They held protest marches in the Town during 2015 & 2016 to force their way up the spend list of the County Council all went quiet after the election in May 2017 and the Local MP Ian Lavery wrote to the then Tory Leader, Councillor Peter Jackson to try to ensure the projects completion.

Seven years on the project is still ongoing with the Tories at County Hall sitting on their hands with its prime contractor for the site having gone to the wall. It's been reported in the newspapers serving the County that those same Tories have depleted the Council’s cash reserves blamed mainly on unequal capital spend focussing on the boundaries of former Castle Morpeth District to pave their streets with Gold.

It's also been reported in the regional press that the one party cabinet has set aside cash they may have once been able to direct to bring in a new contractor to buy back a site in cambois where their business failures have been exposed rigorously by the National Press and the promised creation of 8000 jobs to level up the County have failed. Pipers Place is at a standstill.