Northumberland, It's no longer ‘Local’ and only delivers for one old District Council, leaving five others in limbo.

If proof were needed by the Government to show how decisions made to try to smooth out and equalise a huge geographic area has failed society and is still failing we need look not much further than recent events to gag scrutiny from investigating multi-million pound gifts to non-council schools while council schools are on strike.

Labour’s Denis Murphy MP was quite right in 2007 when he told the then Government that ministers dealing with Local Government reorganisation had not recognised the “super sparsity” issues enveloping Northumberland.

More recently the Conservative Leader of Northumberland Councillor Glen Sanderson set himself against an increase in housing numbers which would still leave Northumberland as the sparsest county in England with his statements completely unscrutinised, leaving Northumberland’s position with aid for the homeless, overcrowding and the growth of sofa surfing shoved under the carpet and the council placing profits before people in their decision making.

His wish to extend sparsity further may have begun to founder on the rocks. In 2017 the same Castle Morpeth centered conservatives put a stop to a garden village scheme near Ponteland. That scheme was supported by the then Princes Trust and the Council were minded to accept the scheme in planning terms. 

The site came on the market recently and was snapped up by the Royal Estates and we Codgers who discuss these matters as a team expect the Garden Village will rear its head again and it's also possible that another similar scheme may appear in the North of the County as Lords and Dukes see the advantage that population increase has on their own estate’s incomes.

Although the lack of proper scrutiny allowed the Council to get an officer they later accused of ‘floating about on international duties to enhance her position’ to write a report that accused others of being involved with coercion to help the now King to get his trusts garden village up and running. Scrutiny should and would have found out the truth regarding this scheme at a very early stage but instead the Council was riddled with bullying claims and counterclaims from all and sundry.

Luckily the local  press democratic reporting service has picked up on the matter of a lack of proper scrutiny and the forcing of pre-decision scrutiny from the agenda with the public beginning to realise that Councillors from one former District, Castle Morpeth, rule the roost and place the majority of their spend in that area. In such a massive area one would believe that the decisions of Councillors at the top will be shared with the Councilors democratically elected county-wide, but they are not.  The chairs of scrutiny panels are also all conservative set up in a similar manner as the cabinet of the Council, ‘to keep all secret decisions secret’.

As a codgers group we have ‘scrutinised’ the comments placed online regarding the lack of scrutiny news and agree that the lack of ‘Localism’ needs to be looked at by Government and the leaning towards a council full on unfunded promises such as the A1 dualling scheme which was given the go ahead with no cash behind it and the Britvolt scheme with a promise of 8000 jobs in Blyth  from the Tories both in office at County and Government are shining examples of how the locking out of scrutiny at Councils has allowed false promises to be laid out in public without any intention at all of funding being received to deliver on behalf of the people.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/concerns-raised-over-manner-scrutiny-30248659#ICID=Android_ChronicleNewsApp_AppShare

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumberland-council-homefinder-waiting-list-29947792

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/future-long-awaited-plan-dual-30248520

https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/18172895.explosive-northumberland-county-council-report-reveals-significant-concerns-dissington-garden-village-application/

Farmer-Councillor,doesn’t keep sheep because they have greater vision than him?

 

At our community centre meeting this week in order to keep warm, we codgers couldn’t get over the disingenuous attitude of Councillor Glen Sanderson when describing the Government’s new housing figures for Northumberland as a 222% rise in housing numbers within the massive county he lords over.

In our discussions we used the word disingenuous as when his Tories took office in 2017 they immediately collapsed the Councils then planning document to lower the numbers of housing targets to stop a 2000 home garden village being built near Ponteland backed by the Princes Trust and the then Conservative Government in Office.

The Council from its days as a LibDem/Conservative coalition took on board both social and commercial sales housing needs within its then planning document developing a sustainable community strategy running alongside the planning document, taking into account the need to keep villages alive to maintain schools and services right across Northumberland outside the national park. The document contained a MINIMUM set within the regional spatial strategy of 885 as a standstill figure due to the growth of second homes right across the County and the number of void properties needing huge financial input to bring them up to a decent standard for occupation. In 2017 there were 22,000 homes in train to be built by 2026 with 2000 of those permissions being within the Garden Village scheme it still leaves the development figure at that time as 2,222 per annum, with many of those brought forward from ex district councils who saw the need to increase housing to increase cash for service delivery purposes.

The immediate effect of removing the Core Strategy Document and replacing it with a new technical paper that hardened in the 885 figure which drove the new local plan; with successive Conservative Governments demanding that figure to be increased bowing to pressure from developers particularly as the Council regularly has seen an average of 1500 new homes built each year since 2013 such is the demand from the public to live in Northumberland.

The Leaders lack of vision led to the Council’s new planning document running down the figure acceptable to the Tories as 549 a number that has been described as a ‘Village Killing’ figure especially when the Council’s own documentation gives a new MINIMUM figure of 1,268 per year to meet not only demand but need,of which a third need to be provided for social rent

Councillor Sanderson and his planning henchman Councillor Horncastle who its reported recently told a meeting that his Council ‘does not build Council Houses but it may buy some’ have just not sat 

down to see the light when it comes to the Government's new growth figure of 1,768 for the ‘whole’ of the County. 

It's the ‘whole’ of the County that's the simple answer to this conundrum. 

Reading the Westmorland and Cumbria open reports (Derbyshire haven’t published yet), they are looking at these new figures in a positive fashion and we codgers will explain using Northumberland instead of other areas which contain national parks.

Councillors Sanderson and Horncastle need to sit down with both the National Parks authority who ARE part of the Government's new figures and the 148 Parish Council leaders across Northumberland and talk through with them how they can help.

The real figure is the difference between the Council planners figure of 1,268 and 1,768 a difference of 500 per year if each parish agreed to grow by 3 dwellings each year (that's whole parishes not individual villages) the new number would be taken up quite easily. This growth of new homes would help maintain schools and services across the County and with the problems the Council has trying to sack 60 teachers is really a necessity. It would also keep small builders going, increase apprentice rates and boost FE as well as the general economy right across the County.

The disingenuous leader as well as not accepting his officers' new figures as dying villages seem to suit his needs stated that the new figures would increase the County population by a third. The County is home to the lowest rate of persons per hectare in England with only 0.65% of a person dwelling in each Hectare of Land. An increase of the population by a third would only increase that number to 0.87% of a person per Hectare still the lowest in England.

If the two Councillors need inspiration they only need to look at the work currently being delivered in the Countryside by two of our local housing associations, Karbon Homes mixed tenure development in Bellingham which includes homes for social rent, their planned development in East Chevington and Bernicia homes purchase of properties for social rent from Ascent homes in Ellington to pave the way and gift them some vision on how to be as positive as other Councils in delivering people desire to have a roof over their heads which they can call home.

https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24590046.labour-hits-back-council-leader-housing-need/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje3pg78yd3o

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00241sd/politics-north-north-east-and-cumbria-13102024?fbclid=IwY2xjawGBkc9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSuHzDwJ6_lAq6oNXusPRoIaiyGcebdvihkvQKgzdJfmwequgfs84SV1iA_aem_URn2syg_rbRLB97m1glIAQ

Dysfunctional Prudhoe Tory who lost £3m court case and broke H&S law in his home town tries to curry favour with his 3m Millionaire pensioner mates!

 

This week in our regular Codgerly runaround of Tory social media sites we noticed that Councillor Gordon Stewart, the paper picking ex-cop from Prudhoe, is trying it on again?

Allegedly Gordy, a nickname for a 12 yr old which he likes to be known by, spoke at Prudhoe Town Council last Thursdayto try to protect millionaires from losing £200 or £300 in Winter Fuel Allowance.

His plea was to get Prudhoe Town Council to engage with new Hexhamshire Labour MP Joe Morris seeking his help to ensure the payment is made to others than those able to claim pension credit.

Gordy, who it is said only reads the papers he picks up if dropped on his end of Prudhoe’s commercial High Street, must have missed the £24M payout by the Labour Government to aid those in greatest need who do not qualify for Pension Credit through the North-East’s 12 prime Local Authorities and believe it or not Gordy is a member of one of them!

Or it may be simply because his Leader of the Northumberland Tory Group, Glen Sanderson had like every other decision he takes, kept the income a secret and hadn’t bothered to inform his Councillors including Gordy who may be off the team now Guy Opperman isn’t there to fight his corner for him and Glen Sanderson has already blown the gaff by steering the needy to everybody but his team of Councillors if help is required.

We codgers have also noted how quiet Gordy was during the time period when his team in Government was ripping off the state to fill their Tory ‘friends’ pockets with Billions of Pounds yet now he is trying to manipulate others to top up the £3,130,000 millionaire pensioners purses with the question on most folks lips and minds is ‘do uk pensioner millionaires really need £200 or £300 to help pay their winter fuel bills? Most don’t although Gordy thinks they do and he may need the hoy oot cash that may come from aiding them.

NOTES:

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/six-police-officers-lose-bullying-1421598

https://realnorthumberlandmurky.blogspot.com/2021/03/can-councillor-gordon-stewart-lie.html?m=1

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/dwp-24m-north-east-winter-30016916?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

It’s noticeable that Northumberland’s farmers first council hadn’t read the horizon at all.

Red sky at night, farmers delight, Red sky in the morning farmers warning or so the old saying goes. 

Northumberland County Councillors who are about to change their spend on essential services switching their shockingly massive black hole in social services expenditure to reaming it wider through a planned spending spree on farmers have plenty of red sky mornings yet to come.

The Governments hardening up of workers rights has kicked many of their plans right in the teeth with a teachers strike locked in place in Berwick due to the Tories intransigence in speaking with staff and their wish to educate Berwick’s children on the cheap.

In order to save cash to spend now on farming glamour projects they have agreed yet again in secret to sink their redundancy scheme and offer ditched workers a nice reference instead.

But as a worker who may wish to remain employed in the public sector after all the bullying, criminal investigations that lead nowhere other than back to malicious Tory Members and the fact that departments have been remotely run for several years by highly paid absentee officers based in the midlands and London. Would you like to have Northumberland County Council sitting on your CV without being highly remunerated for it? Or are you willing to put up with the sideways glances other employers will give you in future that’s if a future is made available to you at all?

It’s time NCC got real and began a structured conversation on how they are going to drive through a structured redeployment plan with their teachers in the Berwick Cluster before the change in the law gives workers a stronger hand.