Are active cohesive communities and municipal socialism one and the same?

 

What is an Independent Party?

This week  we have the visionaries of new politics speaking in Newcastle to urge people to believe there is or can be a smooth transition between the ultra right and left to show that independent thinkers can be shifted in both directions in search of common ground.

The most unlikely trio of speakers have got together to promote Independent councillors and independent group formation.

The one time darling of Northumberland Conservatives Georgina Hill, Lincolnshire’s top national Independent councillor Marrianne Overton leader of the independents on the LGA and the most well known cell manager of the group Momentum, who reached the dizzy heights of Mayor for the North of Tyne when hiding in plain sight under the Labour Party banner.

The split of politics among this group is so extreme that historical reminders of former political parties instantly enter the heads of many.

Between them they are seeking people to stand in the local government elections for Counties on May 1 2025.

How does the unification of ‘Independent’ councillors benefit people? 

Its difficult to know how, as unlike other political parties (outside of very divisive Tory groups) whose structured rules are designed to ensure a little fairness in the spread of service delivery and capital spend we have noticed when independents come together in political groups its the will of the strongest and loudest which comes to the fore, as can be seen being acted out via reform extremists as the May elections loom ever closer.

With many lost people worried about the anti-women and  racist leaning policies of reform and how that would drag policy making at a local government level into the mire, those who think about politics are also concerned about the expansion of independent’s which may pan out in a similar manner.

With two of the speakers from areas which have experience of unitary all purpose council management and one a speaker in her own patch of anti-unitary sentiment the difference in thinking is enormous. 

It's yet to be seen if the area where independent Councillors currently make the most difference at Town and Parish council level can be harnessed towards any sort of gelling togetherness?. Are voters visionary enough to see if the fame alone of those local independent councillors can deliver enough of them into the powerful huge spend areas of strategic Councils whether Unitary or two tier County?. With the question of if their own in mind politics will have the ability to harmonise, work together and deliver in areas where regular party politics are set in place or will localism as with disparate Tory groups become the norm and huge swathes of council areas be left in the wilderness?

Sometimes it's very good to have independent thinkers as Councillors especially in those areas of scrutiny where questions need greater expansion and investigation than normal but working together as a group of independents may turn localism into maelstromism and the noise of the rabble would drown the needs of ordinary people.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/berwick-town-councillor-georgina-hill-9963522#ICID=Android_ChronicleNewsApp_AppShare

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/berwick-mps-former-press-secretary-11005157#ICID=Android_ChronicleNewsApp_AppShare

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/jamie-driscoll-jeremy-corbyn-election-17417505

https://www.local.gov.uk/about/campaigns/re-thinking-local/lga-annual-conference-webinars-2020/re-thinking-local-vision-7

REFORM Spinning their web without bothering to check out the truth.

 REFORM Blyth, which has been running out stories that local people must expect 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers being dumped on Northumberland which is roughly the population of Ashington, have started another spin exercise without even bothering to investigate what's really going on?

 Local ultra right wing long term wanna be politician whose coat bears more colours than the biblical Joseph, Barry Elliott ex UKIP, ex BREXITeer and now a Reform candidate has ran out a tale that members of Blyth’s two Council’s, County and Parish who sit on the Town Team are to blame because the work at Newsham Station seems to have reached a standstill.

This spin from Mr Elliott may be based on the news releases from Murdoch’s press illustrating that Reform and the Tories are designing a plan to merge as one, forming the CONFORM party as it seems anti-women sentiment, anti-NHS policy, republicanism and racism is becoming ever more popular through Musk’s publicised actions and his support for Tommy Robinson coupled with Trump's anti green moves on the other side of the pond are how the Conservatives and Reform feel love towards each other.

But Barry Elliott appears to have done very little in the way of investigation before releasing his rant against County Councillors, Town Councillors and private entrepreneurs who make up the ‘energising Blyth team’ (see their remit via the link below).

 The Northumberland Line which runs through Newsham Station and its huge car park to house commuters from Cramlington North is a project begun based on a business plan that doesn’t add up through the Conservative one party only cabinet of Northumberland County Council and the former Mayor of the North of Tyne Combined Authority, Jamie Driscol and is NOT part of the energising Blyth remit.

 
Mr Elliott should consider a quick rewrite of his tale or he may find himself replaced by a Tory for the local government elections on May 1 as Labour’s handling of the nations position on inflation has help those disenfranchised by high mortgage payments when the Tories were in office to begin to believe that Labour may be a better bet than a new party that will be split by dogma from day one.

 

Town Team Energising Blyth Remit

https://search.app/9HCCgNhSVH4addct5

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/32959137/tories-nigel-farages-reform-uk-labour-suella-braverman/

 

https://www.vox.com/politics/396535/elon-musk-nazi-salute-trump-inauguration

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/12/no-10-braced-for-reform-tory-pact-as-populist-right-surges/

£42m extra? After eight years in office elected representatives who are referred to as top councillor’s still have no idea what EQUALITY and ‘BEST VALUE’ is?

 

Councillor’s in Northumberland from the ruling conservative administration have been caught out in public by the regional press through their lack of transparency, lack of equality and equity with blagardness instead of honesty being spun out during this an election year..

 In recent months they have been caught out with their pressurised chat at a council meeting when the conservative deputy leader inferred that his Council is only interested in delivery of services in conservative held areas. 

 Their reply to a question from an independent Councillor at the last full council meeting in Morpeth’s County Hall was without true denial leading members of the public to believe that the indicated policy was already welded in place.

 These weasel worded Councillors are grasping at every straw, lolly stick an
d coffee cup foating past them on the river Wansbeck which flows slowly through their once majestic County Town of Morpeth which does get the aid it needs to keep up its market town image, but in reality it is home to many families damaged by the Councils lack of best value in its service delivery and their governments ecomonic crisis.

 The Council’s struggle to manage a £130m austerity cut in its budget laid before it since 2010 by the Conservatives in Government cannot be replaced in the seven months Labour has led the country but the noise from these County Hall conservatives are aimed at making believe they can, even though this council has failed to deliver best value on behalf of its residents, children and taxpayers since 2017.

The new Labour Government has poured an additional £20m into the service delivery pot of the Council which because of Labour's belief that everyone is equal and residents should receive good quality services whether you live in urban Ashington or rural Alnwick includes the once separate £2.4m rural services grant. This was followed by an extra £25m for schools, a budget that has diminished well below the rates of inflation over the last eight years.

The Conservatives on the Council say they can’t manage unless the Government coughs up another £7.2m in order to manage their budget but we Codgers must ask if that's because the cost of borrowing to finish off dozens of promised glamour projects is higher than expected? 

Or the waste of cash on battery factories and A1 dualling both national projects the Conservatives in Government promised but didn’t cough up any cash for? 

Or is it simply that they see improvements in budgets after years of cuts from their own dodgy Government as weakness and believe by spinning out how cruel a Labour Government is that their mismanagement and inability to deliver equitable services anywhere but in conservative held areas may lead a Labour Government to overlook their failure to deliver best value over the last eight years?

 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/top-councillor-vows-continue-fight-30799742?int_source=nba

 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/government-accused-attack-countryside-over-30807426

 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumberland-schools-budget-substantially-less-30807385

 

Race to the bottom between Tories and Reform easily seen in Northumberland Councillors attitudes

 

With recent you tube videos showing top Tories singing racist songs, Musk and Farage nose to nose over how far to the right Reform must slide, we note we have the managers of financial ruin, top Tory Councillors in Northumberland denying the acceptance of diversity through their attempts to slash down newly proposed housing numbers.

The fear that newcomers may bring their habits with them if they settle in an area has been hardened in through the losing Tory in the recent Conservative leadership fight, Robert Jennrick, stating that refugees and asylum seekers from nations with archaic attitudes towards women should not be allowed to settle in Britain. With social media pilots asking who he is referring to with Ireland, Poland, Romania, India and Pakistan leading the numbers of migrants entering the UK. With both right wing parties vying to become the ‘New Nasties’ following the support shown by the worlds richest man Elon Musk for Tommy Robinson.

 Reform who have ran out stories that Northumberland will have to accept migrants in numbers so high that a new town larger than Ashington will have to be build to house them and that the Tory led County Council has designed policy to in Reform’s words “Cram them in” has led to further claims and counterclaims.

 The outturn is that Northumberland Tories who have allowed almost 1,600 homes built each and every year since 2017 mostly huge executive homes leaving many of its younger residents behind. They have now decided to slash their planned housing numbers down to 549 a figure professional planners indicate will not maintain housing losses leading to an ever diminishing population.

 This shameful Council has over 435 Council homes unlet awaiting repairs with over 650 families needing social housing through the low wage culture developed over the last 14 years of successive Tory Governments and their failed Brexit.

 Housing needs are now the responsibility of the North-east Mayor who will have to cope with the constant whining from Northumberland Conservatives whose prime interest appears to be to drive workers out of their County in order that ever more holiday lets can be developed from the skeleton villages they tell all they love and cherish.

 The Conservatives constant message of ‘Labour is concreting over your County’ is fallacy and needs to be investigated by the North-east Mayor as Northumberland is the least populated County in England with absentee holiday let owners complaining they can’t hire cleaners to maintain their businesses as there’s no social housing in the villages they are investing in.

 
The new housing numbers from Government need to be grabbed by the Council and an honest survey (not a council consultation) by an independent body such as the Kings Trust to correctly determine if people would like to live in ‘living communities’ or whether they would like to live in film sets without schools, without essential services and live in fear after dark? developing a xenophobic society in our countryside instead of neighbourly societies.

 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/freedom_of_information_request_i_308#incoming-2810461

 

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/councillor-calls-on-mayor-to-stand-up-for-northumberland-on-housing-targets-4934182

Blyth Drivers lose £13m per year Yet the conservative County Council sits back on bypass roads and expects drivers to absorb greater costs.

Hiding behind failed bids to their own Government since 2017 to attempt to deliver two bypass roads for the town of Blyth which has  44,000 vehicles accessing and egressing the Town every day has become a major issue across South East Northumberland.

During 2019 the Conservative regional chairperson at the time, Councillor Wearmouth joined by Councillor Riddle the Council’s highways guru allegedly said that their ‘Council had £18m available to develop the required roads and their bid to help ease the pressure from Blyth drivers through Highways England was to save ratepayers costs if they could’.

The bid which contained the numbers of 20,000 vehicles per day on each of the two access roads, Laverock Road and Cowpen Road was not accepted by the then Government as major highways work on the A66 was announced and austerity formula’s landed on the doorstep of County Hall in Morpeth.

That situation rolled on and a further bid was clagged together in 2023 using similar figures along with some safety features which were immediately challenged by the former deputy leader of Northumberland Conservatives, Councillor Daley. His campaign won the day at County hall but led to the bid for cash from the state failing due to the ‘lack of vision and it being less safe’.

Traffic has increased greatly on Cowpen Road whilst Laverock Hall Road has remained ‘full’ with a similar 20,000 vehicles per day using the road. 

This has been a costly exercise for Blyth drivers with sitting time each day adding up using minimum wage as a measure and the new figures of 44,000 vehicles each day  reaching a staggering £13m each year in lost time.

That standing time is about to be increased further with an active travel plan to extend Blyth’s already huge active travel network by reducing the width of Cowpen Road by a third, removing all right turn pockets, setting back all junctions many behind the sight line so that cyclists can have a right of passage at all junctions. 

It's a scheme that may benefit Deliveroo employees but which has been condemned by cycling clubs who know too well how dangerous this type of scheme has developed in other areas and failed to increase active users due to the danger it causes when drivers become impatient. But Northumberland County Council wants to build this new dangerous route before they develop the long designed bypass road and its tested for success for Cowpen Road. A plan that has also been opposed by Blyth Town Councillors who are worried that this active travel route will kill off their town for good.

Exacerbating the traffic flow on Cowpen Road will endanger the viability of commerce sited along this highway and as the shopping precinct in Blyth has been recently destroyed in order to build an apprentice training facility instead of shops in the Town in the name of levelling up, people from across Blyth, Northumberland’s largest town have come to rely on the shopping experience Cowpen Road can currently offer.

With the extreme amount of time lost in travelling into and out of Blyth there has to be a better way of managing traffic flow and still retain commerce and employment in the Town, it's time Northumberland’s Morpeth based Conservatives came up with a better offer than ‘ON YER BIKE’ if you live, work or want to play in Northumberland’s largest enclave.

2015 Sustrans plan for Blyth, illustrating that the ‘academies cycleway’ would alleviate the need to narrow Cowpen Road, for cross Town travellers to access the new footbridge to Bebside Station and that the current Cowpen Road cycle path is adequate for local cyclists.

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/Roads-streets-and-transport/cycling/Blyth_Sustainable_Travel_Audit_SUMMARY.pdf

The Cowpen Road narrowing scheme

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/Economy-and-Regeneration/Energising%20Blyth/Bebside-to-Town-Centre-Cycle-Corridor.pdf

The Cramlington argument

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/blyth-relief-road-closure-fear-28056781