In 2017 the Northumberland Conservatives came in with a bang, suspended the Councils planning document and declared open warfare on a site near Ponteland supported by the then Prince of Wales trust, that land is now part of the Kings estate.
Using planning as a tool to get their own way the Tories have left the countryside alone, UNTIL NOW? Under the cover of the local government elections they are slying an application through for a massive wind and solar farm near Whittonstall in the greenbelt that may get missed by the mainstream press leaving the next Labour administration to clear up the mess and take the brickbats from local folk and conservation experts.
This is from a Conservative party who have lived on the ‘Labour will concrete over your county’ for eight years and who lost control over their so called local plan and built double the homes their plan described, many on the edge of the greenbelt over and above their planning document each and every year since May 2017.
The planning meeting set for 15th April during a purdah period has other atomic connotations sealed within its simple planning format and rhetoric.
Another application that may damage current infrastructure is the site known as the ‘Ashington Hole’ which, for a number of years, has been a feature found on google maps.
It was the site where Labour planned to build a modern office block to house its staff in comfort. The Tories panicked and spent £millions half modernising County Hall in Morpeth dropping Labour's plans for the Council to sit at the head of the Counties new rail line.
The permission being sought on 15th April is to develop another Cinema. Another cinema, yes you read it correctly. With the Blyth multiplex being developed on its once great and very popular marketplace much against the wishes of most of its residents and Vue cinemas in nearby Cramlington, business leaders in the field of visual entertainment must be worried. With South East Northumberland being home to a mere 172,000 residents on population grounds alone, one of these businesses is doomed to failure.
The Ashington application may be the survivor as publicity surrounding the Northumberland Line rail link is predicting huge numbers of visitors to Ashington while shopless Blyth town centre and competition from Silverlink pulling cinema goers away from Vue does not bode well for a happy future.
The meetings list goes on to cover the great expense of building a college in the community for 200 students instead of a shopping centre or a better market offer in the heart of Blyth. Ashington due to its now easy transport routes has drawn in a new college facility to maximise the railway infrastructure and bus travel from the North of the County that will house 4,000 students and be a viable asset to its retail space situated close by.
Panic has certainly been expressed in this application as the Tories want it treated as a ‘matter of urgency’ and pushed through to stop the next Council from discussing the matter with the residents they will represent. An application that will completely destroy any retail comeback for Blyth for decades to come is being forced on the public who were not consulted on having their cash spent on buying the Keel Row centre from the Duke of Northumberland’s estate and kept outside this application through the Tories levelling up system. Blyth folk can’t see the level in this building going up!
Denuding Blyth of its high street has not gone down well with the Town's residents and its permanent road closures may spell the death knell of the Tories in Blyth, Northumberland’s largest enclave by far.
The other application on the meeting is a little less controversial: it's the modernisation of Cramlington Learning Village a building that has been dogged by problems for some time and its renewal is supported by the Governments department of education.
Energy farm
https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s25511/2301717FUL.pdf
Cinema
https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s25502/2404452FUL.pdf
College in the community
https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s25505/2404300CCD.pdf
Cramlington Learning Village
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