Labour: Rewiring Blyth

 

The 2024 Labour manifesto promised to revitalize UK seaside towns by tackling neglect through local empowerment, aiming to bring back their former glory.

The recent announcements from Labour’s hard working North-east regional mayor Kim McGuinness, illustrates that the Government has locked in  this manifesto promise along with their other promises to rewire Britain, a manifesto promise that raises Blyth’s profile within the national picture of green energy up to ‘world leader’ level.

The mayor has recently announced a £12 billion project to place an additional 462 wind turbines off the North-east coast with south-east Northumberland centrally placed to become a hub for the project centred around the port of Blyth and its three largest conurbations, Blyth, Ashington and Bedlington all clung centrally to former coal mining activities killed off by former Tory Governments.

The Mayor for the North East, Labour’s Kim McGuinness has announced plans to create 10,000 new green energy jobs over the next decade, alongside a £130 million to £150 million public investment package, with a focus on offshore wind expansion. She said “it's a “monumental” day for the North East.” she added “It is a huge vote of confidence in our ability to deliver green energy infrastructure. We know we are the only region who can do everything from the research and development of new technology, right through to the servicing of the offshore wind farms themselves. That is why we have been chosen and what it means is 10,000 new jobs for young people growing up in this region who see it as their future. It means over £12 billion of investment into our local area and it means more energy security for the UK.”

It is hoped many of those 10,000 jobs will pass through an about to be built, sponsored by the Mayor and her combined authority training school (energy central institute) ECI, which passed through county planning recently and will be developed in Blyth Town centre and extend the work being undertaken at Blyth’s energy academy.

The throughput of 10,000 trainees over the next decade from a facility in the heart of Blyth will hopefully lift the opportunity for some growth in footfall and pass on to increased commercial activity that will benefit the whole population of Northumberland's largest town.

When linked with Labour's £20m seaside  Town Plan with the Government announcing £20m through the mayor's office to revitalise the Town of Blyth the opportunity for commercial investment is there for the taking especially as the Tory led County Council have decided to ditch the prime competition in South East Northumberland, Manor Walks in Cramlington and sell it off to a trade provider.

Notes:

https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/25974792.blyth-north-east-world-leader-clean-power/

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/costs-soar-at-new-higher-education-facility-in-blyth-as-council-approves-measure-to-ensure-projects-delivery-6566277

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027wm5

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/blyth-regeneration-plans-set-to-progress-with-ps20m-funding-on-the-way-6566933

https://x.com/alnwickgazette/status/2039379161966367199

Community Activist seeks help to stop Northumberland’s most vulnerable from being ripped off by their Council?

 

Eileen Cartie, a community development worker from Blyth in Northumberland is seeking help to get members of the public to urgently aid residents in greatest need from being exposed to unaffordable charges to pay for the Council’s telecare and mobile warden scheme.

Northumberland County Council, a Tory led all purpose unitary authority who are in the process of employing a private ‘Fund Manager’ to salt away millions of pounds in development cash, are forcing up the costs as they indicate are causing budgetary pressure on social services and safeguarding departments.

The fund manager from an international accountantcy firm is being brought in to what workers believe to separate these huge cash windfalls from data companies drawn down from the Blyth estuary data bank schemes from the Council’s mandatory budget process. It is suspected that this cash which the Council will receive each and every year for the next decade at least, will be used to support glamour projects outside of the Counties poorest areas.

The current attack on the most vulnerable is being ‘consulted’ upon, and will lay huge additional cost burdens on the service users and their families who have a choice of ‘pay up or else’. 

An option does also sit in letters to service users to accept a much reduced service that pushes up costs by 25% and removes the mobile wardens from the deal.

At the moment the monitoring and mobile warden scheme costs users £6:45 per week. The majority of users are older people not on the new state pension and they and their families are now being invited to pay £797.22 per annum without any service improvements being placed before them to show what if any improvements or benefits they will gain from this huge rise in cost.

So if you live in Northumberland, community activists want you to join in with the consultation to help those in greatest need stay in their own homes as that is the prime benefit of this scheme but the ransom being set by the Tories in Northumberland is ‘pay up or pay to go into a home’. A massive fear for service users and their relatives. 

P.S. Don't forget to speak with your local county councillor and talk this through with them.

Notes:

WHO IS YOUR COUNTY COUNCILLOR?

https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/northumberland-telecare-user-fears-forced-182511553.html

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/Health-and-social-care/Care%20support%20for%20adults/Consultation%20Document%20-%20Northumberland%20Telecare%20Service%20Review%20Proposals.pdf

‘How much’? Is my local council going to spend on regalia?

Blyth Town Council found themselves in hot water during the summer of 2022 when the then ultra right wing Tory MP for Blyth Valley came out against the purchase of high quality regalia so that at public events local people could easily recognise the towns Mayor elect, the deputy mayor.

The objection by the MP against the proposal which was designed to bring Blyth in line with other large parish councils both locally and nationally did halt the regalia purchase by the council.  

The publicity following this attack on the volunteer councillors working hard for their communities was seen as an attack on the Town itself, it drove down the MP’s popularity being branded a ‘Borisite’ verbally in pubs and clubs by Blyth’s Reform supporters losing out to Labour in the general election and losing the town Council to reform in the parish elections.

A recent suggestion by the Council has been another regalia purchase to aid them to enlist a cadet mayor for the Town. 

The Council has pledged to spend £1,470 on regalia for the cadet mayor, a figure questioned by social media commentators as mean. People are asking if the largest town in Northumberland's cadet mayor will be asked to wear ‘pandora’ next to the civic mayor's glittering chains of office.

Key Details on Proposed Regalia:

Cost & Budget: The new proposal (as of Oct 2025) has an estimated cost of £1,470.00, which was to be sourced from savings within the Governance Committee budget.

Purpose: The new items are intended for official civic events, commemorating the town's traditions, and establishing a Mayoral Cadet role to encourage young people.

Previous Controversy: In 2022, the council faced significant backlash over a £15,000 expenditure on chains, with critics labeling it a waste of taxpayer money.

Usage: Official chains and robes are typically worn by the Mayor at civic functions and remembrance services.

The purchase for the cadet  now branded in the second class and not quite what townsfolk want to see as an advert to improve the town's rundown reputation is not the only stumbling block to bringing in a cadet mayor.

Those in the know regarding looking after and not exploiting children and young people have submitted a freedom of information request into both the Town and Northumberland County Council whose role it is to ensure young folk are safeguarded which may throw the cat among the pigeons.

It's been estimated by wags that the safeguarding matters linked with the cadet mayor post will work out annually much more expensive than purchasing quality regalia for a deputy mayor each and every year a cadet is chosen and marched around the town.

The town council now being top heavy with volunteer councillors not holding advanced fully certificated checking papers known as DBS checks, may leave the council with a major eyeballing as it seems reform UK ltd the largest group on the council has more than its share of members nationally who aren't approved of by local residents with safeguarding and misogyny regularly mentioned in media reports. Therefore do the County Council social workers involved with safeguarding of children have faith that a Blyth cadet mayor will not be exposed to meeting undesirables during  civic events? In Scotland the SNP have shown they can't!

Blyth Town Council to spend £15,000 on decorative chains for deputy mayor during cost of living crisis | Chronicle Live https://share.google/rRHnjszD5UJ8bLo86

https://youtu.be/BoHL9sIXA-k?si=xz7ciHSJopIbVKlE

 

Leaked recordings show SNP councillors backed Jordan Linden | The Herald 

https://share.google/uys0iU6dSaGMQ76pT

‘How much’? Is my local council going to spend on regalia?

 

Blyth Town Council found themselves in hot water during the summer of 2022 when the then ultra right wing Tory MP for Blyth Valley came out against the purchase of high quality regalia so that at public events local people could easily recognise the towns Mayor elect, the deputy mayor.

The objection by the MP against the proposal which was designed to bring Blyth in line with other large parish councils both locally and nationally did halt the regalia purchase by the council.  

The publicity following this attack on the volunteer councillors working hard for their communities was seen as an attack on the Town itself, it drove down the MP’s popularity being branded a ‘Borisite’ verbally in pubs and clubs by Blyth’s Reform supporters losing out to Labour in the general election and losing the town Council to reform in the parish elections.

A recent suggestion by the Council has been another regalia purchase to aid them to enlist a cadet mayor for the Town. 

The Council has pledged to spend £1,470 on regalia for the cadet mayor, a figure questioned by social media commentators as mean. People are asking if the largest town in Northumberland's cadet mayor will be asked to wear ‘pandora’ next to the civic mayor's glittering chains of office.

Key Details on Proposed Regalia:

Cost & Budget: The new proposal (as of Oct 2025) has an estimated cost of £1,470.00, which was to be sourced from savings within the Governance Committee budget.

Purpose: The new items are intended for official civic events, commemorating the town's traditions, and establishing a Mayoral Cadet role to encourage young people.

Previous Controversy: In 2022, the council faced significant backlash over a £15,000 expenditure on chains, with critics labeling it a waste of taxpayer money.

Usage: Official chains and robes are typically worn by the Mayor at civic functions and remembrance services.

The purchase for the cadet  now branded in the second class and not quite what townsfolk want to see as an advert to improve the town's rundown reputation is not the only stumbling block to bringing in a cadet mayor.

Those in the know regarding looking after and not exploiting children and young people have submitted a freedom of information request into both the Town and Northumberland County Council whose role it is to ensure young folk are safeguarded which may throw the cat among the pigeons.

It's been estimated by wags that the safeguarding matters linked with the cadet mayor post will work out annually much more expensive than purchasing quality regalia for a deputy mayor each and every year a cadet is chosen and marched around the town.

The town council now being top heavy with volunteer councillors not holding advanced fully certificated checking papers known as DBS checks, may leave the council with a major eyeballing as it seems reform UK ltd the largest group on the council has more than its share of members nationally who aren't approved of by local residents with safeguarding and misogyny regularly mentioned in media reports. Therefore do the County Council social workers involved with safeguarding of children have faith that a Blyth cadet mayor will not be exposed to meeting undesirables during  civic events? In Scotland the SNP have shown they can't!

Blyth Town Council to spend £15,000 on decorative chains for deputy mayor during cost of living crisis | Chronicle Live https://share.google/rRHnjszD5UJ8bLo86

https://youtu.be/BoHL9sIXA-k?si=xz7ciHSJopIbVKlE

 

Leaked recordings show SNP councillors backed Jordan Linden | The Herald 

https://share.google/uys0iU6dSaGMQ76pT

Failure since 2022 rears its ugly head again.

During 2022 Northumberland Unitary Council Leader, Glen Sanderson promised the public that he would, in the true ultra right wing style of Putin or Farage, tackle the pay levels of Council officers to cut £1m from the wages bill while ignoring the fact that his Council has an adopted job evaluation scheme and therefore pays the accepted ‘rate for the job’.

His 2022 public promise glamorous Glen as he has been known by his mates for years made the pledge after it was revealed that in his party's view the council was paying huge sums to a large number of top officers.

Shortly after his promise was made he pushed up top officers' pay again when he recruited a new Chief Executive on a starting salary of £199,000. With the numbers rising from 20 paid more that £100k in 2022 to 26 in 2024 an unmitigated failure when tested against his previous promise.

The Council has since its inception in 2009 listed all posts with salaries over £50,000, to elected members then in 2020/21 a change to the Councils constitution forced in via the Council's audit committee brought the full list onto the Councils final accounts and on to the Councils website.

With his neighbours and locals commenting quite often asking how he has time to lead a Council when as a farmer during these post Brexit times he needs to spend more time watching his crops grow fatter every day and running his agri business. But ploughing on so to say and not delivering his promises at Council level he has recently decided to increase high level staff further.

In the background of his Chief Executive being remunerated close to a quarter of a million pound per annum following Glen accepting the begging bowls of officers delivered through his secret cabinet of decision makers, councillors attended their March 26 meeting dizzy through social media comments asking them most just couldn't answer.

So at this week's Council the Leader introduced a new job valued at £140,000. Some councillors were apoplectic, with a long standing lady councillor from the North of the county taking to social media with this message:

Northumberland County Council

** £100,000 + salaries **

At yesterday’s meeting, which you can watch back via * (Northumberland TV), the Council agreed to create a new Director post on a salary of £140,000.

I voted AGAINST this as did other Independent colleagues and a couple of Reform with one Labour abstention.

Recently, NCC was found to have the highest number of staff paid over £100,000 in the North East region for the FIFTH year in a row.  Despite assurances, new posts with these level salaries continue to be created each year.

I was rather surprised that the vast majority of Reform Councillors supported this given their stated aim of ;

“Reform UK aims to reduce "mind-blowing" local government waste by capping high salaries and cutting administrative costs. Proposals focus on stopping council tax hikes, reducing the number of executives earning over £100,000”

The Council labeled this week in the press by an MP as incompetent showed signs of the leadership breaking up with we suspect Reform gaining over the short term, the Councillor from the north’s advice to watch proceedings on tv are very valid and you will see the crumbling administration at first hand as it begins its journey towards dust blown away into history

Notes

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumberland-county-council-wage-savings-25066598

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/new-chief-executive-at-northumberland-county-council-set-to-pocket-ps199000-salary-3896979

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/About-the-Council/transparency/structure%20and%20salaries/Senior-Management-Salary-Information-1-April-2025.pdf