Olly its another fine mess you got us into!

The unbelievably self overrated failed businessman and now a Northumberland County Councillor Nick Oliver of Corbridge whose period of office has been coloured by his inability to accept the truth on a huge number of fronts including paying his tax debts to the department he has been placed in charge of.

He is the financial portfolio holder of the Council and one of his more regular business collapses has according to County and regional newspapers left himself and his wife owing £31,000 in unpaid business rates.

This week he has attempted to revive another vicious misnomer or to be slightly more generous to Council Oliver a blatant lie. That of the new Council Offices that Labour was hoping to develop in Ashington one of the Councils most deprived areas would cost £80m.

Rumour from the 'dark zone' at Morpeth County Hall is that he was asked by a Labour Councillor Lynn Grimshaw to prove his claim, after the huge expensive refurbishment of Morpeth County Hall was debated at a scrutiny panel.

We here at Murky thought we would give the Councillor Oliver the Councils prime fairy story teller a bit of a hint, from a Freedom of Information request on the Government web site 'what do they know' the link is below and here's the shortened version of the answer:

In the recently released Northumberland Conservative manifesto 2017, in

the name of Conservative Leader, Councillor Peter Jackson, It is stated

that the new Council Offices being built in Ashington will cost £80M.

 The County Council has published in the local press that they have fixed a

price of £32M through their company ARCH with a national building

contractor Galliford Try for the development of the new building.

Which is the correct figure?

Answer:

The figure of £80m being quoted as the cost of the new Council Offices

building in Ashington is incorrect.  The outcome of the recent contractor

procurement exercise confirmed that the new office building will be

delivered within the original cost estimate of £32.2m. Therefore the true

figure is  the £32M

Isn't it a pity that the Conservative Portfolio holder for finance hasn't bothered to check the true facts before prattling on and making a complete fool of himself.

 Get on to your pc Oliver and let the next rumour from Morpeth County Hall where the Tory administration accused of corruption resides is that you have apologised to Labours Councillor Grimshaw. Murky won't hold its breath while we're waiting.

 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/estimated_cost_of_new_council_of

 

Hubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble. She's definitely back!

 

 Murky giggles now that Northumberland Conservatives have shown how all the bullying they dished out, all the corrupt actions they have undertaken on the public purse all the lies they ran through their stage managed audit committee and how all their plans to scoop the pool and live on the back of the Council for years are being stirred in the witches pot.

 Unlike the Tory allegations against the Council company ARCH these matters are already covered by hard evidence and will be scoped into the huge investigation process that if history is to be repeated will be rapidly underway using some of the most expensive negative legal and audit investigators public money can buy.

 The biggest problem the Tories have is that the witches are a team and have wormed their way into the pockets of the Tories enemies Dungworth and Hill and through the solididity of womenhood  the only differences they may ever have is how hard to stir the pot.

 Right under their corrupt noses the Tories fell into the trap of trust as over the last three years the 'magic trio' at the top of the Council slipped the male officers towards the fire exits and lined up a team that have to prove that they can be even more vicious than the former postholders. The analogy to this trio being  Pele, Messi and Ronaldo world beaters on their day turning out for the same team each Saturday. Any team listing these three players in their day would have caused havoc among their opposition on match day. The game for this magic trio will be ever onward and decisive and for the Councils new leader, the Cabinet member for finance, the Chair of advance and the now famous land swindler as well as others in the Jackson cabinet will be career ending even if jail is avoided through the trowel, square and apron coming to the rescue.

 

Blyth town centre modernisation, is it to be ditched by the Tories?.

Murky noticed during September 2020 Northumberland Conservatives ran out an optimistic piece of spin regarding the release by Government of £750,000 as a kick-start offer from the Future High Streets fund. One of two funds which along with the 101 high streets fund described by Government and Northumberland Conservatives as  £3.6bn capital allowances to help bring life back to worn out and run down High streets across the UK. The split between the funds is £1bn to the Future High Streets fund and £2.6bn to the 101 High Streets Fund cumulatively known by the Ministry of Housing,Communities and Local Government as the Towns Funds.

The Towns funds are privately managed by the project engineers ARUP who will co-ordinate a group of consultants to help develop bids. The early release funding is to be primarily used to ensure the bid is strong and stable. Final bids must be in to Government for evaluation by January 2021 and its believed Northumberland County Council are ready to bring their final offer to the public for comment. The public will then see if the Market Place described by both the military and many architects as one of the best public open spaces nationally will be filled with old shipping containers to be used as shops. We will remind you that a local transport company executive is the Chairperson of the local business project team.

Due to the short run in to the December 2019 General Election the Tories decided to run out their manifesto in short speeches from the PM over a period of six months. In June 2020 as part of the infrastructure manifesto Boris Johnson announced the strengthening up of the Towns funds raising the cap above its earlier versions of £25m in exceptional circumstances. A short while later if MHCLG indicates they are not happy with the conception and planning of final bids there is no guarantee of funding.

The Prime Ministers announcement included an additional funding arrangement which would offer first tranche towns the opportunity to gain access to cash between £500K - £1m to kick-start work and cover the consultancy costs of the bid.

Unfortunately due to the impact of the pandemic a note from the Treasury put back second round bids 'for the foreseeable future'.

This week at the Tory Party conference two top Tories put the national town centre projects in doubt. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak explained he was ready to ditch manifesto pledges to balance the nations books. He said "We have a sacred responsibility to future generations to leave the public finances strong". He went on to say "Through careful management this Conservative Government will always balance the books. If instead we argue there is no limit on what we can spend, that we can simply borrow our way out of any hole then what is the point of us?".

He was backed up wholeheartedly by Sajid Javid Theresa May's austerity Chancellor who advised him to begin a 'radical review' of the nations finances and look at every departments books and zero base their project expenditure. He said "What I found in every Government department that I inherited… if you ask the officials for a spreadsheet, a list of every programme that department is working on, the cost, the number of full time equivalent people working on each project, how much has been spent and how much is programmed to be spent you will find programmes and projects that are no longer necessary".

Blyth and the Towns fund are peripheral to the current needs of a nation who will have to find cash to pay Universal Credit to an additional 1.3m claimant's from 31st October also Councils are not fully prepared to handle those claimant's need to access Council Tax and other benefits.

At least it may halt the possibility that rusting containers will be the new eyeful visitors will remember following their trip to the Town.

Northumberland Conservatives Capitulate

 

Northumberland Conservative leaders Sanderson, Dodds and Wearmouth have decided to bring Mrs Daljit Lally the County Councils CEX back from exile to get her feet under their 'new table'.

It appears to us at murky that they have capitulated under the massed pressure from the Labour Party and Councillor Hill who have destroyed the Tories via social media.

We at murky need to know what now happens to the Police investigations, the results of the Councils secret investigations and if a deal to rein back on the revelations of corruption via an expensive deal?

Murky will be watching for the lumps that are to be swept under the carpets!

Build, Back Better

 Murky notes none other than Premier Boris Johnson has been preaching his latest slogan build, back better. In his usual bumbling style he has tried in vain to explain that its his (and Dominic Cummings) method of rebuilding the nation after Covid 19 and Brexit but it hasn't gelled with his party's supporters particularly those elected members from the Shire Counties who have used their local planning frameworks and plans to control voting support in their favour for the last three decades. If objection numbers are high then the development doesn't happen and sleepy councillors put on their shining armour and defend the voting public with all their might and guile.

The new changes to planning law exploded into full view during August when Tory constituency parties began to debate the first of three consultation documents that have been aimed at gaining support from and for developers by introducing an algorithm into the national planning framework that favours building outside of the current urban conurbations and developing homes where people ideally wish to live, in the Countryside, in the Government's hopes that village and market town expansion will reduce the unsustainable state they have slipped into over the last two decades.

In Northumberland the mess that has ensued in planning since the disgraced Councillor Peter Jackson's regime abandoned the Councils core strategy in favour of a 'let's dump all future housing in our urban areas' local plan that they were going to produce in "a few months", three years on it was eventually presented to a Government planning inspector who asked at examination for evidence (which the council haven't got) to prove their plan. 

After they were caught out they began making their usual spinning noise expecting to blame Labour who in reality had resolved the shire tory squires conundrum by supporting the Tory Governments garden village program and an edge of Town site at 'Clickerman' farm to suck up the rural development numbers. Peter Jackson had them stopped at great expense to the Council which now means through his own Governments proposals and his complete denial that the core strategy was right for the County, development will take place in villages all over the county leading to slippage in housing values on current homes as choice increases widely.

Although we at murky like the general public have been parked in the cold on the clarification of annual housing numbers to be developed between 2022 and 2052 but were led to believe they have doubled from the figures being used in the Tories unclassified local plan to over 1000 each year, that's 30,000+ over the expected lifetime of the plan and without the development of much needed Council Housing on Council owned Land the numbers will only be met through the development of low quality high profit executive homes with towns and villages looking unbelievably similar like 1990's high streets.

Housing development and planning law changes are only part one of the Tory Governments plan to nullify local government through power grabbing now that they are aware that people can be controlled through centrally announced edicts. They are so sure they can force through these changes Premier Johnson has already announced phase two of his build back better plan, the development of 40 new hospitals over the next few years. The Government need to force this through as their developer allies need the land the outgoing hospitals stand on to manage their investment plans until councils nationally can resolve the issues of land supply to furnish the Tories new massive housing program.

Its said from time to time that all publicity is good publicity, but through the damage caused by Councillor Jackson and the accusations of bullying, racism, fraud, dodgy land dealing by his cabinet and an unacceptable local plan against the Council then the only good to come out of the most recent dreadful announcements can only be good for the Labour Party as Tory voters begin to realise how they have been let down by their own distant MP's.

Are Northumberland Tories actions encouraging unlawful activity

Although murky has looked at the way Northumberland Tory Councillors, many of whom including their recently resigned Leader Councillor Peter Jackson and his current replacement Councillor Glen Sanderson are millionaire farmers have poured cash into agricultural and rural businesses to help them through the pandemic and beyond as Brexit hits, we believe the Council should look again at a group they have ignored, the plight of those who pour revenue into the Councils coffers each year while keeping residents safe and sound, our struggling cab drivers.

For those who aren't aware of how costly and how controlled the taxi trade is in Northumberland the Council has drivers fully shackled and holds them to ransom to pay for both Hackney carriage and private hire licences and then pay the Council to test their vehicles sucking up the drivers profits while allegedly allowing Tory leaders to run a love affair on the revenue income of which cab drivers payments are a large part.

Nationally the cab drivers trade bodies have surveyed their members and on average through the pandemic their incomes have been slashed by 80%.

Yet the Tories who run the secret society known as the Council Cabinet have decided to support others, many in the farming and agricultural industries with grants and top up payments.

This has led many drivers down the rocky road to ruin, as their cars have to be maintained to an exacting standard which is extremely costly steering them towards using loan sharks if anything needs repairing on their vehicles.

Labour controlled Councils in the North and Midlands are looking to drive illegal lending out of this trade and in conjunction with Police and Crime Commissioner's are considering halting licence payments for the time being until trade resumes at a profitable level and starting Council led loan schemes to stop the trade being swamped by criminality. 

Northumberland accused by their suspended CEX of corruption on an almost industrial scale have simply been supportive of their own kind and hard working cabbies seem to be excluded on a permanent basis

Murky reveals the member of the public for Tory town councillor D Carr as former leader of Northumberland County Council Grant Davey also a long standing Councillor on Blyth Valley

 

Fancy that!

Murky notices the Blyth Town Councillor who doesn't live in Blyth Daniel Carr didn't recognise one of only a handful of people who have produced anything for Blyth in the last two decades.

As Dave Stevens Cabinet member for regeneration he brought the Town its iconic beach huts, built Dave Stevens House, Richard Stannard House and laid the plans to regenerate the Town as well as bringing the Blythscope public art when developing the market place. His progress was stopped by the Tory/LibDem coalition at County Hall.

After winning the 2013 election and sorting out the money mess left by the coalition he went on to build two new council estates in the town, also modernised Hodgesons Road estate including new homes for families.

He also brought the Commissioners Quay hotel and had workspace 2  built to improve job opportunities for people.

His name Councillor Carr is Grant Davey a quiet man who's name will go down in history while your still only famous for putting up a few litter bins and hiding behind the rhetoric spinners in your party who like to talk about all sorts and deliver nowt!