I agree with the TUC Local people need the Tories to launch an emergency budget ASAP, says Councillor Liz Simpson.

 

With families suffering the massive problems caused by Conservative mismanagement of the economy and their beloved friends the investors, who sat back and harvested £millions from retail during the pandemic expecting the same levels of riches and not wanting the fast flowing money taps turned off Councillor Liz Simpson Northumberland Labour deputy leader fully supports the calls from the TUC to bring an emergency budget to Parliament as soon as possible.

Councillor Simpson a retired Branch Chairperson for the GMB who represents Newbiggin Central and East ward on Northumberland County Council told us that:"families whether working or claiming benefits are feeling the pressure of this Government's mismanagement of the economy, with costs rising 10 times faster than wages and 17 times faster than basic state pensions, people in all age groups from Newbiggin by the Sea need the government to U-turn and redefine the money in their pockets through setting a budget that doesn't ignore people at the expense of maintaining the lifestyles of the 7% of the nation who sit on massive fortunes."

" Families are facing the worst squeeze on their finances since the 1950's, with those on minimum wage £200 per annum worse off as energy bills have risen by 54% last week, with bills pre October when another huge rise is predicted averaging £2000 a year in real terms, with the 6.6% rise in the national living wage failing to keep up with inflation."

" This Government also decided to attack pensioners by deciding to break the Triple Lock and only increase the state pension by CPI rather than earnings raising the basic State Pension by £373 a year leaving pensioners having to make a critical choice every week when they shop and have to pay their increased bills, the Tory led Northumberland County Council haven't helped with them setting the highest council tax in England"

Councillor Simpson summed up her chat with us with: "I hope everyone who reads the article signs the TUC's petition".

https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/rishi-sunak-get-back-to-parliament-and-present-an-emergency-budget

Councillor Lynne Grimshaw Welcomes the Rubbish Rule-Changes?

As both a County Councillor and an Ashington Town Councillor Lynne Grimshaw welcomes the new rule changes that have been designed to try to stop the national rise in fly tipping incidents.

The new rules require Councils to increase the amount of waste they collect to help tackle the ‘epidemic’ of fly tipping, some of the changes will be to ensure households can tip DIY waste for free and that the Government expects Councils to increase their recycling efforts to make it easy for families without access to transport to dispose of household waste and bulky furniture correctly by making collection free of charge.

The Government is proposing to put some additional cash into this project by paying for extra CCTV surveillance cameras to be fitted in fly tipping blackspots.

Councillor Grimshaw told us that: “ along with my colleagues at Ashington Town Council I have a great interest in the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ campaigns and I wholeheartedly support the ‘new deal’ for residents as Ashington is one of the Towns in Northumberland with high rates of transport deprivation and with huge numbers of households with low access to vehicles.

The system of recycling items which can’t be put into your recycling bin needs full access to a vehicle to take items to your local recycling centre at present and the help offered in the new paper from the Government will certainly aid a good number of people living in Northumberland as all charges for disposal are hopefully being scrapped.”

“Although I also welcome the inclusion of CCTV into the funding arrangements from Government I hope this is ‘New Money’ and Councils don’t have to resite their current CCTV Camera stock into these areas as they are currently used in places of need to protect people, I will certainty be asking at the Audit meetings of the
County Council to ensure this isn’t another austerity rip off from Westminster.”

‘Proper’ Destination Signage Is needed for Blyth

 

Councillor Kath Nisbet, the Town and County Councillor for Croft Ward which covers much of the Town Centre of Blyth was very pleased with the news from Parliament just before it closed for its very long Easter break that 7000 brand new offshore windmills was the prime choice to kick start the replacement UK’s energy revolution using renewable energy.

With the Port of Blyth and its now world famous blade turbine testing centre sitting in Croft Ward, ‘ORE Catapult’ and a newly proposed larger offshore industry training centre about to be built in the Towns South Harbour, Councillor Nisbet welcomes the news from Parliament. “It's great that the growth of this much needed renewable energy program for offshore windmills will energise further the work of companies based in the River Blyth basin and hopefully lift the number of local people employed in this industry, which will benefit our Town Centre greatly.”

She also said:” I am not from a seafaring background but looking at our Town’s history and charts in the Library, Blyth appears to be a very prominent eastern seaboard port that sailors can find quite easily which offers shelter from storms as well as its current import, export and business uses.”

“Blyth, Northumberland’s largest Town by far must be one of the few Towns with a very popular theatre, The Phoenix, along with a well known non-league football club Blyth Spartans which doesn’t have enough signage for its Town Centre let alone brown signs for our attractions other than the beach area. This growth of powerful companies entering the world energy markets surrounding the River Blyth Estuary should be a catalyst for putting Blyth on the signage map of Britain”.

"That said I also believe, now that major industry is planned to be sited in the river Blyth estuary that the County Council, businesses and the Town and Parish Council's in this area need to campaign hard to have Blyth's travel status increased and it become a 'destination by road' and at least gain equal status with places like Alnwick, Ashington, Berwick, Morpeth and Seahouses gaining signage not just from our beach to the town centre but from the western bypass, the  A1 in Northumberland and the A19 corridor."

 

Councillor Eileen Cartie concerned about latest report from Price Waterhouse Cooper

 

 "UK households face historic fall in living standards"

Northumberland County Councillor Eileen Cartie, a community worker in the Town of Blyth is very concerned at how inflation is affecting residents of the Town and damaging family cohesion.

The latest UK economic outlook from Price Waterhouse Cooper predicts inflation will hit 8.4% later this year. 

The rise in living costs will wipe 2% off household incomes, equivalent to about £900 or as much as £1,300 for the poorest families. If the Ukraine crisis worsens, inflation could peak at 11 %. 

PwC also warns. The economy will grow at a slower-than-expected rate of 3.8% in 2022, down from the 4.5% previously expected and last year's record 7.4% expansion, the latest report suggests.

Councillor Cartie pointed out that "It is clear in my mind that much of the causes of this inflationary period were avoidable if the Government had kept it's eye on the ball for the last decade as its not all down to the war in Ukraine." 

"The neglect and sole interest in applying austerity to all areas outside the Capital is a planned attack by the London centric Tory Government that is being felt by many households children and businesses based in Blyth and beyond". 

"The improvements that staycations through the pandemic brought to Northumberland and the North's tourism businesses will be feeling great pressure from rising costs this year and I'm concerned that many families, their children and residents already struggling across the County will be permanently damaged through the cuts and as this Tory Government puts it 'choices' people have to make, it's my belief that Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove must share the same middle name, 'Hobson'!

 

Cowpen and Blyth families need to take up Social Tariff Broadband to help them through this difficult time say’s Blyth Town Mayor?

 

The current mayor of the Town of Blyth and County Councillor for Cowpen Ward, Councillor Margaret Richardson, is very concerned that local residents aren't taking up social tariff broadband when recent data shows that the area of Cowpen and Cowpen/Kitty Brewster sits locked into the top 10% of most deprived wards nationally with well less than average income levels in most households in fact some of the lowest household incomes in the Country.

Councillor Richardson told us at Northumberland News that: “The take up of social tariff broadband is extremely low, sitting just above 1% of the almost ten million people eligible for cheaper broadband have taken up the offer.”

“Families in Cowpen who are on Universal Credit or a number of other benefits such as Income-related Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independent Payment (PIP), Housing Benefit, and Pension Credit can benefit from the scheme with some companies offering the service for other additional claimable benefits”

Councillor Richardson also pointed us towards a statement recently released by the The Good Things Foundation, which campaigns on behalf of the digitally excluded, described data poverty as an issue that has "grown significantly over the past two years during the pandemic".

It warned increases to the cost of living "will only put further pressure on those on the lowest incomes, who are already having to make stark choices between having the internet connection they need and heating their house or feeding their family".

 “As the Mayor for the Town of Blyth and a Cowpen Ward Councillor I know how people struggle with their decision making of how to spend the low incomes they have to live on, these lower cost broadband schemes will help close the gap between the haves and the have nots and will help families who always want their children to do better at school provide the information they need to learn and keep up with their compatriots.”

 

News Ed: the links below may help:

https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guides/broadband-deals-for-low-income-families/?utm_source=braze-marketing&utm_campaign=insight&utm_content=211215-Generic%C2%A0-&utm_term=u-email-marketing-newsletter-active-211214&utm_medium=email&ref=email~marketing~insight~211215-Generic%C2%A0&customer_id=21792e28-d4bc-4673-9447-c806012e8251&utm_adgid=61b9e802c6e3c1b55aabc33ac833a0fb

 

Councillor Liz Simpson reminds us all that Council Policy has run out at the most difficult time for children since the 1950's

 

Councillor Liz Simpson who represents Newbiggin Central and East ward which is home to the largest number of children and families living in deprivation in the whole of Northumberland has reminded the Council that it's time to look at two major time expired policies which drive the Council's view of how to help children achieve and guide their needs going forward.

The Council's policy for early years which ran out in 2021 has had an update applied for the youngest people in society, it is ambitious and attempts to identify the individual needs of children. Its children's plan, covering all age groups, runs out this year. The numbers of children and families requiring to use the services covered by the policies have been very constant and covering consistent numbers for many years.

The recent social and economic changes facing families will scope even more children into categories covered by the policies. Numbers are expected to grow rapidly this year and sit at a much higher level in forthcoming years until wages and benefits catch up with the soaring rate of inflation.

Councillor Simpson said:"Due to the Government's cost of living crisis and the credit crunch we need to think hard and avoid a light touch update to policies that protect children and ensure we grown-ups elected as Councillors design essential change governance that will supply and increase the help to young people in need"

Experienced Councillors from the largest opposition group on the Council, Northumberland Labour, have offered their services to review Council policies but video evidence from the last full Council showed that the Conservative administration have no interest in sharing information and rejected the offer.

Councillor Simpson is rightly concerned that only Councillors from wealthier wards will contribute to the formation of the new policies and Labour will only be involved in the scrutiny of these documents, a very weak position to be in when policies are being designed. 

She also told us " these policies must be altered, possibly redesigned and stiffened to suit the changing needs of children and families at a time when the Council has lost its leading officer from Children's Services, Mrs McAvoy, to another local authority and the Conservative administration have broken into three infighting groups leaving me with no confidence that the correct improvements to help children through this disastrous period will be applied and we will end up with a great opportunity missed for both the Council and those we serve."

 

Living or simply surviving? Labour Councillor Lynne Grimshaw extremely concerned about the pensions catastrophe!

Bothal Ward in Ashington is very similar to many areas across the North-East of England suffering from a post industrial or mining activity past. 

People strive to keep their homes in order and the public face they purport is one of neatness and love for the places where many were born, worked and lived most of their lives. Its often been said that like homing pigeons those from the North-East who have left for work often come back to their nest and family when they retire.

The picture painted with the words above don't illustrate the reality of life behind the heavy curtains keeping the winter chills from invading bedroom and living spaces as the problems older people face through Government policy is about to get worse due to mismanagement and austerity measures doled out by the bucketful onto those who aren't able to stop nature and have got older.

The Government, hellbent over the last 11yrs on punishing those who rely on the State to live have now decided that it's easy to form a two tier society led by ignoring the plight of the elderley as they don't vote in high enough numbers to affect the spin put out by Tories and therefore don't really matter.

During 2021 the Tories stopped the Triple Lock on state pensions designed to keep problems of inflation from the doorsteps of Europe's lowest paid pensioners and 'offered' in the words of the Chancellor an increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the relevant reference period (the year to September 2021 to be paid for the financial year 2022-2023) and offer that always sits behind both time and reality.

This means the basic State Pension will increase to £141.85 per week and the full rate of new State Pension will increase to £185.15. 

Councillor Lynne Grimshaw the Labour Party Town and County Councillor for Bothal Ward in Ashington is deeply concerned for the residents in the Ward and told us " What a mess this Government has forced onto pensioners, with inflation running up towards 11% they open their sweaty palms and give out three and a half percent. They have caused a deep living standards division between older and younger pensioners but only publish the top line figure for new pensioners and rarely engage with the press about the basic pensioners who currently outnumber full higher rate pensioners by 81%." 

" Its dreadful that if you were a man born before 6April 1951 or a woman born before 6 April 1953 you suffer a differential of £43:30 per week in comparison with your contemporaries yet you live in the same society with the same costs and the same rate of inflation but this Government ignores your plight gives you an increase well under the level of inflation they have caused through their mismanagement of the economy and have no plan to close the gap other than to starve you out and on top of that keep new pensioners nailed in well below what the same Government class as the 'living wage'"

"I'm extremely concerned that in order to put on their accepted lovely public face, elderly residents in Bothal will suffer and put pride before food and heating, unfortunately it's built into their DNA. I will be urging relatives to keep an eye on the elderly and seek help from wider society and not be too proud to accept help from charities such as Age Concern and foodbanks and check if yourvrelative is entitled to benefits such as pension credits".