Northumberland Labour Leader Is delivering while Northumberland Tories are grinching it in hiding.

With the news that upwards of 7,500 pensioners in Northumberland are dwelling in ‘persistent poverty’ and child deprivation is the constant nagging factor facing families and educators across the vast wilderness and its 4% urban sprawl which makes up most of this, one of Britain's most tourist photographed counties; whether that be old colliery and shipyard rows in Cowpen Quay or Ashington or fabulous castles and stately homes funded through the wealth of the County’s very profitable agricultural diversity.

Scratch underneath the glossy magazines and slide shows of visitors family holidays and our codgers group who investigate data and speak with people to produce this blog will tell you ‘its all fur coat and no knickers’ pushed by Northumberland’s demographic theanthropic Tories camped in an unfinished waste of millions of pounds of public money, County Hall in Morpeth, currently deciding over this yuletide period which families and from which departments running services the public pay for and expect delivered will suffer the ignominy of being made redundant having the futures of their children capped, joining the huge queues of those already receiving free school meals and feeling the shame that queue imposes on you.

With food prices at an all time high and seemingly no end to excessive charging and the simple promise from the Tory Government in office to their investor chums that energy prices are to rise again this winter to keep profits up in that marketplace. It's simple proof that those who are poor have to be happy living with low expectations that any cavalry at all will arrive from their Tory led County Council, but we know that Labour councillors and its party membership across the County are trying their best to help people, through their involvement with Parish Councils and charities and in person as in the case of the Leader of Northumberland Labour Group, the rather eccentric and publicly described as cuddly, Councillor, Scott Dickinson MBE who everyday organises a meals on wheels service in mid northumberland directly aiding those who need help most and when volunteers aren’t available to help he gets behind the wheel of the van himself and makes sure  deliveries happen. With Councillors right across the County grafting to help those in need we especially note Blyth Councillors and their Mayor, Warren Taylor who spend many hours delivering presents from his now famous sleigh and Santa Claus always comes to help. It can be slightly difficult with Northumberland County Council banning reindeer grazing on public open space but there is more than one way to peel an orange?

Urged on by ex PM Gordon Brown the Sunday Post took up his public address regarding the effects of poverty and deprivation and the collapse of equity and equality in society whose own researchers found that in the kingdom of Fife where he’s based 11% of families on low incomes say that without the help they get from charities, churches and food banks they would have to put their children into care. With one fifth of children across Northumberland living in destitution using 2022 information we found Department for Work and Pensions figures show 11,066 children in Northumberland were entrenched in really deep poverty in the year ending April 2022.

It meant 21.4 percent of children in the area were in a family whose income was below 60 percent of average household income and claimed child benefit and at least one other household benefit.Of these children, 9,078 were in absolute poverty as their family's income was lower than 60 percent of the median income established in 2010-2011 – accounting for 17.6 percent of kids in the area.

A recent DWP estimate as family costs go up were 13,500 children in poverty and deprivation during March 2023 with local charities estimating that rise from March to November 2023 to it being closer to 15,000, as figures from JRF and other aiding charities are compiled through the NHS. With Newbiggin by the Sea holding the victor ludorum of being beautiful and historic yet home to the highest number, 25% of children living in poverty and destitution. With their Labour County Councillor Liz Simpson pulling out all the stops to try to get help in whatever form, swimming against the Tory tide to publish and seek help to solve the problems in her local area.

Using the newest data we could find, shown above it means a quarter of children across Northumberland are living in poverty, destitution and living with low expectations.

Looking over the West of the County we find County Councillor Angie Scott of Prudhoe who organises an amazing Xmas appeal in her own name and this year has had help from the wider Labour party with the new candidate running  against Guy Opperman and expected to win at the next General Election Joe Morris helping promote  her fantastic work. She undertakes this massive project under the dismal cloud of ex-cop Tory Councillor Stewart who appears to be openly in denial that poverty exists in the Prudhoe area.

The Codgers group who have canvassed thousands of homes for decades find the growth in poverty among the elderly and the young unacceptable and most agree that the shock of seeing the conditions people are living in and the look of lost hope in their eyes has us asking our readers,
DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD SEE THE STATE WE ARE IN AS A NATION GET SO BAD IN YOUR LIFETIME?

Eileen agrees with Butlins, Wedding and Hen Parties are changing due to the Cost of Living Crisis?

 

It's been nationally recognised that the cost of Hen Parties, Wedding Planning, Wedding Packages both in the UK and in places such as Cyprus and Spain have shot through the roof with prices forced up by the ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ corporate greed and in some Euro destinations the wish to keep drunken binging out of family holiday resorts.

Inflation has ballooned the cost of the average night out at a Hen party or Stag do to almost £500, twice as much as a decade ago and well above the rate of inflation over the last decade and well above a week's minimum wage of £385.54 before offtakes on Transport, Accommodation and Drink.

Butlins have recently published a survey to show that in Wales and the North, Hen parties have increased manifold in their premises and drunkenness has dropped dramatically with Hens Enjoying themselves whilst showing a level of restraint and soaking up the party atmosphere while steering clear of the headaches and awful after feelings.

When coupled with huge wedding costs that families just can't afford at many venues or at venues families can’t afford to join the Bride and Groom, often abroad due to exorbitant rises in flight and accommodation costs things are beginning to change and Couples horizons are drawn more towards wedding celebrations locally and not internationally. 

Councillor Eileen Cartie, Northumberland Labour’s expert on community habits and trends as a long serving Community Worker agrees with Butlins and has noticed change happening since the pandemic with parties and Weddings being arranged more by the couples and their families and not professionally with receptions being held in Community Centre’s, Church Halls and Social Clubs with Hen and Stag parties now being centered ever more close to home in pubs and social clubs.

Eileen told us “ Being based as a community worker in the Buffalo  Community Centre in Blyth, Northumberland, I have noticed the number of celebrations being held has grown from a small trickle to a steady stream over the last couple of years. Families are renting rooms at centres, catering themselves or bringing in local providers and having wonderful times at minimum cost.”

“ Making weddings’ religious celebrations such as christenings and family big birthdays more affordable by using local and community venues is becoming ever more popular and in the case of weddings, it leaves couples' savings hardly touched to help set up their futures. You don’t need to fly to Cyprus or Crete to enjoy yourselves, you can have a great time with your family and friends around you to help you get your new life off to a settled start without maxing out your credit card leaving you years of worry to pay it off”.

Three Time Losers Still trying to catch up with Labour.

 

Following a massive campaign of fibs and more lies than a cheap watch from Northumberland Conservatives during 2013 who were trying to loosen their LibDem partners from office regarding the number of potholes on our roads the Tories still lost that election and Labour formed a mixed administration which was rained with even more fibs and lies as they were not in partnership with Northumberland Conservatives.

During Labour’s first year in office they had a complete highways condition survey undertaken and their man in charge of Local Services Ian Swithenbank CBE bought in a number of pieces of kit to tackle the perceived problem.

By June 2014 the Councils terrific workforce had driven the potholes into oblivion using jetpatchers and Paviour Machines. A completely different methodology than that practiced previously. They held that positivity until 2017 when the Tories took over and failures to fix potholes while farm entrances were beautified became the current Council Leader Glen Sanderson’s norm when he was the Portfolio holder for Local Services.

His failures became even more rampant and he went into print in 2020 to say he was tackling the then gigantic backlog.

In 2021 his team went back to the press to say they trialling new methods of dealing with the by then colossal backlog. Their trial failed.

2022 brought similar news stories as the failures reached epidemic proportions but the farm gates continued to be the glamour projects concentrated on by the Tories.

We're into another year and another story about purchasing new machines to tackle what is now a monstrous gargantuan backlog with huge amounts of yellow paint surrounding potholes right across Northumberland. They have now identified a goodly number of the potholes but the Government ‘fixmystreet.com’ brings more each and every day.

Starmer’s ‘fast track’ planning changes should help revive the UK fishing industry and save our coastline

Sir Keir Starmer is tipped to release his well announced planning changes this month.

Those changes will ease the huge number of energy infrastructure projects in waiting through the current mire of local planning and wider government linked planning law.

With the nation heading towards population growth from all sources pushing up towards 80,000,000 in a relatively short timescale the serious position of housing that number of people is also crucial to his planning change programme with shoreline erosion and rising sea levels sitting in the background damaging easy build coastal sites as an basic first hit for developers and Councils seeking sites to fulfill Starmers ambitious plans for growth and jobs, with thousands of building apprenticeships being created to fulfil his plans changing the UK from a service centred nation to one filled with artisans and highly skilled craft persons.

His changes are also rumoured to cover not only land based wind and nuclear energy sites but inshore solar and wave arrays.

These inshore energy structures placed strategically can be designed to not only be functional in the power production sense but can become the saviour of inshore fish stocks and used to build up onshore sand deposits to stop many of our wonderful towns disappearing into the briny as sea levels rise.

Using Newbiggin by the Sea’s groin as an example that can be replicated through energy investment all around our shores. In two decades the groin has trapped hundreds of thousands of tons of sand on the shoreline, saving this wonderful small town from falling into the sea.

The Newbiggin groin does not appear to have developed being home to cleansing shellfish such as oysters which would freshen the water daily but more modern multi functional models can incorporate the best of all worlds, making the UK both prime energy, shellfish and fish exporters whilst helping to feed our huge growing population. Leaving onshore solar sites to either grow food or build homes on.

The nearby energy centric Town of Blyth has been rocked by the release of the doomsday scenario in the press showing much of it under water and its coastal neighbour Cambois disappearing altogether. Due to it housing the UK infrastructure for import and export of energy internationally its the prime area to begin inshore coastal multi use reef design, build and fit and with its fantastic port facility can also house an active inshore fishing fleet creating jobs galore across all of the disciplines needed to save our coastline, feed the nation, support Europes energy needs and bring high tech jobs needed to improve all aspects of living well and surviving the devil of global warming.

Come up with the planning goods Keir and help us all.

State of the Nation 2022: children and young people’s wellbeing

 

Government analyses evidence about the wellbeing of children and young people aged 5 to 24 and is the fourth annual report. The report aims to provide an evidence base for those who work with children and young people. Local government can use the findings to help “deliver better wellbeing outcomes” including:

 

1. Personal well being: dipped in 2020 and recovered close to pre-pandemic levels by 2021 and 2022. New trend: greater anxiousness reported by secondary school pupils and those from white backgrounds

 

2. Mental and physical health: remained consistent during recent years but emotional difficulties and eating problems are at elevated levels compared to 2019

 

3. Education and skill: although satisfaction with school and feeling safe there is an increase in reported levels of low happiness.

 

4. More children are reporting low happiness with their family and friends compared to before the pandemic. Correlation between loneliness and mental health disorders.

 

5. ‘What we do’: children’s happiness with how they spent their time dropped during the height of the pandemic but seems to have recovered.

 

6. Self, society and the future: young people’s happiness when considering their futures appears to have increased from 2021, after dipping during the height of the pandemic.   We at Northumberland News hope that Northumberland County Councils scrutiny and audit committees take this excellent work and report clearly a way forward to improve the lives of young people in at least the six areas of weakness and strengths displayed in the Governments report

 

Northumberland Labour Pushing to Dual the A1 to Berwick.

 

‘Northumberland Tories are happy to accept second best says Councillor Scott Dickinson’

The lack of noise from Northumberland Conservatives regarding the stop-start nature of the Tory Governments roll out of the short extension of dual carriageway to the A1 that will link Morpeth to Ellingham, 25 miles short of Berwick, is worrying Northumberland Labour Group Leader, Scott Dickinson.

The MP for Berwick, Anne Marie Trevelyan has run on the A1 dualling ticket for the last three general elections. During that period she held the post of Transport Secretary without showing any ambition to get her Government in power to expand their plans to deliver a safe dualled trunk road through Northumberland to improve trade with Scotland up the A1 east coast corridor.

Northumberland News spoke with Councillor Dickinson who has always supported an improved highway through the County to weld closer travel links with Scotland and improve economic growth in East coast towns in Northumberland and the Borders as commercial transport delivers from the South to the Lothians via the highly developed West coast and Scottish trunk roads and motorways . 

He told us “ following the recent local government results showing Labour’s new policies have brought hundreds of thousands of Brexit supporters back into Labour’s fold I expect Labour will form the next Government” “I will be pushing the future Labour Government to ensure that Transport funding to link England and Scotland is top of their agenda and that twiddling around with an option that shows low ambition from Berwicks current MP and her County Council with Northumberland Tories seemingly happy to accept second best.” “I am also very keen on meeting with my Scottish Labour colleagues who are experiencing growth as the SNP have shown disregard for the Scottish people through the economic crisis and have been enveloped in crisis as a political party through investigations into their finances”. “I believe we can campaign on a level playing field with Scottish Labour on this essential issue.”

NHS, Council Workers and Teachers to shoulder the blame for Tory Mismanagement of the economy.

 

The Government announced that Public-sector pay rises are set to remain below inflation until price rises come under control, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warning against easing off in the fight against inflation and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey suggesting policymakers will continue to keep interest rates high.

The IMF said the UK is likely to have a larger increase in public debt than some other large economies because it is "contemplating further increases in public wages and other social spending". It added that the impact of government wage hikes on private wages and consumer price inflation "are significantly larger and longer-lasting when labour markets are tighter".

Meanwhile, Treasury officials have warned Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that there is a danger of a wage-price spiral, with high public-sector pay sparking wage inflation in the private sector.

Trade Union, Labour and Co-operative Party members have spoken out about the damaging effect of families and businesses outside of the capital suffering when so many people are having to shoulder the blame for the Conservative Governments mismanagement of the economy.

The mess is currently being highlighted with headlines outlining the waste by Matt Hancock’s department who couldn’t specify the PPE the nation required correctly topping £3.7Bn with over £1Bn of plastic goods burned with the residue damaging the environment, the PM being ferried around the country in planes and helicopters when the same Government are preaching that people need to get rid of their private cars and buy bikes shows just how distant the Conservatives at all levels are from the reality on the ground which affects public sector workers badly.

Without the support of public sector workers the Conservatives will fare badly at the forthcoming local government elections next month even with their democratically damaging ID scheme in place.