Nutters looking at last days unpopular regime?

Newbiggin by the Sea town council appears to be at a crossroads today!

Many of the characters who have dominated the council since 2009 are attending their last meeting this evening.

But will their last meeting lead to this Council closer towards being reported to the ombudsman or will it leave its second biggest decision ever (after bog-gate) to the new Council to be elected on May 6th.

The alterations to Milburn Park and its surrounds were put out to a consultation earlier this year. We nutters are not aware of the results of that consultation but we do hold the information that the consultation period was extended to 30th April 2021!

Tonight the last meeting of the Council has been called as an extraordinary meeting and unless the nutterly calendar has altered and the world has shot forward 48hrs then the date is 28th April.

We are led to believe that even though covered by the Nolan Principles the Town Council’s members wish to talk about and possibly make decisions regarding Milburn Park prior to the closure of its real time consultation. But hey ho after bog-gate what do we expect from these people who will try to run away from the responsibility on May 6th by not standing again to face the music.

As far as we are concerned the law is the law and unlawful decision making is still a crime and the ombudsman can report these members if they take an unlawful decision to the Police even after they have left office. So can members of the public.

Its our nutterly advice that tonight the Council should simply have an extraordinary goodby glass of sherry make covid safe gestures to each other and go home.

Leave the decision making to the new Council after May 6th!

Endemic Poverty across Northumberland won’t be eased by Tories not reporting on food poverty in its urban and semi rural areas.

 

Recent Government and newspaper reports on the state of poverty across regions and left behind urban and ex industrial semi rural environments illustrate how the rush to omit Northumberland’s most deprived Wards from the Tory led Councils report on food poverty will open wounds which will never heal.

National news that before rent reduction the North East of England has over 15% of families suffering problems of endemic poverty was released last week by the Government. Critics who work in the arena of poverty action and Northumberland’s Labour Councillors vocally responded to the reports claiming they are a blind to hide the truth, that the release is premature and that the figure is set to rise sharply in May as new benefit claimants are added to the list for the first time in over a year.

Northumberland County Council through its legal responsibilities towards childens and families ran a short term task and finish group earlier this year chaired by the Tory Councillor Wendy Patterson. The minutes of the meetings have just been made available to Councillors and those who represent the most poverty stricken Wards in Northumberland are up in arms with the papers.

Councillor Liz Simpson who represents Newbiggin Central and East Ward which is home to the highest number of children living in homes suffering persistent poverty in the County went public on social media about the reported minutes pointing out how biased they were against Wards where poverty has become endemic over the last decade of Tory Government’s.

We contacted her and asked her what her thoughts were on the matter and she told us “I couldn’t believe the results of the task and finish groups report and how biased it is towards reporting on wealthier areas to show that poverty among families and children isn’t a real problem under a Tory Council”

“Wards with extreme poverty levels like Newbiggin by the Sea from Prudhoe, to Berwick are omitted from the report in favour of looking at low food bank use in places like Ponteland, Warkworth and Morpeth, its a political cover up.”

 “Labour Councillors have been asking for a report to be taken to Cabinet which signposts people towards being able to claim the new weekly food vouchers to help those in need, instead we have a report going to the new cabinet after the elections which will cloud the real issues of a Council where towns making up almost 60% of the County have families and children caught in both the poverty trap and suffering lower than average educational achievement primarily caused through the lack of action on the ground over the last decade from Government for a national relief plan for forgotten places.”

To claim the new benefit, Councillor Simpson explained If families meet the criteria, they can get free vouchers or payments every four weeks to spend on cows' milk; fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables; infant formula milk and fresh, dried, and tinned pulses. They are known as Healthy Food Vouchers.

Pregnant women and those with children aged under four are eligible for the coupons if they receive Child Tax Credit and if their family's annual income is £16,190 or less; Income Support;

Income-based jobseeker's Allowance; Pension Credit which includes the child addition; or Universal Credit and if their family's take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment.

Councillor Simpson also said that in poor areas we have low levels of internet access and my fear is that having to apply for these vouchers on line via the NHS has led to the massively low take up from those in need. The web site for the form is via this link https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/how-to-apply

Its easy if you're eligible or you know someone who is. Please tell them about it and if you can, also help those who need help get online to claim.

 

 

Milburn Park is what us locals call the tennis courts

 

After all the rumours, posts on social media, here it is in black and white!!!!  No consultation with the public, no consideration of what the community have been through this last year, no thought to the fact Newbiggin needs repair work in a lot of places, the beach needs to be managed it's turned into a hill and is pushing onto the prom.  Nothing  not one thing that would actually benefit residents!!!  I am furious!!   

 Report of the Town Clerk

Council 17 March 2021

1. Project Plan 2021-24 and Partnership development

1.1 Against a background of lockdowns, Pandemic restrictions and home working in most

organizations for the past year there has been some progress in developing the Project Plan

in line with the Town Council’s expectations following last year’s consultation.

1.2 While understandable in the national circumstances it is still disappointing that so few

schemes are yet on site as anticipated although several should be during the Spring. There

has therefore been little expenditure in the current financial year so the revised 3-year

Project Plan shown in the Appendix contains the carry-forward of those current allocations.

Members should also show ongoing commitment with future contributions from the Town

Council up to 2024 to add match funding.

1.3 While work has continued with various partners to progress the regeneration of Milburn

Park to include vastly improved play facilities; beach huts; accessible bankside boardwalk;

observation platform all are at different stages of development with some requiring further

grant contributions. These should accelerate throughout this year.

1.4 Recent support from Economy and Regeneration Service at the County Council and

impending grant applications has focused attention on the need to formalise and

strengthen local community arrangements. It is felt that the time is now right to build on

recent joint working and support and commence the formation of a local partnership

Coastal Community Team as encouraged by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and

Local Government to continue to build on:

Enhancing the attractiveness and accessibility of public areas;

Providing increased community facilities;

Promoting the visitor economy;

Encouraging sustainable uses of heritage/cultural assets;

Creating links to support the growth and performance of the retail sector.

All of which fit well with the Town Plan and will be supported by and build on the Economic

Plan developed by Newbiggin Community Ventures Newbiggin Community Trust and County Regeneration and agreed

as part of the Neighbourhood Plan process.

1.5 Newbiggin by the Sea has is an ancient coastal settlement and as a seaside town has a

very strong coastal community and coastal economy which needs to be identified to

external funders. There are Coastal Community Teams for the coastline areas of Amble,

Berwick and Blyth. It is suggested that the Town Council lead on the formation of a CCT 

with Newbiggin Community Ventures, Newbiggin Development Trust, initially working with County Regeneration Service and subsequently

look to bring on-board appropriate business interests and stakeholders.

RECOMMENDED that the Town Council:

i) Agree the carry forward of project allocations and the extension of the 3-Year

Project Plan 2021-24 as shown in the Appendix 1;

ii) Confirm delegated authority to the Town Clerk to make payments of contributions

to schemes as appropriate;

iii) Confirm that the partnership working for the regeneration of Milburn Park and the

town be accelerated with cross support of individual projects;

iv) Agree the formation of a Coastal Communities Team as outlined in the report.

 

Dodgy Tories Spinning Like Tops More leaked emails from the Morpeth’s Collander.

 

 

Why should public funds be used to bail out
shocking Tory decision making?

 

Councillor Bridgett to Councillor Oliver:

Dear Cllr Oliver,

 

Please forgive me for having taken 36 hours to respond to the evidently rushed proposals that went through the cabinet on Tuesday morning that switched the funding of the bailout of Advance Northumberland from using COVID-19 funds (as agreed at the cabinet meeting on the 23rd February) to using funding from budget underspends in the 2020/21 financial year.

 

Something didn’t sit quite right with me when you casually mentioned in your preamble that the £11.1 million going into this reserve fund to bail out Advance, was coming from “finance and corporate service budgets”.

 

As someone who actually read the 50 page report, based on what I had read in that report at the time, it sounded like you were being very liberal with the truth.

 

So, you’ll forgive me if I did not take what you had said at face value. I have since spent the last 36 hours seeking clarity and fully researching the matter further.

 

And would you believe, it is exactly as I thought and had originally interpreted the report.

 

For those members of the council who may not have seen the report and for those members of the cabinet who maybe haven’t read it properly either, the report can be found by following this link to the council website:

https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s2140/Financial%20Performance.pdf

 

You see, the money to bail out Advance is no longer coming from unringfenced COVID-19 funding but is instead coming from budget underspends as outlined on page 4 of the report.

 

Now would you believe, the biggest contributor to those underspends is not actually the “finance and corporate services” budgets as Cllr Oliver might like you to believe but is in fact the Adult Social Care & Commissioning budget. To the tune of over £8 million.

 

Now as I understand it and I have sought clarification on this, the total budget underspends within the council are around £18 million.

 

And as agreed at cabinet only 36 hours ago, rather than invest that underspend in “Recovery Northumberland” and use it to improve council services as we come out of this pandemic and as I think the general public would expect us to do.

 

Instead, you have chosen to use those underspends to bail out the mistakes made by individuals at Advance Northumberland. Mistakes that went against the council’s shareholder representative advice, mistakes that were based on no visible external legal advice and mistakes that only got board approval after the actions had been taken and enacted.

 

But what really is disgusting about this whole thing is the fact that the Adult Services & Commissioning budget has only had these underspends as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Either from the revenue generated as a result of Covid or as a direct result of the council not having to meet the care home fees of some of the poorest, most vulnerable residents of Northumberland, who have sadly passed away as a result of COVID-19.

 

I am genuinely interested as to how you are going to deny this one or spin it as some sort of falsehood because the information is there for all to see in the publicly available report that went to Cabinet on Tuesday morning. 

 

To quote: "Due to the unprecedented level of turnover in purchased care in the first half of the year an underspend of £6.038 million is forecast".

 

Is "unprecedented level of turnover in purchased care" the administration's way of saying "the deaths of Northumberland residents in residential care as a result of Covid-19"? You don't need to respond. I already know the answer to that question - I've done my research!

 

Or the extra £101,000 that the council has generated due to "the increased level of vulnerable people who require help making decisions regarding their welfare and/or financial affairs."

 

I thought your attempts to use the Covid-19 funding for this were bad enough but is bailing out the mistakes of Advance Northumberland, with money saved on the back of some quite horrific and traumatising circumstances such as the loss of family members in care homes, really the way the residents of Northumberland and those husbands, wives, sons, daughters and grandchildren would really want that money spent? or would it not be better used improving our frontline services across the council to help them and us emerge from this horrific pandemic. Or better yet! Use it to help residents and businesses that have fallen through the cracks because of the criteria for other forms of support. 

 

I would say I am shocked but after the last 9 months, very little seems to shock me anymore.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Steven Bridgett

 

Councillor Sanderson to Tory Members:

 

 

Councillor Bridgett to Councillor Oliver response to above:

Well given that no one has been willing to respond to my email (below).

 

And the Leader of the council only feels it appropriate to communicate with conservative group members on this subject matter.

 

I will respond to the Leaders email to conservative group members.

 

For the benefit of those who are not members of the conservative group - I have attached a copy of the said email.

 

I will respond to the points accordingly.

 

1,) I genuinely could not care that there is an election on the way. What I am bothered about is the fact this council is proposing to use money that could be spent on council services in the forthcoming financial year, to bail out Advance Northumberland.

 

2,) You use the word "us" when referencing so-called instances of people allegedly having a go at the conservative group. I am not having a go at the conservative group! I have always found a majority of the conservative group to be decent individuals! What I am raising are issues and decisions that are being taken by a small number of the conservative group that impact this whole council and the services it delivers.

 

2,) As for the leaks, it's evident that they are also coming from within your own ranks! Perhaps some of your members no longer believing some of the denials and outright lies.

 

3,) So you've admitted there is a claim (we all knew anyway) and the reasons for that claim. And that you are evidently looking to settle that claim. What happened to the statement in the press that the council will vigorously defend this claim?

 

4,) So you're allegedly now not going to use underspend from within the Adult Social Care & Commissioning budget to meet the cost of the bailout for Advance. I'm not sure how this is possible given the levels of funding required but the fact you're willing to use funding from that department, along with Children's Services and Local Services underspend given that it is not possible to create the reserve fund to bail out Advance Northumberland without using underspends from those departments is appalling in itself.

If there are underspends, these underspends should be being used to support and improve our frontline services in the forthcoming financial year as we emerge from Covid-19. Or better yet, use this money to support local businesses that have fallen through the cracks in terms of support from the government.

 

It is these services that our residents care about! Not bailing out the council's own company because of the monumental mistakes that have been made as a result of certain decisions.

 

If you, as Leader, are happy with using council service underspends to bail Advance Northumberland (which is the exact decision the cabinet voted unanimously to do on Tuesday) rather than spending it improving our own council services or supporting local businesses, then at least have the backbone to come out and defend that decision! A decision that you voted in favour of.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Steven Bridgett

 

 

 

 

Newbiggin suffers most from the ‘Oliver Tax’

 

During 2018 a report was ran out by the Council in the name of Councillor Nick Oliver, reducing the amount of benefit families in need could claim from the Council.

Newbiggin by the Sea has the highest child poverty rate in Northumberland and suffers most from the effects of this dreadful cut in benefit As a percentage of population Newbiggin is currently also home to the largest number of those striving to help themselves on minimum pay, claiming top up benefits and thereby suffering the effects of endemic poverty worsened by Councillor Olivers actions.

Due to the current situation with jobs, furlough and large scale redundancies other areas across Northumberland are very close to joining Newbiggin by the Sea and families falling into the poverty trap. Areas such as Hirst, Cowpen, Croft, College, Kitty Brewster, Prudhoe, Newsham, Widdrington, Lynemouth, Hadston and Amble have seen the gap between the haves and the have nots grow rapidly in recent months with them being joined by others as clusters of poverty are widening in many other wards once thought economically secure.

With support for the Tories fading in Northumberland through the revelations in the press of corruption, bullying of staff, racism, and with Labour calling for a special meeting in the press to ensure at least elected councillors from outside the Tory party are made aware of whats been going on in their name. 

We expect a change of administration in May 2021 and hope that the ‘Oliver Tax’ is the first thing changed by the incoming Council. 

Boris may have won the War but has he lost the peace?

                  Pre-common market nostalgia may save UK business yet!

Brexit, a phoenomina driven by those who hankered for a return of the Billy Cotton Bandshow on the radio, 12 pennies to the shilling, cheap fish and chips three times per week, 2 O’clock closing on a Sunday with the harassed little wife waiting for her man staggering home to place his dinner before him and Newcastle United winning the FA cup!

Times have changed a bit since then but the sentiments the same, hankering for the past has caused the anguish of the present day and whose paying for it? not the top 7% who hold our nations wealth, its us the common people who find ourselves wading through the mire like Dickens description of Abel Madgewick’s escape in Great Expectations.

The Guardian has summed up the position the nation is in with a massively prospective shrinkage of our economy caused by the ‘smelly’ supposedly ‘oven ready’ trade deal accepted by the Tories in a story about the position a cheesemaker finds his company in.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/23/cheshire-cheesemaker-says-business-left-with-250000-brexit-hole

So you may ask how can nostalgia and history help the UK now?

Britain became Great Britain through our unified nation being an island and the use of ships and shipping to bring in and export goods from our manufacturing bases across the Country, there was no major highways use for mass edibles and manufactured goods until the mid 20th century. a simple look at a map shows the rail and canal networks link manufacturers with ports both big and small on both sides of the North Sea.

On our Eastern seaboard ports sit fairly and squarely facing the ports in Europe many of which have sat semi redundant since the 1960’s. Those with ferry terminals  on the continent are locking down and burying transport companies in red tape in a huge snub of the UK that may last decades. 

But how can we get this blockade like situation eased to the satisfaction of our now geared to road transport industry on both sides of the briny pond which separates our nations and is damaging to all. We believe its quite simple, lets get our ports working with each other and increase shipping via the former short routes as opposed to most goods being transferred to and from the Continent via the South East of England and Hull.

Northumberland and the North of Tyne combined authority area has wonderful ports that face the Baltic with historical imports and exports to Denmark, Germany, Eastern European Baltic states including Russia and Poland. Traditional trade routes are still open, in some cases a little run down. Roll on roll off facilities and lorry parks are simple add ons that can be quickly developed, but its our historical shipping agencies that we need to grow back rapidly to beat the red tape blockade.

Currently red tape is being used to slow goods in and out as every single lorry must have its correct paperwork sitting in its cab, but is that really necessary? European Countries pre common market had massive amounts of red tape in place to protect their own national identities and jobs yet British shipping agents overcame the problems and goods flowed in and out of our ports both big and small and on across the country very rapidly indeed. 

The DTI and Government business advisers are telling companies they must set up businesses on the near continent to handle the red tape but we believe that by using modern IT and transferring containers directly onto short route shipping via a larger number of ports road transport and shipping companies on both sides of the North Sea will thrive and the problems facing run down eastern seaboard towns will ease as as businesses begin to cluster around the historical powerehouses of the past.

So for those who hanker for the revival of ‘workhorse Britain’ lets get our giant Northern transport companies talking without ports and set up unified shipping agencies and not a myriad of different offshore companies to diminish profits and get our nation moving and trading again! 

£80m Liars Widespread Bullying of officers resignations sought by Councillors

 

North East Politics has been rocked this week with a call on live TV from Northumberland Councillors demanding resignations from the current Tory administration following the release of a confidential report to the media regarding investigations that Council Officers including the Chief Executive of the County Council had been bullied and coerced into situations fabricated by the Tories.

Both an Independent Councillor and the Labour Party spoke about the dreadful situation and position the Council’s reputation has been placed in and that heads should roll.

The position the Council finds itself in through the action of releasing a confidential document believed to be by a member of the Administration is intolerable. It's been said on social media that only members of the Tory Group had access to the confidential report, making its release untenable and against local government law. 

We have read that the Council’s administration sought to have the council placed in ‘Special Measures’ by their own Government  in order to stop the public gaining access to the myriad of reports from a multi disciplined task force sent into the Council to investigate the lies and cover ups leading Tories have spewed out since 2015. Its well known that their success in 2017 was based on a lie regarding the cost of the Labour Party’s wish to move from the current County Hall, hidden from public view behind a housing estate on the outskirts of leafy and very wealthy Morpeth to a site five miles away central to the diminishing commercial activity in Ashington a town well set among the top ten most deprived areas in the UK. This was to stabilise and then improve the ability of a well occupied public building in bringing relief from endemic grinding poverty and only low paid employment opportunities to a halt, and change an area forever.

The same Tories who lies are being investigated currently ran out at every opportunity that the Ashington move would cost £80m when its development actually totted up to £38m over twenty five years but other available Council reports show that when the sale of the old county hall itself was resolved it was only costing the taxpayer £12M with Ashington gaining an improvement in trade of +£23M over a period of years and of course the move towards reopening the AB&T Line (northumberland line) being pushed by the regions mayor, first phase, terminates in Ashington Town Centre a hop skip and jump from the proposed new County Council offices.

We expect that the local Ashington based MP, Ian Lavery is working up the future plans for the Town with the current leadership of the County Labour Party as we know from social media that Labour’s candidates for the May 2021 local government elections are very keen to ensure that both Ashngton and Bedlington, two towns ignored by the Tories since 2017 are revitalised by Labour after the elections and both sit in his constituency.

Were led to believe that the biggest lies from the Tories are still to come out especially the problems that the Tory Councils trading company ADVANCE Northumberland finds itself in but we hope that the reports from investigators are open for public view and not required to be leaked so that the taxpayers of Northumberland can find out from investigators the extent of corruption purveyed in their name.