NE Regional Mayor needs top class quantity surveyors to give assurance to all Councils that infrastructure projects aren’t there to fund service delivery.

 

The north east mayoral combined authority is having to persuade Councils across the region that they are no longer able to influence strategy or draw down funds to be used outside the influence of the Mayor and in this case her office.

Set up by the Conservatives in 2016 via the cities and local government devolution act of that year, fully introduced on May 4th 2017 the act took powers from Council’s constrained by George Osborne's various austerity programs and put infrastructure improvements in the hands of regional mayors.

It's been a difficult process for some old Councillors to understand who have been used to pressurising their leaders into delivering this and that for decades. Those leaders are now toothless, yet many have not yet grasped the fact that they must now ensure service delivery meets ‘best value’ standards and that their books lie open to scrutiny at all times. This is to ensure officers don’t worm-away funds to make their life easier and financial targets are fairly met across the board and that all areas get a fair-share of the available workforce.

The loss of strategy and the adjustment of Councils plans to accommodate the needs of a wider region is now underway across the North east but the old dogs still have all of their old tricks up their sleeve to make life as easy as possible but this week's announcements may have severed their long term goals.

In Northumberland, the Tory led council has been exposed this week by both their pie in the sky infrastructure investment pricing to get projects on the ‘next delivery’ list and the exposure of the secret decision making by Northumberland tories that is letting down the public when Councillors from outside the one party cabinet arrangement are scrutinised by the voters from the wards they represent.

Those two matters have been issued out into the wider community by the Northumberland Gazette and the Leader of Northumberland Labour Group Councillor Scott Dickinson.

The Northumberland Gazette have shown that better checking of infrastructure programs by fully qualified quantity surveyors before being placed before the regional mayor for approval is a must; as Councillor Glen Sanderson the Leader of Northumberland Tories has tried to show up the Mayor by stating he needs an extra 29% rise in the funding to deliver a cycle track from Old Hartley to Blyth even though it already has two cycle/walking corridors covering that journey including the wonderful Eve Black Way through the dunes between the two enclaves when he announced a rise in delivery cost from £9.7m to a massive £13.5m.

Then, Councillor Dickinson drove hand cut nails right into the floor through Glen Sanderson's feet at full Council this week when he exposed their ‘secret cabinet’ in the public domain and the hidden future of the Tories arms length in trouble company Advance Northumberland who they pulled back from borrowing £80m to fund its future but the rumour mill is saying that this huge debt program is secretly back on the cards at the expense of service delivery county-wide everywhere but Cramlington and Morpeth.

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/cost-of-planned-seafront-active-travel-route-in-northumberland-jumps-to-over-ps13-million-8785032

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Low Mow’ Is it the way to damage our vulnerable residents' health?

Conservative policy during the 1980s to run down trade union power and turn the nation into a ‘service society’ through offshoring our textile, clothing and production industries, reducing the circle of trade between our heavy industry’ and our national steel production, then they began to lower and cheapen the strain on the NHS through closure of industries such as coal whilst outsourcing government and local government contracts to the cheapest tender caused many Council’s to attempt to strengthen their value to communities through doing the best they could to minimise risk to their residents.

Blyth Valley Council, a borough council formed in 1974, covering the largest percentage of the Counties urban population, was presented during the 1980s with a number of reports centred on the growing poverty and health problems linked to unemployment, worklessness and the fallout from heavy industry. This, followed the experience during the 1960’s of the former Blyth Town and Seaton Valley Council’s which were morphed into the new borough from the sudden loss of Blyth’s shipbuilding industry losing 1,400 jobs overnight and the NCB’s rundown of collieries in the south east corner of the counties coalfield in Seghill, Seaton Delaval and Cramlington.

The answer to many of the health problems of Blyth Valley’s former heavy industry workers who experienced many chest and breathing complaints and develop a mask to hide the problems of its high unemployment and worklessness base caused was looked at by a number of Council committees ranging from the harbour health boards to its environment and housing committees, jointly following medical advisory links with the NHS the Council chose smokeless zones linked with better grounds and street maintenance to lower many of the symptoms which exacerbated its residents.

Keeping the streets looking immaculate, regularly mowing before pollen problems transformed the air we breathe, trimming its street tree stock in winter and centering in new tree and shrub planting plans onto a lower pollen producing standard worked very well indeed with the Council’s overall aims of healthier lifestyle and cleaner streets improving the health of its residents.

The move over to a single all purpose unitary county council bolstered by some quite large parish councils during 2009 has untangled that constant.

Why you may ask?

The reason being that the industrialised South-East corner of the County where almost 54% of the county’s population dwells only makes up 3% of its total landmass, making the County one of the largest ‘rural’ areas in the UK.

The other 97% of the County is made up of mainly agricultural and tourist industries with different politics and thinking to ‘how do we help our residents in poorer economic and healthless areas?’ and with the national drift towards divided society the problems suffered by those in greatest need are now looked down upon by those holding local power, both Conservatives and Reform UK.

From 2009 to 2024 the large parish councils backed up the County spend across the south east through partnership working, that partnership has now been dismantled and the future looks bleak across the former Blyth Valley area. This Year, Northumberland County Council is reducing grass cutting on up to 15% of its council-owned land to boost biodiversity. The changes focus on transforming traditional grass verges and open spaces into wildlife-friendly meadow habitats while ensuring road visibility and pedestrian safety remain uncompromised. That 15% sits daily and squarely across the high density residential areas of the south east of the county and not the 97% of the rurally defined zones. 

A 15% slash across a 3% zone is disproportionate to the fact that the 54% of residents who now live in the 3% land mass zone pay the majority of the tax revenue the Council takes in.

In Blyth Town the Reform run Town Council has now chosen to spray more poison to kill street weeds possibly damaging our water courses, along with marine, river birds and wildlife and not pay for additional grass cutting to keep down pollen rates, pushing up the health problems for local people. Without thinking as they haven't taken into account that less grass cutting allows weeds to seed and generate ever more street weed problems and those street weeds encourage the local mouse populations to explode.

 Weeds provide the three things mice need to thrive and multiply:

• Abundant Food: It's a fact that many weed species produce seeds that are a primary food source for rodents.

• Shelter and Nesting: Dense, overgrown vegetation offers excellent protection from predators that help humans cope with mice problems and the weather.

• Travel Corridors: Tall weeds allow mice to move around your verges and travel into your gardens, yards and homes safely and undetected. 

Mice also carry a variety of serious diseases that can be transmitted to humans through bites, contact with their urine or feces, or via parasites like ticks and fleas.

Northumberland County Council  and Blyth Town Council have not produced any equality impact assessments on these draconian policy changes and have simply looked at your street as an extension of the county's vast rurality. This is linked with the County Council rodent policy who have placed the costs of clearing mice problems deep into you as a resident and you're already highly emptied through ever increasing council tax,  pockets.

We codgers have trawled the health scrutiny reports of the County Council committees and can’t find any reference to the new grounds maintenance policy and the effects of more weeds, more poison being used and more grass pollen and its effect on our most vulnerable in society.

As a resident you need to monitor and complain to your elected member of both councils if this policy does not comply with your families or household needs and hold them to account.

Labour’s help for employers to increase the pool of industry workers

 

Ever tried to bring in new workers and can’t get any with the skills you need?

It's a major factor in all industries especially craft industries now that the migratory workforce has dried up following Brexit.

Train your own is now the only way and it doesn’t need to stretch your profit margins.

Here’s what the Government and Local Mayors can offer to you as a business.

1. Help with Training Costs

• Small to Medium Employers: If your pay bill is under £3 million (non-levy payer), you will generally only pay 5% of the training and assessment costs. The government covers the remaining 95%.

• 16 to 21-Year-Olds: The government will pay 100% of the training costs if your apprentice is between 16 and 21 years old.

• Levy Payers: If your pay bill exceeds £3 million, you can use your Apprenticeship Levy funds to cover training via your digital account. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. Financial Incentives

• Cash Payments: Non-levy paying employers can get a payment of up to £2,000 when hiring new apprentices aged 16 to 24.

• National Insurance Relief: Businesses do not pay employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices aged under 25 who earn under £50,270 per year. [1, 2]

3. How to Access Help

You can find approved training providers, check funding bands, and manage your advertising through the official Apprenticeships.gov.uk portal. If you need step-by-step assistance, you can use the Get help employing an apprentice service. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Labour, set to save Councils millions as getting closer to Europe requires the use of ‘Free Euro-Software’?

 

Oh Dear! Say technology billionaires.

Getting closer to Europe the Labour 2024 manifesto focuses on "resetting" the UK-EU relationship to deepen ties and reduce trade barriers, while explicitly ruling out a return to the single market, customs union, or freedom of movement. The goal is to "make Brexit work" through a new security pact, a veterinary agreement, and mutual recognition of qualifications.

Making it work has taken on a totally new look on the back of Trumpism splitting the ultra right from 71% of the British Public, an unwarranted and possibly illegal war in the middle east, huge tariff swings on goods inward with dreadful language used if retaliation from affected Governments and nations places America second.

The European Union appears to have had enough and they have decided to lower the huge drain on their own Government budgets but the announcement by the EU was simple indeed ‘If you wish to trade in any way with the EU you use ‘our’ FREE software.

After the announcement it was rapidly picked up by African and South American businesses and Asia appeared to follow suit as day dawned.

In a very short period of time to trade with Europe, firms selling or delivering services to the EU will have to use their free Euro-software.

The savings for British public institutions are immense. The Government struck a deal to try to cap Microsoft licence costs down to £9 billion over five years. The European Government wants to slash bills of that size down to zero and are now set on the path towards delivering their aims. Those aims will drag UK public bodies along with them. Including the NHS the nations largest licence user.

Microsoft whose hardware changes towards universal changeover to Windows 11 haven’t been a success at all right across Europe with home users lost both financially and technically in the changeover may have been the catalyst as people approach their elected representatives for help and advice on what they should do in these cash strapped times. It looks like in Europe passing complaints up the line has been delivered from the top on their behalf.

Europe LAUNCHES Microsoft Killer - Free Euro-Office Goes Live, US Software Control ENDS

Town Markets and Food Halls on the up Where is Blyth Town Council on growth for Blyth?

 

Northumberland’s largest Town with a REFORM UK led Council appears to local social media commentators to have ignored the needs of residents.

Blyth is not only the largest town in the County of Northumberland its also the poorest, a fact that was never ignored by this Council’s predecessor Blyth Valley Council who ensured the essential needs for the community market were always met with its market full of traders at least three days each and every week.

The BBC recently reported on the recent growth in this sector as Unitary Councils press businesses to pay ever increasing rates on their bricks and mortar high street shops. Market stalls and multi-vendor food halls are proliferating across the UK as rising business rates and high costs pressures bite. Pushing traders to move to markets and away from traditional high-street retail ahead of 2026 revaluations. This shift represents a move toward lower-cost, flexible, and high-footfall alternatives for businesses struggling with increased overheads

The FT as well as the BBC has reported growth in the sector at 26% in February 2026 rising rapidly to 31% in March 26. Councils are also seeing shops returning to high streets where footfall has increased through better markets with all current retail staying put in many of those same towns as they enjoy similar footfall growth and stronger passing trade.

Where is Blyth Town Council on this?

It appears Northumberland County Council, the current market managers where most of Blyth Town Councillors are also members have outsourced its market management to a once a fortnight Craft Market run by a company ‘wavelength’NE. 

It's being said by locals that to get a stall in Blyth your business must engage with wavelength NE. Wavelength appears to have set up an exciting market for early June in Cramlington Northumberland but in Blyth they may need to seek help from the Town Council to attract the stalls Blyth folk want and need.

Many Blyth commentators believe that REFORM UK Blyth branch are up to help the market and partner with the current organiser as they have been photographed as a group of politicians at Amble Market, one of the county's most successful ventures. They have also commented on social media that they have asked stallholders about coming to Blyth.

It appears that the new market place, now built on by Northumberland Conservatives does not pass the weight test for market traders to park their vehicles near the stalls and many fear they will have to hire porters to bring stock to the stalls which would be a huge drain on their profits. Blyth Town and County Councillors from REFORM UK and the Conservatives could iron out those problems and improve the retail off for the whole of the largest Town in Northumberland.

Blyth Reform’s hack back on shared streetcare services Solingen Estate suffers the pain

County Councillor Natalie Rolls represents Wensleydale Ward

 Blyth Town Council, a Reform run local authority, has decided to cut back on its partnership with Northumberland County Council for streetcare services.

It may be a money saving exercise by Farage’s right wing gang in the Town but those who voted them into office are livid with the state of grass-cutting, a streetcare service that is one of the first to be cut back.

Prior to the May 2025 Town Council election, Blyth Reform Candidates made public complaints almost every day about the enhanced grass cutting services especially on Solingen Estate in the south of Blyth town.

Blyth is Northumberland’s largest Town and this complete destruction of a partnership locked in place since 2009 and bringing vast improvements to the service delivery right across the town has now spiralled into a chaotic mess and the Reform Councillors who have been taking photos of themselves replacing street cleansing operatives picking up litter don’t appear to be able to get improvements to services they have stopped paying for.

If this is meant to be a REFORMED way to deliver services they haven’t taken Blyth’s residents along with them.

Town, Parish and Community Councils Offer Great Value for Money.

 

Across Northumberland where the all purpose unitary County Council has been labeled by Local Government Experts as ‘dysfunctional’, is dogged with a Council housing crisis, admits its recent budget process was flawed three weeks after pushing it through, expecting another huge overspend on social services and children's services including education as its short of 12,000 pupils in its schools has decided to run a review into how Town, Parish and Community Councils are run.

The scope of the review is laid out on its website as: We are inviting you to take part in a county-wide Community Governance Review. The purpose of the Review is to enable ‘the Council’ to consider what changes are needed to our parish electoral arrangements. All residents have been sent a leaflet along with their Council Tax papers inviting them to take part in this review.

In support of Town, Parish and Community Councils we need to ask the question of why should a County Council that hasn’t delivered ‘Best Value’ in a local government sense since 2017 offer to be judge and jury over a series of democratically elected local councils who deliver services they can’t and won’t as their prime function at creation in 2009 of ‘all purpose’ unitary council are not a set of functions they can deliver on.

Looking at Northumberland’s largest Town Council as a base measure, for on or around £2;25 per week (depending on your council tax band) they deliver an enormous amount of value for money services that the County Council can no longer deliver due to cost pressures from failing services plus regular public events such as the Town Fair, very popular Music Festival, xmas lights, Blyth in bloom, floral breaks on public open space across the town and other events for children and families during out of term time, as well as supporting community groups survive cuts imposed by County Council budgets including Blyth’s very necessary food bank.

Some Town, Community and Parish Councils keep the area's history alive, Berwick's world famous ‘Riding the Bounds’ celebration has become a huge tourist draw for it and surrounding parishes. Along with other services, they also assist with the ‘Berwick Hoppa’ bus service to help ease parking problems across the Town at peak periods, dealing with matters locally and not relying on a distant County Council very much at all.

Some parishes may need to rethink and enlarge to soak up more public services ensuring equity across the geographically large and predominantly rural county that is Northumberland, numerous small ancient parishes do not have any volunteer councillor members nor parish clerks and a number feels pressurised by the successful parish along the road leaving community activists in limbo on how to alter to attain similar levels of services for their locale or communities.

So, to ensure your area gets the ‘best deal’ out of this review ensure you complete the survey, encourage your neighbours to do the same and in areas where parishes aren't working offer change that your community can line up with and don't let the supposedly Unitary all purpose council deliver its wants and needs to prop up other communities and not yours.

Councils | Northumberland Association of Local Councils https://share.google/Ua7r7nwXNIJA5v8F6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=terUy6tbPHY

https://www.blythtowncouncil.gov.uk/services

https://www.berwick-tc.gov.uk/local-services