Help Needed!

[Stephen]

curly....... I think you have it in one!

A review can consider a number of issues, including:

• whether to create a new parish
  
• whether to alter the boundary of an existing parish
  
• whether to group a number of parishes together in a grouped parish council
  

Local people can petition a principal council to undertake a community governance review. A principal council must undertake a review if the relevant conditions in relation to the petition are met.

And most importantly the 3 parish councils now formed would have to want to reunite.........but everyones got there own powerbase and lets face it some parts of bedlington, others don't want to take on and some feel forgotton......no offence ment.

The existing parish councils don't have to agree to it, if NCC is persuaded that there is enough public support then they can 'impose' it on the parishes. Also, all the parishes come up for re-election next year and if enough people were elected as a local party called 'United Bedlingtonshire' or something then they could ask the County themselves to do this, using their election as evidence of public support for the idea.

You do need to persuade a few thousand people to support this though, whether that is by petition or by getting them to vote for the candidates. One question you probably need to answer early on is where the single office will be - Bedlington Community Centre, Bedlington Station Residents Association or Choppington Welfare (are those office costs just waste, or are they helping to keep community buildings open?)

My personal view is that East and West Bedlington should be united, but growing up in West Sleekburn and Stakeford we always did feel even more of a forgotten area than Bedlington. Choppington Parish is a distinct community within Bedlingtonshire and if I still lived there and was given a vote on it, I think I'd vote to keep it separate.

[John Fox (foxy)]

I'm still wondering why we're seperate, is it a secret?

[Stephen]

I'm still wondering why we're seperate, is it a secret?

Are you asking me? I think Malcolm knows far more about that than I do (which is nothing, except what I heard from Malcolm)

[Malcolm Robinson]

The existing parish councils don't have to agree to it, if NCC is persuaded that there is enough public support then they can 'impose' it on the parishes. Also, all the parishes come up for re-election next year and if enough people were elected as a local party called 'United Bedlingtonshire' or something then they could ask the County themselves to do this, using their election as evidence of public support for the idea.

You do need to persuade a few thousand people to support this though, whether that is by petition or by getting them to vote for the candidates. One question you probably need to answer early on is where the single office will be - Bedlington Community Centre, Bedlington Station Residents Association or Choppington Welfare (are those office costs just waste, or are they helping to keep community buildings open?)

My personal view is that East and West Bedlington should be united, but growing up in West Sleekburn and Stakeford we always did feel even more of a forgotten area than Bedlington. Choppington Parish is a distinct community within Bedlingtonshire and if I still lived there and was given a vote on it, I think I'd vote to keep it separate.

Power to the people................