Councillor Robinson - November 2019

[Malcolm Robinson]

November 2019.

 

First up a site visit to Hexham at 10am Monday morning.  Even with the traffic I made it in time and we all stood at the site entrance. This one was about developing a bit of derelict land at the entrance to Hexham. The real crux was the listed stone wall which will have to be removed and re-sited further back for a new roundabout and access into the site. The officers took us through the application explaining what was proposed. Took about an hour to get through and walk around.  I can see this will be pretty controversial tomorrow night when it comes in front of our committee.

 

Strategic planning this afternoon but first a presentation about a possible schools project in Hexham.  We heard that and asked quite a lot of questions, it actually overran by about 30mins.

Next was the planning meeting and we had an application for Bedlington to discharge reserved matters on the proposed new houses next to the Chesters.

First were two applications related to the Hexham application.  Both were considered as one but voted on separately.  The first was about the new store and hotel which is being proposed as well as possible secondary retail offers.  I just thought this hotel will dominate the site and its basically a square box pity we don’t see some imaginative design for it.

We also considered this listed wall and its removal.  It is to be re-sited around a new curve allowing vehicular access to the site but I pointed out that most of the stone which is to be reused is shot so new stone will have to be used and it won’t look the same. I asked planners to take the aesthetics into account when agreeing materials.  There are also old bricked up tunnels under this road and wall which we all hoped might come back into use for pedestrians and cyclists. This application went through unanimously after hearing it had been a blot on the landscape for 30 years!

 

 

Next came the Bedlington reserved matters application. I had asked for this to come back to committee even though the developer didn’t see the need!

We had the scheme outlined by the planners and then had a member of the public speak about safety issues at the proposed junction and then the spokesperson for WBTC who had tabled several objections. The problem was that most were not specific to the application! However some were and needed to be answered.  We then had members questions and I waited until the end before asking mine. I did this because I could only ask about matters pertinent to the application and those brought up by the planners and highways.  I had to say I was struggling to contain my questions to the application only given the history and the planners knew exactly what I was saying!

Because of questions and replies given earlier I started by saying what had really happened and why and explaining some of the reasoning other members had asked about.

I then asked my questions, we had heard about a speed reduction, where was that proposed, trees were to be removed where abouts, the S106 agreement and how it will be delivered and do we have a definitive settlement boundary now?  Each one was taken by several officers and it took quite some time to get through as we argued and debated back and forth, especially about the S106 infrastructure funding. In the end with only my vote against the application passed.

 

Full council meeting today and again only questions off independent members tabled to the administration!   Mine was first.

I wanted to know about the build quality of these new social houses are are supposed to be building and used another council’s award winning scheme to illustrate how we could be doing them. Seems we are going to look into the build quality and running costs so I spoke about the project Northumbria University are currently doing with the North East’s very own George Clark, one of channel 4’s architect building experts, and could we get the recommendations and suggestions coming out of that to use in our own builds? No commitment but at least they know about it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ym88gG-Ng&t=1612s

 

Again a ping pong match between the main parties each trying to score points over each other.  Even the Lib Dems got into this one!

 

Facilitated a meeting at County Hall today with a group of residents and the appropriate officer to see if solutions to their problems could be found.  Hopefully they have and we will see some action soon.

 

Remembrance Day and a full schedule today for me. I declined the NCC parade and instead attended the West Bedlington Memorial.  First up was a scrutiny meeting at County Hall about the forthcoming budget amongst others. I had quite a few questions for this scrutiny meeting across all the subjects.  I had read one paragraph over and over and it still seemed to me to be something other than what was promised.  This was about a budget consultation but it only said the proposals would be presented and explained.  It never mentioned anyone responding to the consultation would have their views considered and might ultimately influence any decisions made.  As I said that’s a PR exercise not a consultation!  This was disputed by the portfolio holder and I eventually gave him the benefit of the doubt, but I will closely monitor this consultation and see if anything coming up influenced any of the proposals in anyway!

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/call-meaningful-consultation-budget-ps10million-cuts-planned-northumberland-county-council-974817?fbclid=IwAR01_EPvFO-Mv5FzGgCZGtk7vILJsM4yWp3bNoZ1Y_j6QsZN-WLRdCJNhmQ

 

After this meeting it was back to Bedlington for the Remembrance Day service at the Memorial and then up to West Lea Cemetery to officially unveil my new plaque. I had asked Sydney Graham to do the honours as he organises the Remembrance Day parade for our armed services and the Royal British Legion.  He has also identified most of not all the war grave in this cemetery. Parachute Regiment veteran Bill Johnson came too.

 

 

 

 

We had an all member Local Transport Plan meeting today and about a third of the councillors turned up for it.  After an outline we then broke into LAC groups to go through each of our proposals.  I registered my immediate concerns that none of my proposals had made it through into the schemes to be worked up.  After checking my email trail the officer apologised and wrote them down again, this time into the approved schemes! We spent most of the allocated time with the first officer then had a swap as the technical officer came in and again I managed to get another two of my schemes into the mix. So from going from zero input I managed to get 5 schemes into the mix!  I also mentioned something which bothers me personally and even though its not even in my ward I had to mention it.  It was the road out of Bedlington up the Horton Bank, especially the adverse camber coming down this road towards the Attlee Park bridge. I was surprised this had never been mentioned but it was agreed this was something to be looked at especially when the officer emphatically agreed with me it is very dangerous!

We then had an inclusive last session on things like plastic added road surfaces and after I had some questions about that the meeting was called over.

One thing which had made it through already was my call to get the 40MPH bit of road at the bottom of Choppington Road reclassified as 30MPH.

I felt it was a morning well spent but only if we see some resulting actions!

 

LAC tonight and the chair has been in touch to say she is unwell so could I chair it.  I got to Netherton Club in good time and agreed to open the meeting then hand over to the Planning chair for that part of the meeting.  I had to declare an interest in the only application before us so once the planning started I left the room. Had to remind another member she had the same interest!

Once the planning was over, and it took about 10 mins, we had 45mins to wait before I could restart the meeting!  Daft!

I reminded everyone that we were not a Hustings, we were a Local Area Council operating under Purdah so don’t try it on!

Once the meeting restarted I opened with public questions and seeing as we were in Bedlington there are always some of them!

Once members of the public had asked their questions and been satisfied with the responses I moved onto the agenda. We had several presentations and updates off NCC highways and local services.

Good hearted meeting tonight and I allowed members of the public to ask their own questions to the officers. I might get into hot water again because of that but if I’m in charge of the meeting then members of the public can have some access!

 

Not sure if this has been seen by many…….

 

https://www.newspostleader.co.uk/news/local-plan-proposals-main-towns-south-east-northumberland-399418

 

 

Next meeting was the LAC chairs meeting when once again I requested more public involvement into the area LAC’s.   I did this because of a specific question relating to this at our last LAC.  The answer came back that public involvement was at the discretion of the chair, so at least I have some justification if needed!  Several other matters were discussed and county wide community chest applications heard.

 

I had to go back up to County Hall this afternoon to chair our area’s community chest and once again there was one application which didn’t adhere to the rules so we had to dismiss that one. Very pleased it wasn’t a Bedlington based organisation!  The rest of the applications went through with just about all getting the funding they had applied for.  Once again we have an underspend so an extra round in Jan/Feb was called for.

Well that’s just about it for this month and as my December diary won’t be seen until January I wish all the readers of this a Merry Xmas and a very happy New Year.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bedlingtonian]

Hi Malcolm,

This may be too deep or controversial.

Who does or should a Bedlington Independent Councillor advise us on to vote on for the best interests of Bedlington in a General election?

[Malcolm Robinson]

Not allowed to Bedlingtonian.  As a councillor we are under Purdah and there are quite strict rules regarding this.  

 

As a private individual thats different.  

 

[Malcolm Robinson]

https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/purdah/what-purdah-means-practice

[Bedlingtonian]

31 minutes ago, Malcolm Robinson said:

Not allowed to Bedlingtonian.  As a councillor we are under Purdah and there are quite strict rules regarding this.  

 

As a private individual thats different.  

 

Cheers Malcolm, just read it thanks. Keep up the good work.