Historical Factoids 24.

[Mal]

Historical Factoids 24.

The Bedlington Terriers.

We have to go back a few years to start this tale which involves the Bedlington Terriers and even though it’s not in my ward area I felt it’s so integral to the Town it couldn’t be ignored!

I was contacted by the guy running the place to ask if I could point him in the right direction for some funding. There were problems with the roof and doors on the clubhouse. I did and they were successful in getting the funding needed to sort those problems out.

Next I was asked to help them again this time with their lease because, I was told, a very large grant they had been promised was relying on them having a new lease agreement. That was above my pay grade so the best I could do was facilitate a meeting between the Deputy Leader and regeneration head of NCC and the club. That took place and by all accounts seemed pretty successful judging by the positive comments coming from the club at that time.

Jumping ahead a year or two later we then saw the latest reincarnation of the Terriers, as a public body, struck off by Companies House for failing to file accounts. (This has ultimately led to the Terriers dissolving as an entity and NCC stepping in as landowner to salvage the site in case there was a legal challenge.)

I was as enraged as other NCC councillors were and demanded a meeting with the Leader of NCC and all officers involved, where we were given the unsavoury legal facts.

Back in the 1960’s when Bedlington Urban District Council moved the Bedlington Mechanics off their town centre site to the present one, because they wanted the site for development, they assigned the lease to two charities, the Charity Commission and CISWO, (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation).

The land is governed by a charitable trust originally established for the mining community. When the club tried to move forward with the improvements they were after, it became clear that the lease they were operating under was legally invalid.

(Northumberland County Council even suggested giving the Terriers another bit of suitable land if it could be found, to resolve the legal issues raised by the Charity Commission.)

CISWO (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation), refused to agree a new lease, citing concerns about preserving the site’s heritage and the community’s free, open and unfettered access.

This was now a legal stalemate.

It now transpires that this huge grant was actually a loan and anyone who has borrowed a large sum of money for any reason be it a mortgage or car or any number of other things what they actually borrow against is the value of an asset you hold. I believe that’s why a new lease was needed so this money could be leveraged against the lease on the ground. That was never going to happen because the charitable groups would never countenance it.

If I thought NCC were in anyway culpable for the demise of the Terriers I would be shouting louder than anyone, however in this case I think NCC acted with the best interests of the community in mind but were stifled by legal issues as can plainly be seen! I think the lack of other councillors of any political hue coming out and criticising NCC as some sort of instigator in this mess is testament to the above sentence!

What I do think though is that if the Terriers management had just done the job right they would still be flying under the radar and we would still have a senior Bedlington Terriers club.

Who is to blame, if it’s the blame game you are after, make your own mind up but the fact is once more we see a Bedlington Institution lost and a little more Bedlington history consigned to a footnote in our Town’s timeline!

Still fighting to keep the Terriers name alive, even if its only through the Juniors at the moment!