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Seeing as it's made from apples, surely it should count as one of your 5 a day

parents of 1 and 2 year old's are going to get £4 per week more child tax credits? this is insane!!! howay - I've got 2 kids n I know there's nappies n stuff to buy but it costs more when they are at school!!! For God's sake - it costs us well over £20 a week for school dinners, then we have milk money n compulsory trips and the rest to pay - never mind the uniforms etc..! We work hard and we can't afford the tuition fees of guitar lessons and other activities (those on dole get them free). We would be better off on the bloomin dole n it took me 6 months to save £300 for a crappy laptop for my teenage daughter for xmas n them on dole can get a voucher for a laptop for over £500 for free and internet access free for a year! The rewards of working your butt off eh!We should have a revolution - kick all the parties out n replace them with a panel of decent hard working people who know right from bloomin wrong..... aaarrrggghhhh!!!! politics drive me up the wall!!

should a new law be passed to put a lid on these strikes first the post office now b.a and soon the trains and british gas are to go on strike. surely there has to be a limit to strike action! shouldn't they just be thankful they've got a job!

what about the other parties?

Although I don't live in Bedders anymore I'm always curious to know what is going on with the Red Lion as I worked there for about 3 years and it was my home as I used to stay there when the bosses were away. I am so disappointed that people are planning on changing it from a Pub into retail space??? I'm all for the restaurant upstairs, I think that is a fab idea but I think someone should be fighting to keep the downstairs as a pub and turn it back into a traditional pub with the quiz night on a thursday with the old spin the wheel, fridays 70's and 80's night, Saturday just a normal party night and maybe bring back the £1 a drink night on a tuesday minus the kids though. I know it's been de-licensed but it's not that hard for someone to get a license back as long as they prove that they are going to put measures in to ensure that it isn't going to be the same as before. that's what happened with the Blue Bell at one point. What it needs is a partnership of a few people, one to take on the upstairs and the other to take on downstairs and I am sure that it would work. Honestly if I had the money I would do it without a 2nd glance. What Bedlington needs is someone who is willing to put their heart and soul into something that will put the town back on the map but they can't do it single handed. The problem with the pubs is that they are all 2 faced. When I worked in the pubs all the owners/landlords/landladys said oh yes we need to do this and that and maybe we can bring some custom back to the town but people were trying and others were sitting back and letting others do the leg work. I tried to get something organised where all the pubs clubbed together and we had a weekend of live entertainment across all the pubs a couple of years ago but that went wrong because when it came to the crunch nobody wanted to risk spending money for it to fall flat on it's face but if you don't try then you don't know. I remember when we used to take 20K a week in the Red Lion and gone are those days because the owner messed the managers around then got some cow in who ran it to the ground and then he closed it, then JR took over it from Blyth and that went even more into the ground and destroyed it. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of years time there's the Ridge Farm, The Wharton and the Barrington Arms left at the top end of Bedlington and that's it. It is such a shame with the Red Lion because it has been a pub for so many years and theres so much history behind the place, years ago when the pits were in Bedlington all the miners used to go there on a Friday night before they went home for the weekend and upstairs there were different coloured rooms with certain ladies of the night up there. The pub wasn't half as big then, it has since been extended but I just think that if only someone had made a proper go of it then it would still be there now. RIP Red Lion

Thanks for your comments guys. As one of the people behind the new Help Hub, thought I'd clarify a few things: 1) We are not at present getting any grant money to operate it on an ongoing basis (we did get a salary for one person for two months from Vodafone [thanks Vodafone] to help us with setting it up, but that's all finished now. 2) And that is part of the explanation as to why it is run mainly by volunteers [Actually, one guy will be paid for 2 days, but we plan to open the bub 3 days a week, and need at least 2 people on duty all the time, so the rest is volunteers]. We don't have the money to pay people. And people in County Church are happy to volunteer in this way to help the Communnity as a whole 3) is it needed? We'll let's see. One point I would make is the difficulty in applying for benefits, tax rebates etc. I had to phone the tax office the other day and they only give an 0845 number. I was on the phone for 20 minutes, pressing one option, then another, listening to recorded announcements, before they finally said all their operators were busy and cut me off. If I had only had a mobile phone, that call would have cost me about £10. In the bub its free. 4) The Job Centre themselves obviously think a service like this is needed which is why they have joined forces with NEWS (Northumberland Employability and Work Service) and Northumberland Business Services Ltd to open similar services (theirs just 1 day a week) in Blyth, Ashington, Morpeth ... but not Bedlington. We are trying to do something for Bedlington here. 5) But if it is not needed, is there some other kind of community service you would find more helpful? We'd be interested in ideas though of course we can't make any promises. Den

This is good! This is positive negativity! I can feel a "Are you listening to your customers, or are you a Dinosaur?" ...feature coming on. I've heard more or less the same about Asda-Tesco from Mrs threegee - so it must be true! Maybe Tesco is ahead of the game and is now in the process of fixing this? Library? Well... silly jobsworths I think. Here we are lobbying like hell to save their arses, and when we ask them to stick a couple of little Bedlington.co.uk flyers up by the computers we are told they "don't do that sort of thing"! If they aren't there for the very community that pays their wages what exactly are they there for? Maybe what we should be lobbying for is a change in management?

Last night I was speaking to a couple who moved here a few months ago and they didn't even know Dr. Pitt park existed. What do people think of having a large scale town map in the Market Place? it could point these places out to visitors. It's something that should be quite low cost and shouldn't attract too much red tape.

since when have you been the forum decision maker?