charlie

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Not a cyclist injured but "allegedly" the Blue Bell was closed last night around 6pm - 6.30pm after an altercation between some of the clientele, three people taken to hospital.

The gossip and rumours musn't be true, they have now got notices in windows and on tables promoting:-

"coming soon" Tea,coffee, soft drinks, hot beef stotties. sandwiches and bar snacks etc.

good luck to them ! they are must be staying open.

Pub officially up for sale. I'm considering my options.

What's your options Denzel? you know anything said on this forun will be kept in the strictest confidence, unless you want us to tell folk then it will stop the rumours

has anyone elses rent gone up mine has went from £62 to £72 without any warning and they havent done anything to me house for the rent to go up so much for them increasing rent the same as the council would

Mongo, you should contact someone regarding your rent, rents only increase once a year in April, they went up last April 2008 after the transfer and have not increased since then.

I'm reading the latest Wansbeck Homes Newsletter for tenants and i quote from it :-

Having kept the promise not to increase rents when homes transferred from Council ownership last February, we also kept the annual increase to the pledged target of no more than the rate of inflation, plus £2, plus 0.5%.

This formula, approved by the Government, will continue to be applied to rent rises in April 2009 whilst we continue with our £80 million home and service improvement plan.

some of thier customers say that the managemnt have been asking them to lend them some money to bail them out of the pervaible.not just a couple of pounds but substantial amounts.has anybody got any news on this.

Yes we heard that ruomour as well, was also told that the "good will" of fellow landlords/ladies in lending barrels of beer spirits etc has now ceased.

Was in the Tavern on Saturday night, rumour has it that this will be the next pub to close it's doors.

Malicious gossip or truth?

mind you i don't know how they manage to have a live band on every Saturday without a cover charge to recoup some of the cost as this seems to be the only night they get a few in the place.

They surely cannot make enough in bar takings in one night to pay wages, beer, band etc.

Will be a shame if it does close or stop the bands as this is the only reason we go there.

Have heard that there are workmen in the Lion decorating, is it re opening ? anyone heard anything

who the !*!@# has been voting for the wharton? its !*!@# liftin the pub not that bad but the pints taste like ferret !*!@# ! those that voted must either have made the wrong choice or have no taste buds!

I'm Curious Monsta - are you accustomed to the taste of Ferret !*!@# ?

The Christmas Song by Nat King-Cole (something about him roasting his nuts by an open fire)

or

Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea

or

If at a Xmas party you can't beat Wizard and Slade

Just remembered it was Wilf Marley, Wilf worked for the council and yes I believe you are right they still live in that house. I visited about 4/5 years ago.

Mr Marley the school teacher was at St Cuthberts infants school (I think ?) I remember the name I was there in 1956 -58 before going to Whitley Memorial.

Going back the swimming baths I believe it was 5/- (shillings) for a season ticket

Anyone remember the big building at the front of the baths what was that used for??????

Bill Marley is the son and he also taught English i think at Bedlington High School.

not sure what the building was but we just called it the "hot house" and used it to get changed into swimming costumes.

I also cannot remember paying to use the swimming baths, either i must have sneaked in or the charge was not in place when i went in 1970's

i see....

come on people! we need some rumours here!

get your gums rattling!

any idea when this meet at the CC is taking place? (i cant be bothered to read the paper or look for myself lol!)

I havn't got the paper now but i think the public can visit this Thursday and Friday or Friday and Saturday?

Maybe someone else has kept the article.

Tesco supposedly closing in January for approx 6 months for all the rennovations/rebuilding.

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More in the News Post Leader this week, public invited to visit the Community Centre to see plans or if you can't make that, visit Tesco next Monday & Tuesday.

We'll all find out exactly what they are proposing to do?

Rumours this weekend are that they are completely flattening everything from the Tavern down over and rebuilding and having it built on "stilts" with car parking underneath?

Supposedly selling electricals and clothing like the other larger shops plus other retail units within the shop.

p.s What's happening to the old Gas shop? workmen busy and seem to be dividing the shop, anyone know what it's going to be?

Things looking up for Bedlington, Tesco extending, Gas shop, and a new computer shop, anything else opening up?

Happy Birthday cympil,

Are you doing anything to celebrate?

Has anyone's property suffered from the floods?

We had to plodge down the drive to get to front door (water nearly to my calves), fortunately our front door has quite a high step up to get in house so no damage to property only a bit of water got in the garage.Further up the street a few neighbours had pumps going and buckets bailing water out, a couple of them had sandbags ready but water still got in.

Can only imagine the devastation to properties faced by some of the inhabitants of Morpeth and those poor people who were evacuated.

From Humford to the Dam a lot of the path has gone, water level has never been as high.

Weather been good today but i can hear the rain starting again now, hopefully it won't last all night and be as bad as yesterday, not sure of the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

is the old school church grounds going to be a small housing estate?

Wasn't there plans for an apartment block of some kind ?

does anybody know what is happening with the the old ford garage in bedlington high street?

whats it going to be and when is work going to start?

I heard planning was in and had been passed to build care home for the elderly?.

Wish they would start the work, it would be an improvement to what it looks like now, the same goes for the old church school that's an eyesore too.

I heard that the North team were all mortal drunk as they took the field for the final game.

For shame!

Before the final game even !

What does everyone do on Bank holiday Monday in Bedlington, do you go out for the day, stay in front of the t.v, visit the local watering holes ?

We went to Bedlington Cricket club for a friendly match between three invited teams, Northumberland Arms, Bedlington Market Place Club and the Monkey.

A good day had by all, a few drinks, a picnic if you wanted or buy a hot dog/burger.

The Monkey won again. (second year in a row)

Congratulations to the both of them!

And congratulations to you charlie... on becoming a grandad!

Thank you Blank

p.s I'm a Grandma !

We attended our son and my sisters graduation ceremonies yesterday at Newcastle, i was so proud i thought i would burst.

My son is now a qualified nurse, three years training without much money, subsidised by us and bar work but well worth it now. I might even get board money every month now?

My sister is now a Registered Social Worker likewise in the money situation but also had house to run and three kids and hubby to look after.

Well done both of you

What has made other members proud.

p.s becoming a grandparent 18 month ago was pretty special as well (even though i don't think i'm old enough ! )

does anybody know what happened outside the grapes public house on friday 20th june.it was just after chucking out time.there may have been a fight !!!!!!!

thanks.

Have heard that there was a fight or someone beaten up or attacked ? on friday night.

The victim was in hospital not sure if he's in now, and i heard that the "attacker" has been spoken to by the police. don't know if he's been arrested or charged.

Police are continuing with their enquiries

Charlie,

As you seem to be in the loop on this one maybe you can answer a couple of questions which bother me and I will only use your last reply as reference.

Is Wansbeck Homes a private company, a limited company, a partnership or a co-operative and who is on the board? As a company now in the private sector, depending on their make up, they might well say it’s none of my business but seeing as they have taken over what is a valuable public asset and as a new venture I think we have the right to know everything about them. I would also like to know why they thought it necessary to go into partnership with another housing association; surely that increases the cost base even if they get the expertise they need it has to be paid for? And conversely what is Cheviot getting out of the deal? Why didn’t Cheviot just do the deal?

Another question, if Wansbeck Homes is made up from sections of WDC does that mean they negotiated with themselves when we consider the lease, rent and use of the council offices in Bedlington? I would still like to know who owns the building now and once WDC is no more! Councils charged with getting ‘best value’ for any publicly owned asset normally get around this by putting out to tender, did WDC put this building and its lease out to tender before handing it over to a ‘private’ company or was an independent third party brought into the negotiations to make the whole process legit?

Next considering the 3 ‘done up’ properties, who actually paid for their modernisation, WDC or Wansbeck Homes? It would be a bit strange if WDC had paid out public money to show what a private company may be capable of in the future. Also how come 3 empty houses were found, are there no waiting lists for council houses these days or were they uninhabitable?

Lastly was it really necessary to produce a DVD for tenants? I will take a wild guess but I think these tenants, now customers, would prefer better service rather than promotional gizmos!

Malcolm

Wansbeck Homes is an RSL Registered Social Lanlord and i believe they are a Limited Company. I'm not sure of the names of the board members but the board is made up in equal parts of tenants, councillors and independants.

The tenants were chosen by an invitation from the council to all tenants to consider applying to be a board member, they then had interview with independant consultants.

The councillors were selected by other elected members based on the current political make up of the council at time of selection.

The independant board members are not connected with the council and were chosen for expertise in different areas eg finance, business, housing, rengeneration etc

Wansbeck Homes is leasing/renting the office space from the council until new premises can be found.

Not sure who paid for doing properties up, properties have since been re let to tenants.

I'm not on the board of Wansbeck Homes so am not privvy to a lot of questions being asked ! However most of what i've said can be found in the booklet/offer document that was sent to all tenants. I read my dad's.

The booklet is yellow and purple in colour say's "change for the better" at top of booklet, it also shows a picture of a young council tenant family on the cover.

Maybe if any of you know a council ( wansbeck homes tenant) you could get to read the booklet.

Good summary Charlie.

I wonder if the existing workforce will get their existing Conditions of Employment safeguarded beyond the Tupe limit, or will they get stiffed like 1000's of others before them. Of course the new Company, in the shape of their hired mouthpieces, will bleat-on about how they'll value the workforce, whilst working-out ways to cut costs (sackings, hiring agency folk with no employment protection, etc.) Then we'll see a 'get rich quick' management buy-out resulting in lots of lovely loot for the few. A bit like NR really - a Mutual, owned by the members who voted to 'cash-in', then it went t*ts-up. A pound-to-a-pinch-of !*!@# the majority of the tenants won't see any improvements.

So it looks like the 'in-house' corporate promotional video was pretty near the mark - "outdated TV camera".

Symptoms

Apparently there is no limit to Tupe protection so hopefully the terms and conditions of service stay with them till they retire or leave.

There will be an uproar if tenants don't see any of the improvements as they were all sent an offer document informing them what was to be done to their properties, i'm led to believe this booklet is a promise to the tenants and that the promise must be kept, improvements include new kitchens, bathrooms, heating systems, double glazing to every door and window and improved services ie better appointment system for repairs, more ways to pay rent than is available now.