Stephen

I've been asked to publish the following news about the Community Centre open day on 17th March. Bedlington Community Centre will open its doors between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 17th March so that members of the community can see the work that has been going on so far, and meet with people who have shown an interest in providing classes and other activities in the centre. There will also be an opportunity to view the refurbishment plans. Please make the effort to attend. You will be able to talk to volunteers about our ideas for a Parent and Toddler Group. The Pre-School Alliance will have a display of craft materials for sale. We will welcome your thoughts on what you would like to see happening in your Centre. There will also be a mini craft fair and a stand offering home cooked produce. Other displays will include information about 'Doorstep Pictures' and 'Highlights' Rural Touring Scheme. Upstairs in the function room there will be demonstrations of Line Dancing, Chi Kung and other keep fit activities. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Northumbria Police for their generous donation of soft play mats and Tallantyre Bedlington for their generous donation of paint.

You've been spared a more long winded reply by my browser crashing near the end of it! Very little, national parties only dominate local politics because they are increasingly the only ones who put up candidates, and not enough people vote for those independents who do stand. None of the local branches of the three main parties get huge donations from millionaires, we raise money between ourselves and band together to help each other get leaflets out. There is nothing stopping independents doing the same e.g. Fresh in Wansbeck or the longer lived South Tyneside Progressives.

The Annual Meeting of WEST BEDLINGTON TOWN COUNCIL will be held at Bedlington Salvation Army Hall, Hartford Road West, Bedlington on Thursday 12 May 2011 at 6 pm The agenda for the meeting is set out below. 1) ELECTION OF THE MAYOR FOR YEAR 2011 / 12 2) TO RECEIVE THE MAYOR'S DECLARATION OF ACCEPTANCE 3) ELECTION OF DEPUTY MAYOR 4) APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 5) DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST 6) THE COUNCIL WILL RECEIVE THE INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT Mr Richard Slater, the internal auditor of the council, will make a short presentation. 7) THE COUNCIL ARE REQUESTED TO ACCEPT AND APPROVE THE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS AND THE ANNUAL RETURN FOR YEAR 2010 / 11 8) DATE OF NEXT MEETING West Bedlington Town Council Meeting will be held Thursday 9 June at 6pm in the Salvation Army Hall Following this the Annual Meeting of the Town will be held, agenda: 1) WELCOME TO THE MEETING 2) TO RECEIVE THE ANNUAL REPORT OF WEST BEDLINGTON TOWN COUNCIL 3) GUEST SPEAKER - Ms A Germany of H.M. Courts Service - Police Report 4) OPEN FORUM 5) PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

The Lib Dems would always have lost some votes by going into any coalition, depending on whether the voters preferred them to work with Labour or the Conservatives. The cuts and tax rises necessary to reduce the deficit were never going to be vote winners either. But it's the image the party now has of broken promises that has been most damaging. The increase of tuition fees was a complete reversal of promises before the election. Looking at individual council wards in Newcastle, the ones with big student populations changed from Lib Dem to Labour. I expect this will have been repeated in Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield and other university cities. The results in Scotland show that there are a lot of people who want to vote for someone other than Labour or the Conservatives though, this has come as a nasty surprise to Labour who expected all the disaffected Lib Dems to go their way. Perhaps this election has been a big missed opportunity for UKIP in England? Malcolm, I'm a supporter of electoral reform but I can't see anything in those results that suggest that people want reform of some kind just not AV. It was a crushing defeat in almost every constituency and council area, and on a higher turnout than expected. There are no easy answers, it is still a dangerous time for a country to be in debt as Iceland, Latvia, Greece, Ireland and Portugal can all testify (and even the USA is now being threatened with a downgrade of their credit rating). Ed Balls' way of borrowing and spending more and more money assuming that it will lead to growth is the policy that helped get us into this mess in the first place. You're right that we need new ideas for targeted investment in growth based on something real, not a government pyramid scheme.

I don't understand this argument at all, please explain how you think AV will increase tactical voting. A transferable vote system like AV allows someone who supports UKIP in principle to cast their vote for UKIP without worrying that their vote will be wasted, as if UKIP do end up coming last or near the bottom then their vote can be transferred to their next preference. I'll make a bet with you that if AV is adopted, we'll see UKIP coming ahead of main party candidates in some constituencies. AV doesn't make tactical voting impossible, but it is more difficult to work out how to do it and for political parties to explain to their supporters what to do. I've seen people argue that AV doesn't eliminate tactical voting (true, which is why I used the word 'reduces') but I've never seen anyone in the No campaign or anywhere else try to argue that it makes tactical voting more likely.

I think its a very small improvement so I'll be voting for it. I know there are some like David Owen who think that by voting this down they'll be offered something better next time, but there were people who thought the same about the Regional Assembly referendum and I don't see any prospect of an improved version of that being offered again. (Yes, I know there will be people who think AV is worse than our current system as there were many who didn't want any form of regional government) The reasons I think it is a small improvement - it reduces wasted votes and tactical voting, and it means MPs should have to pass a winning post of 50% to get elected. That doesn't happen now, I remember a Lib Dem MP being elected in Inverness on 26% of the vote!

If it was just a way of registering disapproval, then probably very little. I've always preferred the idea of Re-Open Nominations (something I've seen in student elections) where if 'RON' wins, there has to be another election with new candidates.

Agenda for Council Meeting 14.04.2011.pdf

I'm hoping this isn't a mistake, as I've never seen Bedlington exchange in any previous lists, but apparently we will be enabled for fibre to the cabinet broadband this June. I know BT had planning applications in for new cabinets recently, so it might be true.

Agenda_for_Council_Meeting_10.03.2011.pdf

There will be an extra ordinary meeting of WEST BEDLINGTON TOWN COUNCIL to be held at Bedlington Salvation Army Hall, Hartford Road West, Bedlington on Friday 21 January at 6 pm. The agenda is attached. Agenda_for_Extra_Ordinary_Council_Meeting_21_January_11.pdf

Press release from Morrisons confirming this

The next meeting of WEST BEDLINGTON TOWN COUNCIL will be held at Bedlington Salvation Army Hall, Hartford Road West, Bedlington on Thursday 13 January 2011 at 6 pm The agenda is attached. Agenda_for_Council_Meeting_13_January_2011.pdf

It's worse than that - at least a burglar doesn't come back for more every year, but the people involved here will get that extra money in their pensions for years to come.

I very strongly agree with the County on this, not because of the amount of money involved which is not large in the scheme of things but because of the principle. Wreaths laid on behalf of Northumberland are one thing but if councillors want to lay wreaths from them personally then they should pay for them personally. Having the public pay for their wreaths makes a mockery of the gesture.

I wasn't on WDC at the time this happened so it is news to me, but it doesn't surprise me. I'll be following any action by NCC with interest. In general it is depressing that the CPS are not actively trying to enforce the law. They seem to be relying on councillors to hold senior officers to account, and while that might seem reasonable what can the public do if the councillors fail to do that?

Congratulations!

I wonder how much it would cost the town council to get some stocks for the marketplace... mind you if we charged £1 per throw it might make a profit.

Also I understand that Koast are giving a camcorder to the overall winner who switches on the lights, and there are prizes from Munchie Moo's and others

Tesco have donated vouchers for the four children who win their school raffles

Yes, I don't have anything from the County but there's this in The Journal. The agenda of the planning meeting by the way, is here. Tesco is item 5.

If Netto does become an "Asda Express" or whatever their concept is, then we will ask them!

Koast are giving a lot of support, they are involved because they offered. SNRG of course have only just had their funding success very recently. I notice also that the Blyth event has sponsorship from big name retailers e.g. Argos and Asda. I know many local traders have donated prizes (via Koast, if I knew the details I'd give them a plug here) but haven't heard anything yet from the biggest national retailer in town.

Newbiggin put up their share of the council tax by 50% last year. If we did that then I'm sure we could afford someone more famous next year. I know you don't want us to put your council tax up Malcolm but I'm sure Merlin and Monsta will happily pay it for you!