Malcolm Robinson

You can take Bedlington with a water pistol on a Saturday afternoon!

And probably one of the reason's we have so may empty retail units in what should be the prime commercial street in the town.

Camille, I think Merlin's point is that we don't just deserve better we are paying for a better service!

As some will have seen there is a seminar at the Community Centre at 6.30pm on the 14th Jan looking at the ways we would like to see our town develop. The organisers hope as many people as possible turn out for the event but for anyone who can't make it on the night you do have the chance to put your questions, concerns and suggestions forward and include them in the deliberations. Please feel free to leave your comments on this thread.

Stephen, Reduced the settlement figure? I know the county has always had bad settlement figures in the past but having it reduced because of projected, possible, probable savings would seem to bestow a level of competency on the people involved that the first part of the sentence doesn't? You can't penalise someone for being inefficient then expect them to out perform overnight? In a time of recession etc I can see why all settlement figures are reduced as less cash flows into treasury so they have less to dish out. If you are right about VAT returns being the driver for local gov settlements that only works in times of consumer booms, allowing for annual increases to match inflation at least. I understood local authority spends were made up of about 25% domestic rates, 25% business rates and 50% direct taxation, like income tax and VAT. Obviously something like a recession will hit 75% of that income immediately. Mobius, Wasn't Morpeth voting for a status quo for themselves? Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Morpeth rate payers pay for their town council and then county rates? That is exactly what they have now so massive change here, no real change there? 51,000 people voted for option A and 66,000 people voted for option B yet we got option A? Given your stated reason for voting for a single unitary haven't we got exactly that now, as well as perming in Morpeth, Hexham, Berwick, Alnwick etc….. ?

[quote name='Merlin' date='03 January 2010 - 10:52 Is it set in stone that Bedlington have to be part of the larger area? Or could we break away without the troops marching on us to put down the uprising? Merlin I think that is an intriguing question which throws up a multiplicity of answers. On a straight theoretical level we live in a democracy therefore whatever the majority of people want and vote for should be enacted. The fact that the majority of people throughout Northumberland did not vote for a single unitary authority yet we now have one in control speaks volumes! Even allowing for the elected executive to take unpopular decisions on our behalf, (it wasn't the case here because it went to a referendum!) the main focus was on the economic advantage of a single authority. With an annual budget approaching a billion quid and estimated savings of 17m after conversion that is not even a feasible reason economically. Because of the state of finances county now find themselves in we won't get the much heralded savings but will face increases and more and more cuts in services as they try to balance their budget. For my money this whole thing looks like an unmitigated disaster for us living in the South East of the county! Whatever slim chance we had to get back to something resembling BUDC is probably lost now as we have 3 parish councils imposed on the old shire.

I think you are right but I don't agree with your reasoning. Bedlington Urban District Council was a stand alone entity and 'governed' Bedlingtonshire. It wasn't in bed with either Ashington or Newbiggin until the local gov reorganisation in the 70's then we got Wansbeck District Council. Why they decided to go in with them instead of Cramlington I don't understand as I believe that was one option put forward. WDC then decided to make Ashington the social and economic heart of the district irrespective of what was actually merited. Of the 3 councils Bedlington went into this unholy trinity with a balance sheet written in black ink the other two had red ink all over them! So it could easily be claimed since day 1 we bailed out the other towns and have continued to do so ever since. Certainly true in the area of leisure amenities. The problem we have now is that we are just a small part of a much bigger entity, Northumberland County Council, and given the decision to have half a dozen parish/town councils instead of one strong voice we now have many weaker ones. You will see this for yourself soon, we are about to get mugged over the community charge! The sensible thing to have done in my view would have been to reinstate BUDC and let it drive itself forward.

Pete, I really don't think anyone who makes so many mistakes can have a think tank of advisers........more like a tank of thickies!

Ah ha, someone looking at the bigger picture. Shouldn't have long to wait I think the local planning decision is end of Jan, course if it goes the wrong way there might be a lengthy and costly appeal, but given recent Gov instructions regarding safeguarding small town high streets that might not be the safe bet it once was. Coincidentally, end of Jan beginning of Feb isn't that the timescale Tesco's said it will be making it's intent at their Bedlington site known?

Yeah I got it Dave, thing is I wasn't being sarcastic I just think we paid in enough into the pot to reasonably expect some half decent facilities! As it stands we paid a lot in to subsidise Ashington and Newbiggin leisure centres over the years, pity that wasn't reciprocated our way!

As Rob Brydon would say, it's just a bit of fun………. If WDC was our council for say 35 years and we had about 10,000 households in Bedlingtonshire, the ones who would probably use a Bedlington leisure centre, and the rates (inc county ones) averaged about 500 quid a year what would be the total we had paid in? £175,000000! Still want to organise a whip round Dave?

Don Quijote saves us from Apophis. Who dreams up these names?

The problem I have is that I can't see any real dosh which has been spent, even on 'pointless tat'! It is exactly this under-investment over the years which has left us in the present predicament. If we take Merlin's 10 million, probably a close enough figure for a multiuse facility, we have never seen anything like that spent on the town in the last 30 years! We have seen the law courts and new police station etc but it would be really stretching appoint to call them community facilities, or some might say not! With the present budget constrictions imposed by council we certainly won't see any large capital projects for the foreseeable future coming our way from them. That makes community efforts to try and redress the problem even more important and urgent I would have thought.

Dave, Whilst I completely agree with your sentiments I think you have picked the wrong target for your ire. The recent work done at the Market Place derived from efforts by a community group whose only remit was to try for stuff like this. They had and have no legitimacy going after what we can all see as an abject lack of community facilities in the town. We now have another community group looking into that, lets hope they are as successful. Merlin, I read that article and shook my head as well, but I presume they are talking about our community centre being put on notice? I like your last sentence and I think we, as a community, have been too re-active for too long, it's about time we became pro-active!

Its not global warming anymore GGG its climate change! Couldn't possibly get away with that publicity faux pas so they have changed the name of the science? Bit like Windscale............

Com'on you know most of the stuff in 'sales' is a con, bought in especially to sell at huge reductions off MRRP. No one in their right mind would have carried too much stock last year so there can't be much in the way of clearance lines really. The shops and shopping centres look busy but I wonder what the numbers are going through the tills, where it counts? I think the next few years are going to be lean for retailers never mind months GGG. You did say 'can' didn't you Ex-B?

I think Vic's posting is quite poignant and seeing as he is the only professional amongst us deserves careful consideration. Blank's original question is really open to quite a variety of interpretation as we have seen and read about many people convicted by the system but who I wouldn't necessarily class as criminals, whilst at the same time we see people who should be criminalised walking away almost scot free. We have also seen many cases where seemingly proven guilt has been disproved years later given modern forensic techniques. This means someone somewhere has to make the call about parole, Xmas releases etc, and they have to judge each case on its individual merits. Basically the law is written in black and white yet once it is applied so many vested interests come into play to water it down, fuzz the edges or turn the black ink into grey. A conviction or not may even come down to the area the case is tried in or the quality of the legal defence team. I realise we are talking in generalized terms as far as the thread started off and I am probably in agreement with the majority of the posters, I just think we need to consider the specifics as well.

The new bridge linking the Bedlington routes with those at Cramlington will be pretty exciting if it does go ahead in the style suggested. Our own Millennium Bridge…….

Merlin, I sometimes get the feeling that you may well upset yourself at life's little idiosyncrasies? I think you are right the fences are going to be up for a while until the grass establishes itself. I would have been pressing for a NO maintenance finish there such as the two Merlin suggested. Someone will now have to maintain that site and as it is in a high profile position, but frequented by shall we say some of our less responsible younger members of our community, no doubt many maintenance visits will be needed to keep it at optimal appearance!

Could that be a surname associated with wheel clamping infamy??????

Happy birthday Pete, Hope you have a good'un.

Merry Christmas everyone......

Sister of Mary Anne Evans per chance?

Second - not sure what you mean by your question about 'entirely' voluntary? Are you asking if the town councillors would be looking after the rooms and whether they would want some payment for it? Not at all, I was asking if this would be a completely voluntary assignation if it went to the town council with regards to the county. As it stands taking it on now would wipe out all of this years precept! Neither am I suggesting the town council taking it on is the panacea, I would have thought a very careful examination is called for

Looks like a step in the right direction. This would be 'entirely' voluntary for you guys to take on wouldn't it?