Malcolm Robinson

Did someone say its a good time to bury bad news or has Mrs Smith put in another expenses claim!

Not really a joke............ http://link.brightcove.com/services/player...tid=17075685001

Sym, I visited the Smoke in the GLC days and rode the tube for 20p anywhere, thanks Ken! His crushing victory at the first Mayoral election might have had more to do with the perceived way he was treated by his party and an ‘anti’ vote than any great support for him and his policies. (In much the same way as Boris?) I suppose once a person makes a whole party machine bend to accommodate him he might just loose the plot!

Blank, I think we are talking about two different things here, although there is a strong symmetry between them. On the one hand I agree Bedders has never faired well under WDC as far as recreational facilities is concerned but on the other people are free, given certain restrictions, to make their own interest groups up and develop them whatever way they want. Of course that in itself might be foreshortened by the lack of available facilities etc, depending on what was needed, but the option is there. It has for too long been an unresolved question and the new boundaries laid down for the Shire will do nothing to help resolve it as far as council oversight goes. One of the soon to be small parish’s cannot hope to muster enough backing to take this forward so once again we will see hoped for schemes stalling.

Sym, I sympathised with him at first especially having to forgo his party’s candidature only to blow the official candidates out of the water but then things went wrong. It wasn’t really the Ken the London voters expected or wanted but I suppose the job had changed by then, not the least being a change of government colour. I think he had his time and needed to let go. I spoke to people who knew him personally and boy do they have tales to tell! As for Boris, mad as a box of frogs but I can’t help liking the guy, if nothing else you get to have a laugh!

Sym, Yeah the good folk of Old London Town had quite a choice, a newt or a congenital idiot!

Hope it turns out OK for all of you...........

Historic. Sociable. Unpretentious.

The Bedlington Chute. I don’t want to pour cold water on your idea chris but with all the boozers closing will there be a pool league left? Also at a time of less than available commercial credit and the fact that it is right bang in the middle of a conservation area considering build costs, RV and normal running costs might mean returns per square foot are not viable? Best of luck anyway.

Mrsvic's 'Morrissey' isn't a WDC councillor!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/498...Government.html

Didn't see the show and I can't load the catch up either. However if it did show the town in a disparaging light then maybe a campaign to ask channel 4 to redress what we see as a slur and ask them to do a better profile for Bedders? Could be a win win situation of handled correctly.

I think the quotes by Councillor Reid and the ubiquitous county authority should be sending a red flare up for us all. If the new authority are not going to be bound by any pledges made by the old councils who they replace where are we? This new authority has already been shown to be fiscally imprudent and may well go back on pledges it has only just made. It was bad enough being ‘governed’ from a small (very small!) room in Ashington now we are to be overseen by people who really might think Bedlington is just a dog kennel! As an aside, I know of moves to develop and promote Meadowdale School for community sporting facilities as well.

Sad news indeed Brian, especially when someone was just doing their job.

Adroit as ever Monsta, however Mrsvic does have a valid point too. When you see community assets being stripped out and replaced with........err........well nothing really we should all be asking questions. Course the normal whipping boys at WDC have been replaced so Mr Darn do you even know where to send your stern letter? Never mind its all about bring local government closer to the people it serves and making it inclusive! I wonder Mrsvic if the 500K might just be part of the million quid being already spent on the town, if so it ain’t new money!

Might be the Torygraph but still............. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/495...TV-cameras.html

You have advocates to help you in this sort of thing Mongo they are called councillors and failing that an MP. If you still feel aggrieved there are other roads open. On the face of it I agree with your assessment! Rents are based on length of tenure? I thought they were based on open market expectations for the type of property? If you have gone from 62 quid to 75 quid that's a 20%+hike. According to charlie's posting it should be around 68 quid and only one annual increase? Has anyone asked what the 2 quid increase is for and will it always be applied as there is a good chance inflation will soon come back to haunt us and if the inflation figure is a multiplier that could be a real worry.

They maybe read these boards!

In the rather cushioned '60s I drove a motor scooter through 20 foot snowdrifts to get to school. And I thought you were just a board mod, not a bored MOD!

I find it incredible that Harriet said the gov will accede to the morality of the public rather than the letter of the law! How things change in the run up to an election! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/poli...EMC-Bltn=LNZAAA

people are paid very good money to get the message out. I agree GGG and we have an excellent portal to do just that. Anyway, why not go the whole hog and turn the entire town into a "living" museum, instead of doing it on the instalment plan? I used this argument with "planners" before accusing them of treating Front Street as if it was a high street in some Cotswold village full of antique shops and tea rooms and if they carried on they might as well arrange deck chairs on the Lion roundabout so they can watch the town die commercially. It seems to me that the issue is down to the "conservation area" tag the Front street has (and we do know the conservation area has recently been extended!) it has always been used as a bat to say why things cannot happen, or be built or changed. It is really quite an accolade for the town but used in this way has had a negative effect. I know various grant monies' have only been made available because of this tag but piecemeal development of this kind is wasteful and not holistic, which is what is needed so the town can develop and prosper. Maybe the soon to be implemented changes in local gov will see the necessary open partnership between the lay community, business community and officialdom the town needs , but somehow I doubt it!

You had to be 9 feet tall to ahave the right gait!

Not long ago WDC were offered a platform for public notices here - totaly free of course. They simply ignored the offer. Thats why I posted the Market Place revamp on this board last year, especially the bit about members of the public going along to see what was happening.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/poli...EMC-Bltn=KORG9A

I still think there are ways out of this GGG, but the lack of commitment or even imagination shown by our current crop of leaders is staggering. Billons seem to have been thrown at the financial sector only for it not to be used for what is was "given" for. As for printing money to throw now that will bankrupt us all for the rest of my life at least. This is the trouble with wafflers they talk a good fight but when the chips are down......... The first signs of civil unrest are there and that's what I said would break the Euro. I suspect we might well see a tripartite Gov sooner rather than later.