_pauls

Sounds good to me

And all of those millions of pounds from levelling up funds and town centre development programmes amounts to a carbon copy supermarket, four shops and 6 flats. Oh and a footpath. Not exactly what I'd call a "comprehensive redevelopment"

The website was up and running for at least three years, run by Advance Northumberland. It used to get updated about once every nine months with exciting developments such as "we're really starting now, honestly. Will be finished by January" kind of thing. It's a shame it has gone - was a perfect record of the years of broken promises and missed opportunities. I can see how they eventually realised that it was an embarrassment to them and took it down though.

I think that nicely encapsulates the situation. Seems like nobody much cares so no point flogging a dead horse. www.investinginbedlington.co.uk. Thank you so much Northumberland County Council.

Happy Christmas and lets hope 2023 brings good things to all!

I don't disagree about shops. In general the only shops with a future in town centres are those where shopping or services in-person is essential or advantageous, hence why we have a plethora of hairdressers, tattoo shops and dog grooming parlours. Thats why I'd much rather see a leisure offering than shops.

I don't think that Bedlington needs more dwelling places... the country probably does, the county may even need them but not so sure about Bedlington. If you keep building homes in places with no amenities then all you do is create logistical problems as people exit their homes en-masse to go to work, to school, to shop, for leisure etc.

Ah thanks Eggy - that was the article that I saw initially and I thought that I'd missed both the West and East Bedlington sessions - I will be able to make the one next Saturday so I will go along.

Was anyone able to attend either of the sessions from last weekend? I was out of the country so I couldn't go but I would be interested to know what was presented or asked.

I used the email address that appears at the foot of each page rather than the webform on the contact us page.

It is perhaps symbolic that emailing the "contact us" address on Investing in Bedlington results in a bounce with a "No Such User Here" 9 months since the last update on there. I wonder why they don't take the site down and save themselves the embarrassment of a monument to 7 years of broken promises. I wonder how many of the benefits of the scheme can now be safely ticked off the list?

"Further investment of just over £2 million to ensure the project is completed." Part of the problem is nobody seems to know what the project is any more. I'm assuming that what is referred to here is the four new retail units and associated flats, rather than any of the other plans.

Good to see it looking so smart. I haven't been in the cemetery for a while as my fitness regime lapsed but when I walked through the other day it looked great.

Not yet - 25th I think.

I really don't want to get dragged into what is clearly an emotive subject about whether parents were better or worse in the 1950s to the 2020s. I have some sympathy with the argument but its not really relevant. What we are talking about here is the facilities offered to residents of Bedlington today compared to towns of similar sizes (and presumably making similar inputs into the council's coffers).