_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).

I agree a full blown leisure centre is not necessarily what we need, I was just pointing out that some leisure facilities including a swimming pool seemed to be promised/announced by Advance Northumberland 14 months ago and has now seemingly disappeared. I'm just looking for something other than another small budget supermarket and a row of shops and flats which is all that has been confirmed. No sign of any update on plans to "boost the scale of leisure facilities in the town centre" I'd like to think that the millions from the various national regeneration/levelling up schemes that have been announced will land us something more than an Aldi. I appreciate Malcolm's comments here and in the video clip that suggests that there are plans well underway that haven't been announced to the public yet and his request that there can be an update. I am just pointing out again that its more then 6 years since the council took control of the Tesco site and so far there is is still no confirmed leisure offering. In that time I think we've lost half a library and a swimming pool.

I appreciate what you are saying that not every town will have every facility, and small villages will always rely on nearby towns for some things, but Bedlington is not a small village. Bedlington is larger than Morpeth, Alnwick, Hexham, Berwick or Amble. Think about the facilities these places have and think about what Bedlington has. Think about how much council tax we are paying in to the coffers of the council and think about what we are getting in return. The fact is that towns the size of Bedlington across the county (and the country as a whole) do have local facilities like leisure centres, cinemas, theatres, museums etc in fact I suspect that each of the towns I listed above has most or all of these facilities while we have none of them. Comparing the 1950s to the 2020s is a little misleading. I grew up in the 1970s and that was a different world with a fraction of the traffic and less petty crime and violence so as a 10-12 yr old I'd think nothing of cycling 5 miles to the nearest "bigger" towns for the cinema or the amusement arcades, with little fear of getting knocked off my bike or having it nicked. Plus few kids in those days grew up in households where both parents worked full time so there was more scope for parents to take them to facilities that were further afield. You can argue that life was simpler, happier and fitter back then but the world is a very different place and it is far more relevant to compare Bedlington of 2021 to Morpeth or Blyth of 2021 than to Netherton of 1950. The key for me is independence - as a kid I had access to facilities that were further afield because it was easier and safer to get around than it is today. The same applies to people of all ages for who transport is not affordable or easy. If the argument is "why can't people travel to use facilities?" then I'm not quite sure why this argument only applies to Bedlington and not Blyth, Morpeth, Cramlington and Ashington when it comes to swimming baths for example. As I say I don't mean to be disrespectful of other opinions but this is of material impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people of Bedlington and while it may be of interest to those who may once of lived here but now reside elsewhere it will have little or no impact on their lives. It is a little like the fable of the chicken and the pig

No disrespect intended but that is very easy to say if you don't live in the town. We moved to the town 12 years ago with a 3 year old daughter. She is now taking her GCSEs, A levels next year and then hopefully away for University. She has grown up in a town with virtually no leisure facilities other than a couple of playing fields. I really do hope we will get something other than retail and apartments - something like the announcement last year for example - but she will have her bags packed and will have left the town before the ribbon is cut to open it. That is a crying shame for a generation to grow up and leave the area having never had a fraction of the opportunities afforded to the kids of Blyth, Cramlington, Morpeth, Ashington etc. I'm sorry but a whole generation of kids shouldn't have had to wait.

Thanks Malcolm - appreciate you keeping up the good fight

So a year and a bit on and Aldi is nearing completion - its nice to see something in place of the wastelands. In August 2020 we were promised : Wonder what happened to that?

I went for a walk last night and was horrified to see the trees recently planted along the path from the corner of the cemetery towards Hartlands have all been systematically snapped. I was heading in the direction of 20 acres and those trees were untouched thankfully but I don't know if any others were damaged. I have no appropriate words for whoever was behind this mindless vandalism

Sounds good - can I just check though... when you say you want volunteers to plant their own trees - I assume you mean plant a specific tree rather than their own tree. I assume you aren't suggesting people should decide what to plant and where?

EE here as well and no problems

Thanks for the update Malcolm - some good stuff in there. I noticed the new grit bin on Dunstanburgh the other day, and just this morning I was walking through West Lea Cemetary with my daughter for what seems like the millionth time since lockdown, and she asked me what the building was. Now I can give her a real answer!

Sadly its not a radius its a diameter - its not far off mind, I am surprised its only about 60km from Blyth to Redcar as the crow flies. As for the Tory distribution of wealth that neither surprises or bothers me. It is politics, this kind of thing has been done for centuries and its been done by both sides of the political divide. I can't say I would have complained if our seat had gone from red to blue and we were being showered with cash as a reward.