Mal

I had it confirmed this week that West Lea in Bedlington will get its new Playzone. This is something I've been fighting for since they were first considered for Northumberland! Originally 12 were projected, none for Bedlington but I managed to get that decision changed! It represents a substantial investment not just in terms of finance but in leisure activities as well! So for anyone who doesn't know what a PlayZone is, and they are not just for football, here is a taster...........

Thought you guys might like a look........... 2083ad64-7e6f-47a0-b230-f3b96e429de7 (1).mp4

At a recent meeting I was asking about current business health in Northumberland and was directed to a certain report. I had to point out that was done in 2011 and there is very little commonality between businesses then and now! It’s staggering sometimes!

I really think we missed as trick here but I had left the Town Council by then and the new councillors wouldn't back it.

When the new black arched entrance turns into a golden one............

Well we have finally got the upgrades to the Garden of Remembrance at West Lea Cemetery done and the new QE11 Memorial Path. It’s taken some time but finally we have something we can all be proud of. It’s about tackling a problem by bringing in the right team, trusting them and letting them do what they do best! This new QE11 Memorial Arch has some underlying significance to Bedlington. Firstly I make all my ‘stuff’ in metal as homage to the world famous Bedlington Iron Works 1736-1867. Secondly if you look you will see the arch is outlined by two tubular bars or rails across its length. These pay tribute to John Birkenshaw who invented the malleable steel rails the world came to use for rail tracks. Previously they were made from wrought iron which was too small and too fragile for that use being only 3 feet long Birkenshaw’s were 19 feet long by comparison and incidentally the first rail lines laid in Russia! Next we come to the steam train. Not just any steam train but a scaled version of the De Arned which was the first steam train exported to Holland built in Bedlington. It’s the one I used for the gateway feature at Attlee Park, after getting permission from the national Dutch railway museum to use their full sized replica as a template . We also built the Bayard steam train which went to Italy as well as a host of other steam trains. Interestingly a Bedlington steam train boiler is reputedly in the Smithsonian in America. Of course we couldn’t miss out the world famous Bedlington Terrier which originated here. Originally bred to hunt badgers and game. Again that’s what I used to develop the seats we make which are scattered around the Town and the large one which is the southern gateway feature coming into the Town. When I did that one it caused a bit of consternation amongst some locals but I said people will come from all over to have their picture taken next to it and they have, as far away as Australia and Canada! Lastly we see a rose and it’s not just attributed to Queen Elizabeth as the quintessential English rose. This also represents the Bedlington Rose, a variety specifically developed for Wansbeck District Council but which has now all but disappeared. In fact the last bed I know of is in Bedlington so I’m calling it the Bedlington Rose! The pathway itself which we can walk on to see the rest of the installation was actually quite overgrown with weeds and vegetation along both sides. You couldn’t even see the stone wall for large stretches and the single track was just what walkers had flattened down. It was scraped back, treated, hard-core laid and then fine gravel so we now have a much wider usable path. All in all a fitting tribute to our late Queen. The Garden of Remembrance was somewhere I have wanted to sort out for some time. Previously it was encompassed with overgrown hedging, broken paving, burnt out litter bin and a broken seat. A dark and dingy place which was really just used for nefarious activities. We now have an open aspect, new hooped metal fencing, new entrance arch (which by the way transforms at certain times of the day from the black arch we see into a shining golden arch!), new bespoke seats, new tarmacked surface, new retaining walls, a bust of Queen Elizabeth mounted on a sandstone memorial plinth and fantastic new planting at the back end. Thanks go to: Firstly thanks have to go to the Leader of NCC who must have become that sick of my constant arguing for a QE11 Memorial scheme for Bedlington that he told me to go away and come up with a scheme and he would consider it. So I did just that! After coming up with some designs and ideas I went and saw Chris and Mike at Barrington Metal Works because they turn my very rough drafts and ideas into workable and deliverable products. Not only that they also took on the installation works for much of it. Next I had to get permission off the cemetery management officers. Tony and Stephen agreed and Stephen even suggested expanding on my initial ideas for the Garden of Remembrance so we might get the back path done at the same time. He also sorted out the planting and the main preparation works so huge thanks to him and the lads who did the work. Also thanks to the Friends of West Lea Cemetery group who made a significant contribution to the planting scheme. Of course things don’t go smoothly but with a sustained effort and everyone pulling together we managed to pull the whole project off. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/restoration-bedlingtons-garden-remembrance-hailed-30705914?fbclid=IwY2xjawHl3MRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZ81xblU3F1xe3CqBHdvb2mB3-pLqjYk-MffOsMbtONDKW9x3z4MAL8SrA_aem_chW2-l6eCHTfTri_-CTn3w

In my ‘historical factoids’ series, I mentioned being told Bedlington doesn’t warrant any major investment. I’ve been trying to figure out where I saw that being justified and I’ve just been reminded of this beauty! So a deep dive and analysis into Northumberland High Streets up and down the County and we see this as an assessment for Bedlington. This was 2011 and while times have changed, indeed high streets up and down the country have changed dramatically; we can see one of the things being used to justify our continued lack of investment from one administration after another over the years. I’ll leave readers to draw their own conclusions………

Local Area Councils (LACs) Had our LAC last night and I raised questions about Fix My Street, the impending NCC budget and what exactly are the “‘innovative solutions for library facilities in Bedlington?” Back in 2016 when the current administration took over at NCC they decided they wanted LAC meetings instead of the old Area Meetings. The old Area meetings were held once a month at different venues with the North, West and South/East each having their own version. We were in with Ashington, Blyth Cramlington etc. and I recall even going to Lynmouth a few times for meetings. As a member of the public I attended just about all of these along with a couple of friends and we were able to speak directly to high ranking NCC officers as well as the main local political players. The new administration decided they wanted Local Area Councils instead and we were put in with Cramlington and Seaton Valley. The Sleekburn ward was put in with Ashington/ Blyth and that caused some consternation at the time. These new constructs were to have decision making powers and budgets over localised issues as well as some regeneration issues and budgets. Given that and the fact that for once we weren’t going to be under Ashington meant I was all for them! I was called out for ‘allowing Bedlington to be broken up’ but in reality that had already happened with the creation of the 3 parish councils and Area meetings were just talking shops anyway with very limited relevance, as anyone who attended them would know! What has transpired was what I said last night. Basically we were sold a pup and the LAC’s have never had any decision making powers, other than a few planning applications, and they have never had budgets! As well as those little matters to think about they don’t really have any democratic legitimacy so what we get are endless presentations to note! I get wrong for saying ours is more akin to a Cramlington Town Council meeting give their never-ending presentations and even though I do make myself heard at these meetings I haven’t changed my mind! When rebuked for what I was saying last night I pointed out the public gallery…….not a single person had sat through the whole meeting, and quite a few councillors had joined them too, heading for the door! So as they are, I consider them basically irrelevant, apart from some local interest presentations and I have suggested they become much more public friendly and forward facing and embrace that as a way forward. No doubt we will see a public consultation about them soon enough…………

I have always believed we need to allow our youngsters to have a voice and we should listen to what they have to say. That means they need to be aware of what’s going on so they can make informed decisions. Back in the 90’s I asked the ones hanging around the market place what they wanted and they told me just somewhere safe, warm and somewhere they could call their own. Didn’t sound unreasonable to me so I took that message to the District Council through the then Town Forum meetings. Like so many other Bedlington orientated requests it fell on deaf ears! When I became a town councillor and eventually chair of the Town Council I wanted to include our youngsters and even tried to set up a youth council as part of the Town Council so their voice could be heard. I also did sessions with some of youngsters trying to explain how the various councils work and which one did which service delivery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hKIe2Z19V8 When I became a County Councillor I took some up to County Hall as part of Democracy week so they could have first-hand experience of what went on up there. I have always tried to include our youngsters and get something for them. Now they, as well as others, have had a huge toll taken during Covid so it’s even more essential to do right by them! The first battle on that front I won and we will soon see the new PlayZone soon at West Lea. Lots more needed in that particular war of course!

It’s not been all doom and gloom of course there are some enjoyable things to mention. I worked with the group that put on the Bedlington Street Fair back in the 1990’s and that was really successful with everyone saying how much they enjoyed it. For whatever reason that stopped in the early 2000’s and when I became chair of the Town Council it was something I wanted to bring back into the annual calendar for the Town. I think I got a budget of around d £15K and promised to get it sorted. Again working with some great people we managed not only to bring it in under budget but the income it produced by selling space to the venders meant I could put on other events like an enhanced Xmas light switch on, dog show and support the revamped Bedlington Picnic. 2015 was the first year we did it and it was a huge success. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ubqxpn9AZY The following year we wanted to enlarge it and made it a two day event 2015 had been a great event, 2016 was going to be even better! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRRuL85jzDM The new Bedlington Picnic was held at Attlee Park and the kiddies especially enjoyed that one. We held the dog show at one end of the 20 Acres and we had dogs from all over being entered into the competitions. After being elected to the County Council I wanted to use Plessey Woods Country Park for some events, just to get people down there and show them what a great facility we have on our doorstep. The first one was a classical…… https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/594982757700108 https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/430688474219411 Then it was a Superhero’s one for the Kids……… https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/808093089689613 I even pulled one off for the Queens Platinum Jubilee Day, this was a part of it……..even raffling Pooh Bear to give to our foodbanks. https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/313350500979595 https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/1202791570523818 https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/2045314589000041 Even the little ones got in on the act…………. https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/713038763272309 We even did a Santa Tour just before Xmas… https://www.facebook.com/100057586923534/videos/3985970814767804 So some of the stuff we have seen over the last few years.

The sorry saga of the Hartford Hall gates. These Grade 11* listed gates were made by the world leading makers Coalbrookdale for the Vienna Exhibition in 1873 to demonstrate their craftsmanship. Anecdotally I was told you can even see the fingerprints on the cast hands included in the design of these gates, a feat which cannot be reproduced even today! It was agreed as part of the renovations to Hartford Hall that these gates would be renovated and English Heritage became involved. They even gave a grant towards the renovations and insisted there was only one place in England that could be trusted with this significant renovation project. The gates were dismantled and shipped off to the specialist down in Yorkshire. Things now take a turn for the worse! During the renovation project the developer went bust and the Administrator was called in. The Administrator sequestered all monies in the account including the grant funding for these gates and paid out debtors of the company. So the money disappeared and the gates which had been started were now left languishing somewhere in Yorkshire. There were many calls for their reinstatement and I decided to do a bit of digging myself. I found out where they had been shipped off to and rang the company up to find out what was going on. I was told there was an outstanding bill for work done, about 1/3rd, and until that was paid the gates remained, never mind about getting them finished. After making more ‘noises’ about them over the next few years and a BBC Inside Blog about them I found out they had been moved and were actually in the old fire station at Morpeth. So I presumed that part bill had been paid and moves were afoot to get them sorted? Asking about them now and I was told they had been moved again, where I wasn’t allowed to know, but moves were afoot to get something done with them. I persisted and eventually I received a phone call to tell me they were in the possession of NCC (good) they would be renovated (great) they would probably be encased in glass or plastic to stop any further degeneration (great) and would be on public display (great!). There was even a cost estimate of around £500K and I was asked to help find that money. I agreed but then asked where exactly would they be displayed, even suggesting several places in Bedlington where I thought they might work. I was told they had to be displayed in…….Ashington? Ehhh! Why was never explained and after a lengthy heated argument I said I wouldn’t be helping them to see them end up in Ashington, which I felt would be yet another slap in the face for Bedlington! So that’s the tale of woe yet again but as far as I know NCC have them stashed somewhere and that £500K estimate could well be in excess of £750K now, never mind where they might end up! (As an addendum to this one.........The Gates are now in safe storage in a NCC depot where they are being kept as dry and moisture proof as possible. )

Back in the early 1990’s Northumberland County Council came up with an idea to regenerate the dilapidate Hartford Hall. This was well before it became a residential area. The idea was to turn some of it into the clubhouse for the Wansbeck District Council owned Golf Club (at that time it was 100% owned by WDC), build some into a hotel complex and the main part into a Regional sporting rehabilitation centre. It was previously used by the Coal Board as a recuperation centre. I went along to one of the meetings to hear what the plans were and asked a question that had been bothering me for some time. “Will this mean we get a sign post on the A1, the main vehicular arterial route through the county, to Bedlington?” The answer, NO Bedlington isn’t seen as a destination Town. I asked what on earth was it seen as then? “It’s seen as just somewhere you pass through to get to somewhere else.” I don’t think that thought process has changed to this day! Hartford Hall was to be a £20M investment by NCC and they even wanted to give themselves planning permission to do it. That fell foul of the planning Laws and they were told they couldn’t do that! The ill thought out plan fell to bits after that in pretty short order, especially when the Golf Club members said they were against it and wanted their clubhouse to remain where it is. So NCC, who were in for about £1.5M at that time, not including any officer time, sold to to a developer for about £2M and claimed they had made a profit on the whole transaction! What happened next robbed us of one of the most important bits of Bedlington Heritage namely the Hartford Hall gates!

One enduring question, and I’ve asked it many many times myself, why has the needs of Bedlington been ignored for so long? First under Wansbeck District Council and then latterly under Northumberland County Council. I don’t know the answer and I’ve never had that question answered, but we can delve a little under various blankets. Back in the day we had Bedlingtonshire Urban District Council. A council many look back on fondly for one reason or another but principally because we were in charge of our own affairs. We then had the Local government Act 1972 and in 1974 Ashington, Bedlington and Newbiggin became Wansbeck District Council. I was told that BUDC was given a choice to go that way or form one with Cramlington, an emerging newish Town at the time with huge commercial infrastructure. I know which way I would have gone! So again by word of mouth by people there at the time, one of the first decisions made by WDC was to make Ashington the ceremonial and commercial head of this new entity. By that very act I would argue it relegated Bedlington into at best second place if not third place in the pecking order of WDC! As far as I could see that continued throughout the life of WDC, the council that was once described as “making decisions in smoke filled rooms behind closed doors!” We then again had the structural changes to local government in 2009 which saw the creation of Northumberland County Council as a Unitary Authority and I’ve already written a piece about that. As I said at the time, playing third fiddle under Wansbeck District Council would seem a pipe dream now as so many other towns and villages were added to the list to compete with. I now have to delve into the heady world of politics in search of the answer. We saw WDC 100% controlled by a single political party. As I have already written about some of the decisions they made were unbelievable to me! I think out of 42 councillors there 19 were from Bedlingtonshire. I even said to one or two if you get your act together you could force WDC to invest this side of the Stakeford Bridge, you have nearly 50% of the votes so it wouldn’t take much to push something through. I was laughed at and told it didn’t work like that. Took some time to find out how it did work and as far as I could see it was about furthering the interests of a political party not the people who they were supposed to be working for. That is the same across all political parties BTW and anyone can see it time and time again when their ethereal Whips impose control on voting. The voting patterns in Bedlington were taken for granted and so why give yourself work when the elections were a forgone conclusion. Ramping that up to a county level and we saw the same and I see it at just about every full council meeting to this day. That’s a cycle we have to break and we made a good start by electing some independent councillors which believe me sent ripples throughout the political establishment! Just to demonstrate, and it’s plain to see, at most if not all major NCC meetings it’s the independent councillors asking the really ‘difficult’ questions. As far as I can see the only way to get decisions based on merit instead of political expediency is to elect more independent councillors, at least we can vote with our conscience instead of being told how to vote on certain issues! I now want to look at budgets and how they work. The council has, by law, to pass an annual balanced budget so if we see schemes included, like for the sake of argument the Bedlington Regeneration funding, which fail to get started in a year that funding is basically lost. There are options to keep it but essentially 99% of funding which falls into this category is lost. So we saw funding allocated to Bedlington of between £6-£12M over about 3 budgets. Each time failure to realise that project meant the funding was lost, that’s why it had to be reinserted into the next year’s budget. Covid finally stopped any major funding for Bedlington being included and by major I mean 10’s of millions. Bearing in mind that something approaching 90% of the NCC budget goes into the social side of things like adult and young people’s services, and with a large county like ours where towns up and down are equally screaming for investment it’s not hard to see pressures building up. It is easy to see why external funding for various projects is so necessary for NCC, like Levelling up funding, High Street funding, Borderlands etc. Whilst I understand the constraints I still cannot excuse the fact that Bedlington is only included in the smallest pot! That’s seems to me to be a mixture of political pressure and easy options. There are a few of my thoughts, if anyone can give me a definitive answer please do!

I’ve been asked about the Bedlingtonshire Development Trust and how it came about……so here goes. (Sorry this is going to be a long one…….) As a member of the public I had started to take an interest in local politics, even just to see why the needs of Bedlington had been ignored for so many years, and had been told to look at forming a Development Trust if I wanted to be proactive. I went around each of the 3 local councils in Bedlingtonshire asking if they would be supportive, thinking a partnership approach would be the best way to go. Each said NO, not interested! That didn’t put me off. I was doing the research when NCC closed our community centre in, as they claimed, a cost cutting exercise. I knew a vehicle like a Development Trust could apply through the council’s asset transfer policy to take it over as other trusts had done with many other redundant buildings up and down the county. I was given the criteria for such a bid and went about putting a Trust board together. The main crux of what we needed to do was to submit a fully costed business plan so that’s what I did. The Trust was the only group who held an inspection of the building to ascertain the cost of repairs it needed. There had been no money spent of maintenance for years under Wansbeck District Council and even less under NCC, and when I saw the books they were even worse! I used this to negotiate a sum of money that would come with the building to see to its much needed repairs. Even the main electrical conduit into the building needed to be replaced, that should give some indication just how badly neglected it was. After quite some weeks of intense collaborative work I eventually produced a professional 21 page business plan which was submitted on the day all these bids had to be in. There were 3 interested parties and I had meetings with them asking if we could do this as a partnership. One said no way, that was the Lib Dem controlled Town Council, and the other said yes because they just wanted a very limited use which I was happy to agree. The bids were in and judged by the Lib Dem NCC Administration at County Hall. The Lib Dem controlled Town Council were awarded the community centre. Fair enough but as some of the details came out I was stunned! They had settled on considerably less than what I had negotiated for, regarding repairs to the building and hadn’t even submitted a business plan? It seems the Lib Dem Administration at County Hall, where the chair of our Town Council was secretary and so included in this meeting, had somehow judged the bids even though there had only been one joint one and awarded the centre to a group that hadn’t even taken part in the process? I was then summoned to a meeting with the Mayor and his deputy. I asked a colleague to come along as a witness because by now I was weary to say the least! The Mayor told me to hand over the business plan I had done because he had been told it was excellent. I couldn’t believe my ears I could only look at my colleague as he looked at me aghast. I quickly realised these people just didn’t have a clue; they had done no prep work, no research and had no costings for things like new heating systems etc. We walked away shaking our heads after replying, “No, you roll your plans out now!” So we had a fully functioning Trust with nothing to do might as well put it to work! As I’ve already reported we worked with an NCC officer to get the sports pavilion down at Gallagher Park. Next up was some self-promotion and this one was entered into an award by a large European Bank and made the last 10 before I had to cut it for exceptional reasons! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqecpk6LpFk We were also working on a sports hall at Meadowdale School area with Bedlington Forum. We even got the feasibility money for it off a part of NCC, but just as we were about to pull the trigger and commission a national group to come in and pull it together we were told NCC would double to money but it had to include the whole of Bedlington, not just the Top End. We agreed and that was commissioned, little did we know what effect the proposed new school at Bedlington Station would have. A full professional report was produced after interviewing local sports groups, potential sports groups, councillors, NCC etc. and the conclusion……..”Whilst new sporting provision is needed in Bedlington we can’t ignore a £20M new school at Bedlington Station which will have a full range of up to date sporting provision. The best outcome would be to make sure these facilities are available for the community to use”. Course that £20M actually turned into nearly £10M and one of the first things to get the chop…….the big new multi-use sports centre and pitches! A much reduced offer was eventually built which spectacularly failed to meet any of our expectations. The Trust worked closely with Leading Link and again the first thing was sporting facilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qunOuVvCQ We also successfully applied for a Heritage grant to demonstrate our rich history. The project attracted a lot of praise off the Heritage people and we had to go down to Manchester and were applauded as one of the best projects of this kind in the country. We built an interactive trailer which was then ‘decorated’ with images of Bedlington history as well as thigs to do and Leading Link took it around the local schools explaining what each bit was about. We held a ‘junior’ Bedlington Picnic Day as well as producing some excellent videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz6A9NLArEI What Bedlington’s about and where might it go………(We can dream!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUAN4UKRhU Bedlington’s mining heritage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EZf2LS_vlc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6i461yrGFA The Development Trust was asked to intervene time and time again in various issues. The Olympic Torch was coming to the county as part of the London 2012 Olympic games and guess where wasn’t listed as one of the Towns for it to go through, as per! Some pretty heated exchanges followed! I was eventually allowed to make a presentation, at Blyth, to the UK Sports Association guys overseeing this and set to work with Lyn Horton from Leading Link and Richard Wearmouth from the Salvation Army putting together the necessary event/safety plans etc. These national agency guys couldn’t have been more supportive and even squashed some of the stuff our local council raised! The day wasn’t the best as far as the weather went but over 5000 people lined our Front Street to watch the Torch pass through our Town! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF9ZP8jOcy4 I was then asked to help with a little project for some of our disabled seniors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S46ShD4M2wM The Trust also put on some entertainment for our seniors in the Salvation Army as well as getting the funding to help Mind Active purchased a bit of expensive equipment they had been after for some time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka-fhVgjXTs The Trust was by now working closely with several local charitable groups in fact the only ones that wouldn’t work with us were the ones with some councillor members! Several more projects followed but then I decided to stand for council and as I could see a clear prejudicial interest I resigned my Trust board membership. I would like to thank past and serving officers of the Trust for the support they always give to our Town. I was especially grateful when they gave so much to our struggling foodbanks, way before any group thought about doing that. Here is a radio snippet where I try and explain what the Development Trust is about. https://bedlington.uk/.../malcolm-robinson.../ Funnily enough, just as a post script, East Bedlington Parish Council have formed their own Development Trust very recently. Seems the circle has come right around…………….

I’ve been asked how the Gateway features came about? I’ll answer that along with the other things of the same ilk. I had started the Development Trust, as a private individual, when we tried to take over the Community Centre when the Lib Dem Administration at County Hall said they wanted rid of it. That tale in itself might be worth its own Factoid! Anyway we had a Development Trust and I thought why not put it to good use, even after not been able to take on the Community Centre. Like it or not Bedlington is world famous for its dogs so there seemed to me to be a USP at our disposal. Looking at Terrier designs I thought these would make great seats so I set about a design and a model to make sure they would work. Then I had to find the funding to make a prototype and did a Dragons Den type thing to get that. Its actually the 10 year anniversary for these seats! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ahZtXCx6o Then the unveiling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBiT_B6OKc So I then had a seat and set about selling them to make money for the Development Trust. The seats we made had to be of a commercial quality so I could sell them to the likes of NCC etc. All the monies that we raised were handed over to the Salvation Army to pay for Xmas lunches for our seniors. In fact during Covid the Trust handed over most of any funding they had left for the foodbanks! I was then elected to the Town Council and at a meeting I had proposed doing some Gateway Features for the town because one of the main responsibilities for a Town Council is promotion. The ruling Labour group came up with an idea to have a pile of bricks and tiles as a feature while I proposed using our long history to find 4 features which identified with the town and install them at each of the four main roads into Bedlington. Again I was given that project to run to shut me up probably! Anyway I came up with our Coat of Arms, a Bedlington Terrier, St Cuthbert’s cross and the De Arnaud steam train, made in Bedlington and shipped out to Holland as their first locomotive. Lots of hassle but eventually I got these as the project. I even spoke to the director of the national train museum in Holland because they have a working replica of the De Arnaud and I wanted the exact dimensions so I could replicate it at scale. Also I had to do some detective work to find our ‘lost’ coat of arms but eventually speaking to the old BUDC engineer he had the plates! Now having the four designs I enlisted the help of the metal work guys to make them and fit them in place and what an excellent job they made! I use iron (Steel) as a nod to the famous Bedlington Iron Works of the past. I also wrote up brief histories on each to put in lecterns at each site so everyone would be aware of why these are there. There are some interesting stories attached to each really, especially the coat of arms. My tenure at the Town Council ended and these were never done. So we have the Terrier seats and now the Gateway Features you see around the Town. The large Terrier down at the bottom of Hartford Road is, as I predicted at the time, a famous stop off point for Terrier owners from all over the world so they can get their picture taken. With West Lea Cemetery being a Commonwealth War Graves site and as I was now the local councillor for it, I commissioned the anniversary commemorative plaque for the right-hand side of the entrance gate. After Covid I commissioned the ‘Thank You’ plaque at the other side. Both in metal and each quite obviously telling their own story. There are more designs coming but I’ll leave that for another day!