Mal

Just before I post this better explain I was facing several attempts to get my page shut down!!!!!!! Better hurry up and get another posting while I still can! Still back in the late 1990’s Wansbeck District Council decided they would stop bus tokens for our pensioners. This in an effort to save around £100,000 out of their annual budget. This was met with disbelief and distress by many of our older members in our community because they had mostly supported and voted for the very people who made that decision. The Bedlingtonshire Chamber of Trade was asked by pension group leaders for help. We agreed and put up their posters in most of the shops advertising the next councillor surgery, which was to be held at our community centre. I was almost immediately ‘visited’ in the shop I had then by one of our local councillors who told me to get those posters taken down, or else! Things started to get heated after I told him that wasn’t going to happen! I suggested he went back outside get in his car, have a cigarette and calm down because I could just see the front page of next week’s News Post Leader which would feature a brawl between a councillor and a shop keeper on Glebe Road! He did but came back in to again threaten, then coerce, then tell me about a lucrative part time job that might be coming up! I told him the posters stayed up! On the evening of the councillor’s surgery around 400 pensioners turned up to ask for an explanation. The councillors, both WDC and NCC, were inside and locked the doors allowing no one inside. After arguing through the locked doors they relented and opened the doors to let everyone upstairs into the concert room. All councillors apart from two left by the back door and when everyone was assembled upstairs one of them did a runner! So to at least give some credit one fronted the ‘meeting’. First he attacked the bus company saying this was their idea. ‘Unfortunately’ I was standing next to the local area manager for the bus company who told everyone who he was and that wasn’t their idea at all! Next the Chamber of Trade came in for some stick and I said if you try that again I’ll drop a nuclear bomb right in the middle of this room! The pensioners made their feeling known in no uncertain terms! What I never said because I didn’t want to further enflame the situation was that I had looked at the WDC budget and there was one item of expenditure which had received a healthy increase, their own entertainment budget, which they had increased to something like £240K I think it was! So they had cut funding to pensioners to save £100K while at the same time increased their own entertainment budget to more than double that! With the whole debacle up in the air we held meetings with the bus management and we came up with what seemed a perfectly reasonable solution. That was taken back to the council who then claimed they had sorted it all out and would be running this scheme from now on. This scheme was so effective it was adopted, or elements in it, nationally and we can still see it in operation today! When the dust had settled the Chamber of Trade received a letter from the Chief Executive of Wansbeck District Council telling us we were being taken to court for endangering the lives of pensioners? It seems the maximum capacity for the community centre had been breached and we were getting the blame? I prepared a legal team to defend the action, which in their opinion was absolute horse XXXX, but my deputy chair and Finance officer at the CoT went across to meet with the CeO of the council and said they took the finger wagging in his office to put that to bed. They told me that they had never said anything to me because the thought of putting two explosive characters in the same room might have resulted in even more angst! I believe it’s quite an achievement being chair of the Chamber of Trade for two years and having two different Chief Executives of the local council threaten legal action over principled stances each year! Just as an addendum: I had run a business in Bedlington for around 18years when this stuff started happening and I had one visit off Trading Standards in all that time. When these things were going on I had visits almost monthly and the stuff I was ordered to put right……..my shelves were wrong, the floor covering looked worn, the measure I used wasn’t approved…………..the list of petty stuff just went on and on. I eventually told them to go back to whoever had sent them and tell him I won’t be intimidated and if he wanted to carry on I’ll go to the press and really start naming names and bringing skeletons out of closets! I was left alone for a while after that!

We are all very well aware Tesco’s pulled the plug on their Bedlington branch renovation some years ago which resulted in a very down at heel looking marketplace for so long. That aside, for the moment, I tried for years to look into the deal that was done seeing as it was reported Tesco paid £1M for the site. (There was a covenant on the car park area which stated that it had to be used by and for the residents of the Town and the site of a weekly market if so desired. That was cancelled out, how I’m not sure but it had to be for the Tesco deal to work!) I looked and asked questions everywhere to try and find where this money had gone. Not only that the then NCC councillor tried too and she got nowhere. There doesn’t seem to be any paper trail for this supposed money never mind where it ended up! When Tesco finally pulled out they were paid just over £2M I believe for the site back. Not a bad return for 3 or 4 years of being in the Town! What I did find out was that Wansbeck Life had negotiated a deal where they would take over the shops and offices which were proposed at the side of the new Tesco building because they would be included in the built at the same time. Now it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that a long lease on 6 shops and offices above might come out at say £1M for the sake of argument, and the fact that Wansbeck Life was the development arm of none other than Wansbeck District Council who were the planning authority at that time. Just in my opinion, but the more I looked into it the more convinced I became; I think we couldn’t find any receipt of that £1M because it was used in the deal by Wansbeck Life to take over and be the landlord for those properties. If that was the case then we lost out big time because those shops and offices were never built and we had to pay £2M to get the site back. Even better pay day for our largest supermarket chain! Almost zero cost, 3 or 4 years of trading and then a nice wedge to walk away with. I must be wrong surly……….. If anyone reading this hasn’t read the previous posting then do so and look out for mention of Wansbeck Life! Because of the ‘bad press’ (to say the least) Wansbeck Life eventually became Arch, now that’s a name to conjure with! You couldn’t make this stuff up really it’s like being trapped in a recurring nightmare!

Starting when Adam was a lad and Wansbeck District Council held sway, I’m thinking about 1996, Bedlington was awarded Worst Christmas Lighting Display in the North East by Metro Radio. If I remember rightly there were 4 second-hand displays up on lighting posts outside the old Council Offices and one of them was faulty! Determined to put this right a Bedlington Christmas Lighting Group was formed from lady members of the then Bedlington Chamber of Trade. WDC at the time set aside £10K for lighting displays within its boundary with £5K going to Ashington and 2½ K each to Bedlington and Newbiggin. I couldn’t see two pound fifty never mind two and a half thousand in what we had that year! Anyway the group started fundraising, holding events and generally doing anything they could to get sponsorship for new lighting displays. Every member of the Chamber of Trade pulled their weight and did whatever they could. I was part of a team who asked WDC to give Bedlington the £5K seeing as we were the only town actively trying to help out with funding for new displays. A deal was struck whereby the Town that raised the most money would get the lion’s share (£5K) of the WDC pot. Sounds OK! By the autumn, when lighting displays had to be ordered and delivered, the totals came in from the towns. Ashington had raised, pretty sure it was £300, Newbiggin ignored it and instead went their own way and Bedlington had raised……..£13,000! WDC reneged on the deal and said the £5K would still be going to Ashington? That Christmas we hit most of the lamps posts in Front street with new displays, a Christmas tree with new lights and even a lighted banner across the road, 13 grands worth! BTW, we even had to pay to get them put up and taken down and new sockets on the lampposts so they could be plugged in. Funnily enough the Council paid that fitting charge and it always came out at £2½ K, irrespective of the actual number of units to be fitted! The next year and again after a hectic round of fundraising by the Christmas Light Group we had enough in the kitty to do all of Front Street, top to bottom, and started to think about going down Glebe Road and Hartford Bank. By now the fantastic success and support we had off the whole Bedlington Community was being noticed and we were told there wouldn’t be any more displays going up! Ehhh? I remember saying at a meeting we had with WDC at the time, “Instead of recognising the support the community have given and the hard work and dedication of the Lights Group you really want to kybosh the whole initiative, why not celebrate it?” We ignored them and just started another year of fund raising. We noticed lighting displays we had bought were being put up in Ashington so I questioned that without ever getting an answer, but I saw them for myself! WDC then sent the Lights Group a bill for several thousand pounds for…….electricity, saying they had so many days to pay or they would be taken to court! That obviously frightened the lasses and they asked me to go with them to see the Chief Executive of WDC who had ordered them to attend a meeting. We even took a local Minister along for a witness! They guy was playing hardball and wouldn’t listen to any pleas or suggestions from the Lights Group and finally said he would be taking them to court for an unpaid bill. I told him great because I will be included because all the Lights Group were Chamber of Trade members and I was the chair and I will be countersuing you bonny lad for defrauding the people of Bedlington, because every penny we raised was for Bedlington Christmas lights and you have appropriated them and used them elsewhere. Not only that I will be suing for compensation for distress about the electrical bill you have sent. I knew there was no meterage on lighting columns the council agreed likely usage every year and agreed a financial amount with the power company, there was no way they could justify the money they demanded! If I remember rightly the Minister pulled us apart! Shortly after that the Lighting Group were asked how much money they had in their account and after saying how much there was received a bill for exactly that amount. They paid and said the whole debacle had left a bad taste in their mouths so they would fold the Group. The press got hold of the story and ran it with the banner, something like.………… Local Council plays Scrooge with the Fairy Godmothers of Bedlington.

With the furore generated about this new hotel idea and it seems I’m somehow involved and not paying heed to democracy, let’s lay out what really happened over the years. When Labour was originally in charge their idea was to build 60 odd houses in what was Tesco’s car park. Around 700 of us turned up at the library and told them in no uncertain terms that we wanted to see commercial development in the town centre not housing! That plan was hastily redrawn! We then had a consultation on the proposed town centre design and were given 4 options for the layout as well as the styles of buildings. Most of us picked the ‘wrong’ design and the scheme went forward with the designs that the great and good thought were best for us! We saw the Make a Noise demo which was supposed to give a kick up the backside and demonstrate local feelings yet still nothing happened. The Tories then came into power at NCC claiming Bedlington was very important to ‘us’. To be fair we did see £12-14M in one year’s budget for our Town Centre redevelopment but as they are annual budgets and no substantial scheme came forward that money never materialised! We finally saw a scheme come forward which had around 45,000sq ft of retail development, of which Aldi was just under 20,000sq ft and the linchpin for the whole development. Covid came along and all the potential retailers went underground with a cull on all their new developments. Aldi were persuaded to carry on with theirs. The Gov then announced funding to get schemes like the one for Bedlington back on track and we managed to secure that funding by matching it. This is what is being used to do the 4 shops and 6 apartments at the Market Place. We then saw potential funding in the Borderlands project albeit on a much reduced level (£3M) but still that could be seed funding to get the main development back on track. (Several community consultations later and we still see a leisure offer as being consistently the number one response. ) Another community consultation on what people wanted to see developed has resulted in over 35 potential projects which are to be wrapped up in a Bedlington Place Plan. We then see a hotel project being put forward not by NCC but by local councillors, of which I’m certainly not one of them. This scheme at Bedlington Station could wipe out all the Borderlands funding for the whole of Bedlington! That wasn’t why I fought to get Bedlington into the Borderlands funding and kept pushing it along! https://www.youtube.com/live/Q4zZGP1LXjI... With that out of the way I do believe we need to see Bedlington as a destination town and for that we need a USP. We do need the normal range of what anyone would expect in a Town the size of Bedlington but we also need a draw so we get footfall from other places too. That’s the opportunity I see in getting the marketplace development right. PS. Back in the annuls of time in the late 60’s just before Wansbeck District Council came into being, Bedlington Urban District Council had plans for a hotel and leisure centre in Bedlington Town Centre. Pity they didn’t see them through!

I'm going to put up my 'Historical Factoids' which have been published on my Page on another site. I did them because I was tired of the distortion that was being reported that surrounded these events so that needed to be corrected. I checked each one with the other people who were involved at the time to make sure I wasn't flavouring things and what I wrote down was as accurate as possible! First I'm going to start with something I wrote in 2013 and even now, more than ten years later, seems to be as apt as ever, certainly the last bit! I will put them up in the sequence I wrote them............. The Spirit of Bedlington: Bedlington’s just about a dog, it’s often been said, If that’s what you believe, Ge yasel a smack on the heed! Steeped in history and culture and grime and true grit, The Bedlington folk would call you a great twit! Back in the annuls of time, Forged out of great sweat, The Town now standing owes No one a debt. Back where it began No one is quite sure, But it must have been olden And really secure. The Town first written about, Thanks to St Cuthbert the monk, His laying at rest The Danes and Normans to debunk. For long times later, under Durham was placed, So the Town was not Northumberland based. A great Hall for the Bishop and privileged to use, A court building too for assizes to muse. King John himself liked to stay in the Town, Not sure he was welcomed without-so-much as a frown. This must have meant the Town was of import, You were lucky to live here not a place of last resort. The people around for their daily bread did need The Bishops mill on the river to grind out their feed. When this mill went idle another came through To power the Iron Works and give work to the crew. At first the jobs were all for some nailers But soon they became world famous railroad railers. Built on coal and iron in times more recent, The folks hereabouts living lives really decent. Birkenshaw, Longridge and Gooch To name but few all men of good grace Bound up with Bedlington hereto. The sign above the Iron works For the Bedlington Nailer, ‘We live by fire, water, iron and God’s favour. Soon changed to make the iron horses so new Running on the rails which were Birkenshaw’s breakthrough. Soon coal was the king and many a pit, Sunk into the earth thought never to quit. The town now had jobs but never was clean, Its bikini line never to be seen. The Auld Pit came first Then came the Winnin, Next off the blocks came Cambois, But that was for swimming. Thousands of miners, Digging out the black gold, The pennies they earned to keep their households. Our dogs now must make their timely debut, No yapping or casting, And certainly not blue. Bred from Old Flint, Down country they came, But it’s Bedlington where they found their great fame. The Town and its history so long into the past, Its role in the county so obviously miscast. More history than others, Of similar scope, A resurgence of pride We all do but hope. The people who lived here for such a long time, Now mingle with others who are just in their prime. New houses and buildings bring people by the flock The problem is now development gridlock. No thought has been put into what folks might like to do, So the money they could spend locally now just says adieu. To the shiny cathedrals of metal and glass Leaving our local traders to feel second class. It’s the pressures of life this modern we are told, But it’s our local shops we see having to fold. Change will come when its least expected, All standing together no interest more vested. A proud people and town of once in the past, No longer just subject to verbal bombast. Malcolm Robinson 2013.

Wow!

I need to pinch that cartoon GGG😄

Vic..........planning early next year......... https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/major-milestone-reached-in-ps10billion-ai-data-centre-scheme-in-northumberland-4896802?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawG_mhNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdplEg6hAbl-_bv1qHZ4PcDoEHZFIiV6CTyhecapyYwOSuNIAlQd9Om9CQ_aem_23lTItGp2UR8r9o_tQvCkg#Echobox=1733438593

I read a newspaper report this morning saying '100's turned out in Morpeth and Alnwick for Remembrance Sunday.' If I wrote the copy............ ...meanwhile 1000's turn out in Bedlington as ususal !!!!!!!!

Some of the crowd pics yesterday............Thanks Simon Williams.

Do you mind if I copy this and put in on one of the Bedlington social media pages?

An honour and a great privilege to lay a wreath today at the Bedlington Cenotaph on this, Remembrance Sunday, on behalf of all residents in my Bedlington West Ward.

If anyone wants to know whats going in now..............

For anyone interested in the development in Cambois.................... Here is the scrutiny meeting:

Further upgrades coming soon.................

Anyone any info about these please? Asking for a friend...........

I wonder if its still going according to plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There hasn't been an update because there isn't one!!!!!!!! We are looking at 2025 for the station and potentially 2039 for the parking to be completed!!!!!!!!!!

The Town Council bought them...........

My pleasure this morning to give the lasses who are the Friends of West Lea Cemetery their newest award, off our friends at Bedlington.co.uk. This is the 2023 Piper award and given a lot of members on that site are ex-pats it’s nice to know they still keep up with current going-ons in Bedlington. Given in recognition of someone or a group who have made outstanding efforts in the Town over the last year, a well-deserved award. Well done girls.........

Eggy, Champion. Ill see what it’s like when I print it out.

Eggy, Can you do them a certificate? I think they might want to hang it up in their base.