sizsells

Heard last night Brian has packed the milk in...........

yes its true he has packed the milk in..... that was why I said HAD and it was all in the past tense

Well wonders never cease did our lot decide to get on a bus and go and have a look at Morpeth to see how to get paths etc clear?

I,m pleased they have made a start on our front street but lets be honest its a bit late isn,t it.

I,m also pleased we live on a hill because if we had been flooded it would be a case of everyman for himself because our lot would have to had a trip on a boat somewhere to see what to do, they really are THAT pathetic.

Anyone know who the old guy in the right hand corner is?????

It,s not Brian the milkman is it ? I know he had a big milkround but I never thought he used to go that farafield lol

Morpeth roads AND pavements are a credit to the council/workers is it the same NCC we come under ? OR are those in charge there in-tune with the local people and businesses

Not wanting to mislead anyone OR make our lot feel totaly inept but my comments did not include the housing estates in Morpeth....... see Bedlington council at least you got one thing in common bet that makes you feel better lol

Morpeth roads AND pavements are a credit to the council/workers is it the same NCC we come under ? OR are those in charge there in-tune with the local people and businesses

Try doing in the benefit system what they got up to and see what happens!

Could not agree more

eh? hanger on what?

Some buggers shirt tails

Are MP's above the law................................YUP

I think certain ones THINK they are you know the ones who strut around town with the holier-than-thou attitude but they are no more than a common thief

everyone seems happy! funny how a bit snow can ruffle people up so much!

at the end off the day its here deal with it!

OH you must be a hanger on lol

Sizsells,

I am not trying to promote excuses for NCC only pointing out what I think are relevant financial constraints. At the end of the day NCC decides where it spends its revenue and there are plenty of regular NCC 'lurkers' reading these boards who can and should be answering the questions! I really do think we are going to have to make difficult decisions in the near future as to what gets funded out of local taxes.

As for councillor Armstrong, his ward is at Cramlington so he should be well aware of the problems hereabouts! As a point of interest he is also the 'portfolio' holder who will be responsible for things like the introduction of parking charges here, when they come, so he is really popular anyway!

Keith,

Is it just me but doesn't all these dammed speed humps mean snow ploughs couldn't operate on the estate roads anyway?

My comments were not directed at you, to the contrary I find a lot of what you post on here very interesting it just peves me that these people who are apparently

"in charge" of the day to day running of OUR borough seem to have no idea on what to do.

They have a restructuring excercise to get rid of people then a few months down the line do it again well if you ask my opinion if there not intelligent enough to get it right the first time maybee its THEM that should go INCLUDING THAT PRAT Armstrong, as you will gather hes really annoyed me, he made similar comments last winter, so IF you do read this or one of your hangers on wishes to pass MY comments on I will gladley come to Cramlington pick you up and drive you round Bedlington or any other councilor with bloody BIG blinkers on for that matter

The thing is Claire some people have had a bollicking for clearing up themselves. They apparrently throw the snow to the wrong place, someone might "fall over it" and make a claim for injuries recieived.

As for all of those people on the dole, I am one of them. I am out of work through no fault of my own and claiming benefits for the first time in almost 40 years. I am far from proud of that fact and I am doing my utmost to find work. So as far as "earning my dole money" is concerned, I feel that all of the contributions I have paid over the years could be helping me through a [ hopefully short] but difficult time. What I do object to is being put into the same categorie as those who make a carreer out of signing on every week [and seem to do well out of it]

Hope you find a job soon good luck and just keep on trying.

Can't quite believe I am going to do this but……..

I think we have to realise the constraints NCC are operating under. They have been shedding jobs and cutting service provision in an attempt to balance their budgets, which by and large up to now they have had foisted onto them by central Gov. Of course they have to prioritise and with regard to their legal requirements as well. In a county with such a large footprint no real surprise some areas feel as if they have been almost ignored as other areas take priority.

In this case I would say remote and isolated communities should take precedence because at the end of the day people living in the larger conurbations can at least walk to the shops and expect necessary continuation of essential supplies. There are a lot of smaller communities up and down our county who don't have that possibility and will be cut off.

Phew, getting back to normal service………

How many middle and top managers in NCC have been out with snow shovels? How many of our elected representatives have been out clearing snow in an attempt to stop our OAPs falling and breaking fragile bones? They are all getting paid to work for our county authority and aren't we all in this together?

While I fully understand the finances and the logistics of keeping our roads in a safe condition, with all due respect NO one can tell me the road past the golf club as an instance is anything other than unsafe and bloody dangerous, I fully appreciate the fact that estates are unfortunatly not a priority but at one time they were, so they have saved a lot of money by abandoning them, even the pavements at one time they were always doing them to help the townsfolk get up the street not now probably incase someone sues them due to the litigation society we find ourselves in ,again more money saved, the gritters themselves appear to be putting out less grit than they used to(WHEN YOU DO SEE ONE THAT IS) I think they are made to drive around with the lights flashing just to lure us in to thinking that grit is being laid or are those lights capable of melting ice? And I,m not having a go at the people who drive these gritters far from it, but in the event of an accident which there was on Saturday 27TH the Welwyn bridge was closed because it was ungritted and deemed to be unsafe within 20 mins there was a FLEET of council vehicles there to make it safe, but why wait until there was an accident if the job had been done properly in the first place it may not have occured.

The lost days off work by folks not getting there, the accidents that are caused by dangerous ungritted roads the damage to vehicles and god forbid lives too, the children not getting to school and the hassle that causes for working parents the cost to industry is immense.

I know you will fully understand my comments but I personally feel the cost should not be shouldered by industry and the NCC is passing the buck it annoys me when some bloke called Alan Armstrong from the cooncil says everything is ok and seems to believe what he says I would love to drag him down here and open his bloody eyes.... his rose tinted glasses are obviuosly a very dark colour..........prat

Where are the Gritters????

Took this while travelling at 10 mph coming into Bedlington at dinner time

Utter disgrace

Disgrace is too nice a word to describe the way the gritting has been handled or NOT as the case maybee in Bedlington.

I wonder what would happen if we ALL decided not pay a portion of our cooncil tax as a mark of disgust

Not yet mate.

Need cooncil planning for that, and you know how slow they are

COONCIL what bloody cooncil they cant clear the bloody roads and paths so slow aint the word my friend........ nondescript, pathetic, usless, overpaid fools trying to justify there positions doing ALL THE WRONG THINGS........

rant over sorry

Like deja vu that Keith, I said something similar and for some reason she didn't like it. :dribble: Oh! and she does't like emotions

:lol:

Note to NCC: If you can be bothered get your maps out, between Ashington and Cramlington there's a place called Bedlington........WE COULD DO WITH THE GRITTERS HERE ESPECIALLY THE BANK ON GLEBE ROAD........ cars stuck again there this morning! Had an interview in Washington this morning, it took me longer to get out of Bedlington than it did the rest of the journey to Washington and I live on a main road! An ABSOLUTE BLOODY DISGRACE!

Took me 30 mins to get from Bedlington to the A1 yesterday not a grain of grit on the road and Hartford Bank was something like Eddie the Eagle used to ski down and this was at 5.30 am........ this morning same time got to the blyth side of the bridge and the roads were a lot better but our roads are just the same........... travled to just north of Morpeth tonight and the roads leaving Bedlington are an utter disgrace where are the GRITTERS?

Also I understand that Koast are giving a camcorder to the overall winner who switches on the lights, and there are prizes from Munchie Moo's and others

No disrespect but thats not putting money towards the "illuminations".

And by the looks of tonights "display" its no different to anything we have had in the past .

and my comments are aimed at Tesco,s here and the prizes from the independants are to be applauded taking in to account the times in which we live in

At the station the local business sort out the lights with the help of raffle tickets being sold to local residents. They are not brilliant however we still have the "Station Star" .

Why does,nt Tesco get involved with the lights on the front street they happily take residents money so they should put something back in to the community.

There was enough money spent on the new market place for them

As your probably aware I,m not the most prolific visitor to this site and to be TOTALY honest its the 1st time I have noticed this thread and as I did I breathed a sigh of relief because about 6 or 7 months ago I saw this BIGGER than a domestic cat on consecutive days and I thought it must be the light playing tricks with me glimmers.

I pass the golf club between 6.15 and 6.30 most mornings and I saw it near the old quarry on both occassions, it was the size of a fox but definatly catlike, I have not seen it since even though I do look, I even took my dogs down there in case it was laid up but to no avail.

So thank you for putting my mind to rest its nice to know I,m not going daft or seeing things

nah mate !! if hed had a kings kebab, he wouldnt have been able to get that fat !*!@# up that drainpipe..

lmao..wonky.

I still think she looks like "Alice" off The Vicar of Dibley

Furniture shop

Why not just get rid of political parties and vote for people who you believe are up to the job instead of ones because they wear the right coloured rosette?

The Colour makes no difference to me ..........I,m colour blind

Depends on what you mean by... I don't think that politicians hatching deals in secret is very democratic.

At least when you put someone in on a firm manifesto you've got some sort of benchmark as to whether they've delivered or not. With this form of horse trading you don't even know exactly what you're voting for, or the character and record of who you are voting for!

It all boils down to whether the MPs are representing you or their party. With FPTP they are representing you even if you didn't vote for them, and you can take your problem to them and they are obliged to listen. Who can you take a problem to when there's a hodge podge of various parties who don't necessarily represent your neck of the woods? If they are not there to represent their constituents what exactly are they there for, and in these days of instant communication do we even need them anyway?

The MPs themselves will tell you that the days of policy swaying speeches in parliament are long gone. They get up and spout and no one listens. The parliamentary process as was is totally pointless!

I fully understand your sentiments and your right hatching deals behind closed doors is far from democratic and the way politics is and has been for a long time I also believe is wrong.

These people are elected by the people to act in the best interests for the people apperently.

Politics needs a good kick up the backside as does the voting system I do think PR would be a start.

It's win-win for the Tories on this one. If the present negotiations break down they'll say this is what we are heading for IF we were to adopt PR. If they don't and a coalition is patched together then they'll say things would have been much better if we hadn't been compromised, and they'll be plugging that at the next election.

As far as Labour is concerned Gordon is quite prepared to put Labour at a huge disadvantage for his own immediate purposes, but senior Labour figures can see past the next few months and how this would be suicidal.

I wonder how many of the rent-a-mob demonstrating yesterday - if taken aside and asked to explain how what EXACTLY they were demonstrating for - could give a coherent answer as to how it would work in practise? It's one of the "simple" type of ideas (like communism) which appeal to the sorts of people who don't think through the practical consequences, and how human nature will exploit them.

All any form of PR will yield is more politicians, more public expense, more fudges, and more excuses why things don't change! It's a change to less change!

And MORE democratic

With thanks to the BBC.

What are the electoral alternatives being discussed?

1. Additional member system

2. Alternative vote

3. Single transferrable vote

4. Proportional representation.

Additional member system:

In this system, people get one vote for a constituency representative and one vote for a representative from a larger area such as a county or region.

Alternative vote:

Voters rank the candidates. If no candidate has 50% of first preferences then second preferences are counted and so on until someone has a majority.

Single transferrable vote:

Several constituencies are combined and voters rank the candidates. Members are elected once they pass a certain number of votes, known as a quota.

Proportional representation:

Everyone has a single vote. Each party has a list of candidates and the number of them elected depends on the number of votes the party gets nationwide.

So everyone clear now................

PR is definatly the best idea

I cannot see why certain parties are scared of it

Had a very interesting argument with a local labour cooncilor on Ashington high Street about MR LAVERY. Pointed out to him, Convicted football hooligan, no respect for police(due to football hooliganism charge) also his denouncement of the Labour party! His reply 'Well he was only a young boy at the time we all make mistakes! He was 21 at the time. Does a convicted murderer or a convicted paedophile get a chance to stand for parliament because 'He was only a young boy at the time' and we all make mistakes. Cooncilors reply was 'No comment'

I wonder if John Venables stood for parliament how many votes he would get, I mean he was just a young boy at the time and after all we all make mistakes!!!!! Don't We!

Oh and by the way Ian I hope you enjoyed your party because it will be your LAST, at least at the expense of the local working man who you supposedly stand for YOU !*!@# (*&&^%£%(_&*&%^$^*(()^%$%$&*()(^$&%^£%*&+__)&*()&*(%&%^£^"&^%*()_*(^&££&^(&^&%^&^(&^$&^%^*&%^%$&*&*(%$&&*_+_(*$£&*&)*%$"£$&*)_))%$""£%^&*(*($£$&*(()*$%$"£&*()*%^%$%$&**(&*&^$%$((&$$%&&^%&%&^&*%&*(*%$$*_)_+_+%£""$&**( WIT :lol:

WELL SAID and so VERY TRUE It opitomises EXACTLY the attitude to some around this area.