Northern Neil

My letter to todays Courant about the parking permit

2012-01-13T13:28:00.002Z

Dear Editor,

I was surprised to read the article about the councils proposed shoppers parking permit ("Town parking charges may leap", 6th January). The only leap that was accurately reported was the leap made by the journalist to go from the fact that as yet no budget has been freed up next year for this scheme to the idea that all or part of the cost would be recouped from increased parking charges. The council reviews it's charges every year and parking is no exception. But that does not mean that the parking permit will be funded from other parking charges. It will be funded from the general budget. If anyone had asked a member of the Lib Dem administration at county hall we would have been happy to clarify this issue.

I join the Hexham Business Forum in welcoming the scheme, which will encourage local residents to shop in times of lower demand for parking by rewarding them with free parking during that time. The Tories Peter Jackson position on this is now laughable. At Castle Morpeth, when he was leader of the council, he made no attempts to change the shoppers permit in Morpeth from the model that is now being rolled out county wide. When offered the chance to push through free parking across the county by Labour in a meeting in July 2011 of the council he refused to support it.

He then said that he wanted everyone to pay the same charge in all NCC car parks, then changed that to exclude Ponteland, Prudhoe, Corbridge and Haltwhistle and just charge people who don't vote Tory in the South East of the county. In the media favours his so called "peoples pass", which he has never presented the full details of to Northumberland County Council. At the recent cross party parking working group that we have established at County Hall he voted to support the shoppers permit proposal that went before executive on Monday and was approved. It seems that on this issue his policy changes each time the wind changes direction. Our scheme is about congestion and rewarding hard up Northumberland residents, whilst still ensuring people from outside the county pay their fair share for maintaining the car parks. I hope people will recognise that even iun hard times, the council is strecthing every muscle to help them.

Cllr Neil Bradbury

Priorities for the year on Prudhoe Town Council

2012-01-12T21:54:00.001Z

On Prudhoe Town Council, I sometimes plough a lonely furrow. Every now and then I find myself in a group of one on a lot of issues. Its the most important meeting of the Town Council next Wednesday, when we set our budget for the year. Increasingly the Town Council is becoming an important body, both in terms of the amount of tax it raises as well as the range of activities it undertakes. Play parks, cemeteries, Christmas lights, floral displays, a view on planning applications, environmental schemes, town signage, funding for local charities and services such as the youth service and the CAB etc.

Over the last few years, I have been somewhat sceptical as the administration costs of the council have shot up, massively outstripping the increase in budget for actual service delivery. This year the council has had a reasonably big team for a year or so and is now ready to take a range of responsibilities from the county council, in line with all other parish and town councils in the county.

One of the things I think the council has a strong responsibility for is help for the elderly in the town. The main way it has done this in the past is through the subsidy of the TV licence. Residents over the pension age got £15, now £30, towards their licence fee by going to the post office and getting a form filled in.

Since the TV licence was made free to over 75s, this benefit has been less well targeted at the most vulnerable and old and I have consistently argued that it is not taken up by a lot of people (if it was it would probably bankrupt the council) and does not target the most in need and for many does not make a big difference. As it swallows up a major percentage of the town councils budget, I am keen to see if there are better ways to help the elderly in our town.

The town suffered last year when it lost the town 111 bus service. Unfortunately it just wasn't popular enough but it was valued by a lot of elderly people as a way to get into town. We have revamped the 686 service to cover this at county hall but it's been clear that a targeted door to door service run by a dial a ride company was what would do the best. I was really pleased at how successful the Adapt dial a ride service has been since launching last year. It operates in the town once a week and has a Hexham trip once a week as well. Both are over subscribed.

So I have developed a plan to expand the dial a ride service, with County Council willing to fund a scheme 50:50 if the town council joins in. This will fund an extra days service in Prudhoe for six months with a 4th day after 6 months if there is enough demand. I will be taking my plan, which will cost the town council a maximum of £3,120, to the Town Council - as well as an appeal that the Town Council contributes to the cost of a new accessible bus for Adapt in Prudhoe. I accept that I am unlikely to get the TV licence scheme money moved to a new way of spending it but I am hopeful that I will not be in a minority of 1 on the dial a ride scheme! I will also be pushing for continued funding for the Prudhoe East centre and the CAB as well as making sure the council focusses the majority of its money on service delivery rather than bureaucracy.

Half truths and parking charges

2012-01-06T11:08:00.000Z

If my local weekly newspapers, the Hexham Courant, new year resolution was to start reporting news in a balanced way that gave all parties a chance to have their say then I am afraid it has already broken it in its first edition of 2012!

In a front page article entitled "Town parking charges may leap" (my italics) - it goes on to say in it's first paragraph "Parking charges in Hexham are set to soar - to pay the bill for a free shoppers permit!" (my italics again). It gathers this by adding two and two together and making 36! Because the cabinet paper, to be discussed on Monday by myself and other members of the councils executive, states that we do not currently have budget to fund the new shoppers permit the paper assumes it will be funded by a rise in parking fees. The truth is that the council regularly makes decisions in principle for the next year without allocating funding until the time of the budget.

I know for a fact that no Liberal democrat councillor was approached for comment but Tory leader peter Jackson (of wind turbine lies fame) is given extensive space. The Tory "plan" (which has never actually been officially presented at council) to give all residents free parking everywhere is also totally unfunded from the budget. Indeed I am told it was not even approved by the councillors in the Conservative group before it went into the press. Previously, their position was that all car parks should have the same charges and that towns without parking charges (such as Prudhoe) should pay their way. Then they clarified this (during a by-election in Ponteland where residents were understandably annoyed about having to pay for parking for the first time) by saying they only meant that towns in the South East of the county (where no one votes for them!) would also have charges implemented. The only voice of reason is the chair of the Hexham business forum, who welcomes the scheme - even if it meant that parking charges went up at other times! He says that "this shoppers permit will certainly increase the footfall [for shops].

So to the truth. The council is looking at a Shoppers permit, which will give local residents free use of the main car parks in Hexham, Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick in the non peak hours in the morning and afternoon when shops get less customers. Our approach to parking charges has always been one of traffic management. We do not want to see shopkeepers and workers parking in the best spots all day blocking spaces for shoppers and if we did not charge for parking in peak hours in the main market towns you would not be able to get a space. This scheme will give people a chance to make the shops busier when they are at their quietest. It is based on the successful Moprpeth shoppers permit scheme. Now all residents in Northumberland will be able to buy a permit to get free parking for towns such as Hexham rather than just for Morpeth.

I am afraid that the Courants article falls below the standard expected of a local newspaper. They should be unbiased and give both sides of the argument. They should not invent stories on the most flimsy of evidence bases. Another example is how a health and safety dispute about a train is now labelled "torchgate" despite both sides saying they are having constructive talks. As for the Tories spreading half truths, it is par for the course I'm afraid.

My position has always been that Prudhoe, and other towns close to Tyne and Wear (the Metro centre in particular), do not have sufficient parking demand to need it to be rationed by parking charges. In fact imposing parking charges on towns like Ashington, Prudhoe, Ponteland, Cramlington and Blyth would deal a major blow to the sustainability of the shops. The Tories (and the Morpeth chamber of trade) argument that parking should be "fair" and if imposed anywhere should be equal ignores the reason it was introduced in the first place, traffic management, and would mean that Prudhoe would get parking charges. The decision on the parking permit is at Mondays executive.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T12:41:00.001Z

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas. A councillor is for life (well his or her term of office!) not just for Christmas, so do please let me know how I can help - preferably in a day or so. I hope everyone has a great time, I've got a feeling 2012 is going to be a great year!

Prudhoe Town Council - an update

2011-12-22T15:10:00.000Z

We had the last meeting of 2011 of Prudhoe Town Council last night. I was glad I went. The meeting was inquorate before I showed up! The town council had it's usual enormous agenda but it was amazing how we whipped through it with the majority of the hot air producers being absent!

I thought I would try to keep residents up to date with the major events at the Town Council (PTC) because virtually no members of the press or public ever attend. Last night we had to exclude the press and public to discuss a confidential issue but it was OK as there wasn't anyone there!

So what did we agree to do last night? Well we agreed to start the process of a major upgrade at the cemetery buildings at the old cemetery in Prudhoe and we agreed to move into the new Spetchells centre, where the officers of the council and all the meetings will be based from March, an improvement on the current premises, Waterworlds creche (although I have always felt it's a fitting location!). What did we learn? That the Town council has about £20,000 in unallocated balances and it is likely to underspend by about £40,000 on a budget of £244,000 by the end of March, which should hopefully reduce the increase in council tax next year. We also learnt that the County Council has agreed to the campaign by me and Cllr Bill Garrett to count the South Road toilets as a "strategic" asset, which means that the £10k annual maintenance charge will be borne by the County Council rather than just Prudhoe tax payers.

That's about it! The council usually meets once every two months but is meeting twice in January, one of which is to look at its budget for next year.

pt 3 - we need the credit companies to pay for the cost of their irresponsibility

2011-12-21T13:41:00.000Z

I've run a few articles on the website about the increasingly immoral cost of banking and the rise of unscrupulous pay day loan shops. The other thing that needs to be done over and above the recent changes to mortgage eligibility and the implementation of the Vickers report is to make banks and other credit companies pay for the cost of the advice that is needed to sort out peoples problems caused by them.

First of all, a declaration. As a CAB manager, I manage a team of dedicated debt advisers who help hundreds of people manage their debt problems every year. They are currently funded by a government programme known as the Face to Face debt programme. It costs the government £27m a year to run. The government also pays a substantial sum every year to lawyers and debt counselling charities through legal aid for debt advice. Now there is no doubt in my mind that this work is essential. The social costs of not helping these people far exceeds the costs the government puts in. But why should the taxpayer pay to help people get out of a mess caused by people being given credit they usually can't afford?

If you have a complaint about a bank, you go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). If you do that the bank you are complaining about has to pay a fixed fee to the FOS to sort your complaint out. Instead of making the taxpayer pay for independent debt advice, why are we not asking the banks to pay a levy instead?

In February the Treasury said that "The Government intends to put the provision of debt advice onto a more sustainable footing. We want to see a flexible and cost effective response to debt problems, so that people can be helped in a way that works for them. The Coalition Agreement pledged that the Government would take action to help people to manage their own debts. It has been looking for new ways to encourage debtors to seek this support in its call for evidence on consumer credit and insolvency." Since then there has been silence. A levy on the banks would be a sustainable footing as it would stop charities such as mine going to the government with a begging bowl every year.

pt 2 - we need to stop exploitation of people through pay day loans

2011-12-20T13:38:00.003Z

Over the past few years, as the banks restrict personal credit, we have seen the massive expansion of payday loans. I noticed in a recent planning submission that the Money Shop (representative APR - 219.1%) is planning to open more than 200 stores over and above its existing 407 stores. As budgets get tighter and the banks more uncaring, the poverty market is increasingly been met by expensive providers. Many of our town centres are being filled up with pay day loan shops, cash for gold outlets, pawn shops and expensive monthly payment stores. They all aggressively market themselves on TV and through sports like Football (middlesborough and Blackpool FC are sponsored by Ramsdens for Cash and Wonga.com respectively). Personally, I think the very easy availability of these shops is dragging our high street down as well as putting temptation in the way of the most vulnerable in society.

I would consider making expensive credit shops a separate planning category aside from the A2 category so we could set limits for the number of these establishments in our town centres. At the moment they are categorised like a bank in planning terms, which makes them hard to restrict. I would also ban advertising for such products. The current industry seems very lightly regulated and many adverts running seem to encourage payday loans as a no bother pain free experience. Many people I see at the CAB have been given unsuitable and unaffordable loans and are then allowed multiple rollovers. Many are then aggressively pursued by debt collectors.

I accept that from time to time people might need emergency cash and that,, in those circumstances, a payday loan may be not so bad. I would suggest that we restrict the number of times people can get emergency cash in this way to 5 times a year. After that they would need to seek independent debt advice and counselling before they can take more out.

Banking reforms should only be the start - pt 1

2011-12-19T13:37:00.001Z

There has been welcome news over the weekend on Banking reforms. Firstly Vince Cable confirmed that the Vickers report would be implemented in full. This is great news as it stops, to a large extent, the future prospects of our country being held to ransom by casino banks. Also welcome are the proposed restrictions on mortgage lending - to stop people being lent money they can't afford.

But for people at the moment we have a real problem, with banks squeezing every last penny from consumers while they restrict their credit lines. Despite all the talk of banks being more understanding, they are continuing to charge massive charges for people going overdrawn (the news of a Santander APR of 819,000% being one of the more startling). Now we see state owned banks RBS/NatWest and Lloyds restricting access to cash from basic bank accounts to their own ATMs. This has massive implications in more rural areas where there is often just one (if that) ATM with a very expensive and irregular bus ride to the nearest next one. We then saw Barclays triple the charge for a missed Direct Debit to £24 on basic bank accounts, which are held by the people most likely to be in trouble and who would find it hardest to recover from the impact of these charges.

Banks argue that if they don't put these charges in they will have to charge for accounts. Of course this is rubbish. They could forgo profits to be socially responsible. It seems that the only way to get them to do this is to legislate on maximum charges and to stop them restricting ATM usage. I'm always reluctant to urge legislation but when banks refuse to change it is needed. In the meantime, we should be instructing state owned banks to at least not do these things.

De Nada, Nowt, Zero

2011-12-15T07:30:00.000Z

Nowt added to council tax from t' county!

Whichever way you say it that is the council tax rise passed for hard pressed council tax payer’s at the county council level. I was listening to some people at the bus station the other day who seemed to think the county were pushing up their bills. I had to jump in and correct them! Northumberland Lib Dems have made history by not increasing the Council Tax this year. Despite having to make large cuts to balance the budget, I completely endorsed the approach. I have always opposed Council Tax as an unfair tax. It hits people on the bottom end of the income scale, such as pensioners and young families, hardest. Everyone is having a hard time of it at the moment and this is a very fair decision.

At the last local elections, I pledged not to vote for increases in council tax above inflation, which they have honoured. Although inflation in September (the level at which council tax is judged against) was 5.2% I hope we can freeze the Council tax at the county level again. The bad news is that the Town Council will likely push up the small element of the precept they control, as they are taking on new responsibilities. I hope however that they don't increase the already substantial administration budget, which is well over 20% of the Town councils costs.

Investing in libraries and social care

2011-12-14T23:58:00.000Z

Me with the brilliant Gordon Flugell, our first client!

I was really pleased to go to Halwhistle to the launch of one of our five pilot Social Care and Information points across the county. The five are in Haltwhistle, Cramlington, Morpeth, Amble and Berwick.

In Haltwhistle it is in the library. Since taking over as portfolio holder with responsibility for libraries in May, I've been very keen to push the concept that libraries should become more and more the hub of the communities and we should use our considerable network of libraries to let residents access a wide range of council services. It is part of making the library service resilient and strong despite changes in peoples needs. It's a lot better than the knee jerk closure of libraries by some local authorities. A few years ago the council took the painful decision to close council run day care centres, which were out of date and expensive. We were able to save money and give a much expanded range of options to residents.

The new (ish) personal budgets give residents a much wider choice of options but sometimes vulnerable people need help using them. That's why we have worked with Northumbria Foundation Trust to employ a network of support planners to help people. It was a pleasure to talk to the support planner for the West of Northumberland, Kay Williams. I last spoke to her when she worked at the old council run day care centre in Prudhoe, Oaklands. So it was great to see she has got employment helping people use the new system. She is available to residents from Ponteland to the Cumbrian border. If people want to use a support planner ring 01670 536 400 for help.

Gordon, the first person to drop in, had suffered from a number of strokes and now he needs a bit of support. He uses his personal budget to go to a regular day club. He really appreciates the face to face contact as opposed to using the phone to get help.

Kay will be in Haltwhistle library on Monday and Thursdays for people to drop in but Pat and the other librarians are trained to know the basics to help residents and there is information on other support informations such as Carers Northumberland and the CAB. We will be seeing if this helps get people involved after 6 months of running it and if it does we will look to roll it out to other centres.

Affordible housing in Prudhoe - any ideas?

2011-12-14T08:30:00.000Z

I've spoken before about the need for more houses in Prudhoe for people on the housing list to be able to rent at affordable levels. The situation is far, far worse in Prudhoe West (my ward) where a lot of the houses have Most of the houses in the main sites in the town are spoken for and we have reached the edge of the greenbelt, so what to do? Well maybe get empty homes into action. No dice. As I discovered at the area committee last night, Prudhoe West has the second lowest levels of empty homes in the county (5 on the 11th - for a full table see agenda item 8 here http://committees.northumberland.gov.uk/aksnorthumberland/users/public/admin/kab14.pl?operation=SUBMIT&meet=37&cmte=ACW&grpid=public&arc=71)

I have stated that there are an additional few properties where development has stalled but I would be interested in peoples ideas where we could build more homes or where there are existing sites. I have suggested that the waste ground at the foot of Castlefields, near the industrial estate in Low Prudhoe to be investigated. Not a perfect site but I am really scratching my head here! I genuinely would like to hear local peoples ideas on how we can develop more affordable homes.

Time to stand up and be counted on Europe

2011-12-13T10:46:00.002Z

Not a real photo! Credit to Jason Hunter for this though.

The coalition government has always had areas of general agreement between the three parties in it (yes three – The Liberal Democrats, moderate Conservatives and the 81-100 “Tea Party” conservative MPs). Many commentators up to now have commented how well all three seemed to be getting along on matters concerning the EU, considering the massive divide between the majority in my party who want to be fully involved in the European Union, fighting for structures which suit the UK needs and reversing the democratic deficit built up by member state governments, and the Tea Party Tory MPs who will not stop till Britain leaves the EU and becomes a welfare free free trade island with links to the USA.

Indeed it is quite surprising how we all rubbed along. The problem is that whilst Liberal Democrats are consensual politicians to their core, always willing to negotiate and be reasonable, the Tea Party Tories are fundamentalists, who believe in an isolated Little England (and it is England, there are virtually none of them from Scotland or Wales). They are not serious negotiators.

As a member of the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG), the internal organisation that works for stronger links between the Liberal Democrats and our European Liberal sister parties, I am a strong believer in the ideals of the European Union and believe that our interests are best served by being at the negotiating table and that there are areas ( for example the economy, the Environment, management of the seas, worldwide free trade, foreign aid, foreign policy, immigration and policing) where Britians interests are served best by co-operating.

So it was in a somewhat depressed mood that I trudged down to London yesterday for a meeting of LDEGs executive committee. We welcomed two of Nick Cleggs special advisors (or SPADs) to the meeting where they set out their impressions of the negotiations in the build up to the UK summit and the aftermath.

It is clear that very few in the cabinet, let alone MPs and MEPs, were involved in negotiations. They were kept fairly tight, as it would be folly to let other governments know your position before you want to let it be known. Initially, Cameron wanted to go into negotiations arguing for a substantial repatriation of powers, including all Working Time Directive issues. Lib Dems generally agree that there is a case for the repatriation of some of these powers but, unlike the Tories, we would not see this as an excuse to abolish laws limiting the amount employers can exploit their workers.

So Clegg successfully argued against this stance, on the grounds that there was no point at all in going to a summit that was about the survival of the Euro talking about a totally different issue. That would have just resulted in mockery from our EU partners and an inevitable walk out by the PM.

The seven concessions asked for by the UK government were backed by Nick Clegg. They are relatively minor and many are being negotiated by our excellent MEP Sharon Bowles, who is chair in the European Parliament of the Economic and Finance committee (incidentally the fall out from the summit makes it increasingly unlikely that a British MEP will be taken seriously as a candidate for the chair of such a body in the future, a very sad fact). But it was acknowledged that he needed a “fig leaf” to show his Tea Party backbenchers. It was also agreed that we were unlikely to get all 7 concessions and they were the start of bargaining, not “red lines”.

Nick Clegg did a lot of lobbying with EU leaders to get the UK position agreed. He is personally liked by EU leaders, probably due to his mutilingualism and his experience of EU institutions from being an MEP and EU trade negotiator. Nick even flew to Spain to lobby the new Spanish prime minister. It was felt that Merkel was sympathetic but that Sarkozy, who has a presidential election to fight soon and always enjoys a bit of Anglais bashing, wasn't.

Any other UK Prime Minister of the past 40 years, including Thatcher, would have been able to get a deal. Cameron's isolation in Europe (the Conservatives pulled out of the pan European Conservativee grouping a few years ago so didn't go to the pre meeting of centre right leaders where a “Line” of negotiation was agreed between the majority of Europes leaders) added to an incompetent negotiating stance (he effectively walked out rather than stretch out negotiations) meant that the UK was left isolated. The non Euro countries, who we could have expected to have found common cause with, were so appalled by the UKs stance that they were more likely to throw their lot in with the Euro 17, in an attempt not to be seen to be destructive like the UK.

All this resulted in Britain not being at the table for future negotiations, a disastrous position meaning we will no longer be involved in shaping many elements of the EUs financial issues. This is really bad for UK business, both the City and UK manufacturing. This has been backed up by near unanimous condemnation of Cameron from the Chambers of Commerce, the City and the CBI.

The view of LDEG (and I am fairly sure of the DPM as well) is that Cameron intentionally broke the spirit of the compromise before the summit and went to Brussels less than keen to get a deal. He put the interests of his party ahead of the country. That is really disappointing. The Liberal Democrats have time and time again put their short term popularity with the public on the line for the sake of the national interest.

We did not want to compromise on tuition fees or but recognised the need for give and take to achieve a government acting in the national interest, getting deficit reduction. We recognise that government is about doing what's right rather than what pleases your party. By walking away when a deal could have been secured, Cameron has let the Liberal Democrats down and much more importantly the country down.

LDEG is now determined to make the case for the Liberal Democrats to continue to be a party that supports staying in the EU and staying at the negotiating table. I want to make the case to the British people, who have been drip fed a diet of jingistic anti European nonsense by the press for 30 years.

I am sick of hearing our national dialogue with Europe being framed in language reminiscent of WW2 (“bulldog spirit”, “unlike the rest of Europe we're not afraid of Germany”). The rest of Europe has moved on. Germany has built up a successful competitive manufacturing based economy whilst the UK has given up its status as a leader in making products to become a retail and services based economy. During those years, productivity has dropped whilst governments have just made us work harder to make up the difference.

The North East, my home for all my adult life, is the only region with a net positive balance of trade with the EU – i.e. it exports more than it imports. Whilst marginalisation may be more acceptable to regions where financial services dominate, it is essential for people in the North East that our links with Europe endure.

I am proud of Nick Clegg for speaking out on Europe (apparently Clegg and Cameron had their first stand up row about this matter) and for saying what's right. It must be made clear that displeasing the Liberal Democrats in the coalition on Europe carries as high a political price as annoying the wing nuts in his own party for Cameron.

The Liberal Democrats have always campaigned for what we think is right, not what the polls say is popular at the moment. By carving out a clear pro-growth, pro-trade position that argues for involvement with the EU, I believe we will be respected for speaking out.

If you're a Lib Dem member, you will get a lot out of joining LDEG. Here is their website http://ldeg.org/en/

Hammer Blow

2011-12-13T07:30:00.001Z

Me at the Hammerite gates

There was widespread disappointment in the town of Prudhoe as AkzoNobel, the owners
of the historic Hammerite brand, announced they were planning to close plants in Prudhoe and Slough and re-site work at a new plant in Ashington.

Although the news is better than if production had been moved overseas or down south, I'm concerned that the 96 workers at the Prudhoe plant are treated fairly and given the option to still work at the Ashington plant or be given good severance terms and retraining.

I've called for a special meeting of the County’s west area committee to call AkzoNobel management to account and to see what is being done. I am disappointed that the firm couldn’t or wouldn’t consider staying in the Prudhoe area, but the fight is now on to ensure workers are treated well when the
move happens.

In addition, I'm keen to discuss the future of the site, which is in the middle of greenbelt land near the hamlet of Eltringham and may well have residual pollution issues.

Are you or a family member a worker at the Hammerite Plant? Get in touch on Prudhoe 832933 if we
can help.

Torch triumph

2011-12-12T00:35:00.001Z

Me with the invite to Prudhoe from Lord Coe

There has been a positive reaction in Prudhoe to news that the Olympic torch will be making a detour in between its trip from Newcasle to Durham next year and will be coming through Tynedale on Saturday 16th 2012.

The news came after a campaign from me and officers at the council to ensure people in Prudhoe and the west of the county have a chance to see the torch. The original route planned by the London committee meant the torch would only travel down the east coast of Northumberland. There was considerable concern in the town that we would miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity. As the portfolio holder for culture on the council I was in the perfect position to lobby the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to tweak the route. I am really pleased to say that they have listened. The torch will be coming through on a Saturday so there will be plenty of opportunities for residents to see the torch first hand.

The torch relay is going round the UK and will be accompanied by a convoy of vehicles from LOCOG,
sponsors and the Metropolitan Police. Nominations have closed for people to run with the torch and I hope that a local person will be selected to run the distance in Prudhoe. In Northumberland, we have managed to get the torch for much more time than anywhere else in the North East. The County Council is now working with the Town Council, who hopefully will arrange a warm reception for the torch. We are aiming for a celebration of sport, with lots of activities for young people and to bring back some old local sporting traditions, such as the Miners’ run, which saw people running to Hedley and back. Anyone wanting to get involved in the celebrations can email me at neil.bradbury at northumberland.gov.uk

Poetry to my ears - Milton Grove to get a resurface

2011-12-11T09:00:00.000Z

I'm overjoyed to see plans to resurface Milton Grove in Prudhoe – for the first time since the concrete road was built in 1940! Although the road surface is still structurally OK it is very noisy and is full of holes and bumps. There has been an urgent need for work for years.

Since getting elected to the County Council, I've been pressing for work and resurfacing is due to begin soon. In addition, the County will try to replace the pavements, which in some places have sunk substantially.

Car Park Charges Campaign

2011-12-10T11:30:00.000Z

Me and campaigner Tom Appleby at the ticket machine at the Wylam car park: time for them to be scrapped

Just a quick note to say I've launched a campaign with Wylam Parish Council and my fellow Lib Dem campaigner Tom Appleby to make the two country park car parks in Low Prudhoe and Wylam free
to local residents. On both sites the charges are leading to people parking on neighbouring areas causing
disruption and not raising as much money as envisaged when the previous Labour administration imposed the charges. I hope there will be an epetition site up soon.

Not what you know

2011-12-09T12:29:00.008Z

Any student of economic statistics recently would have to be very positive to spot encouraging trends. The best we can say is that perhaps we have passed the bottom of the slump. Vince Cables speech at Lib Dem conference this autumn set the scene - responsible but very serious.

Many people are saying that young people today may be the first generation in centuries where they are worse off than their parents. Of course in many northern towns, the neglect of traditional industries by successive governments has meant that for working class families that has been the case since the 1930s for many families.

The problem is that the chances of a meritocratic society, where everyone gets what their skills and work ethic entitle them to, existing are becoming slimmer with every year. Increasingly, what your parents earn is the guide to your likely success. As social mobility shrinks, the ability for people to make the most of their potential goes down. The increasingly Victorian (in economic terms at least) nature of our economy is reflected in the growing gap between the haves and the have nots. The OECD recently published a report on economic inequality in Britain (you can see a summary here).

Its conclusions are that inequality started to increase rapidly from 2005 at the peak of the last economic boon (interestingly, youth unemployment started to rise). Yes that's right, it rose when the Labour government were spending like crazy on public services, so one does have to question how redistributive that spending was.

We are one of the most unequal western societies (after the USA, Portugal, Chile and Israel!). That is not good for society but it is not good for growth either as research shows poorer people spend the vast majority of extra income in the local economy and as people get richer they increasingly salt income away in savings.

So income inequality is a bad thing above a certain level. We are definitely above that. So why has this increase happened? The OECD report blames reduction in redistributive taxes for the rich, a move to more people being self employed and less benefits for poor people. It states that public services have become better at targeting disadvantage however. Most worrying for me is the conclusion that:

More people are marrying within the same earnings class. Unlike many other countries, the earnings gap between wives of rich and poor husbands has grown strongly: this gap was about GBP 3,900 in 1987, but increased to GBP 10,200 in 2004.

I think this is really sad. What it is saying is that Britain is becoming a more class bound country. How horrible. The natural conclusion is the emergence of an underclass of "untouchables" where it doesn't matter if you are bright and hard working you will never be allowed to move on up the ladder. We shouldn't let the occasional exception (such as self styled barrow boy Lord Sugar) blind us to this reality.

So what is the solution? Well I broadly agree with the OECD report but I would say we need:

-To expand sectors of the economy which offer a skilled well paid jobs base for people from a working and middle class background. Bluntly we need to prioritise manufacturing at the expense of the sectors of the economy the government has worshipped, financial services and retail.
- We must get away from a culture of rampant consumerism, where you are seen to be more successful if you have more stuff. I see people every day who have got into massive debt funding a lifestyle that society says they need to have but in reality they can't afford.
-We need to give young people practical skills that give industries what they need. Frankly that doesn't mean sending millions more teenagers to average universities to do media studies degrees. It means investing in vocational training
-We need to encourage people to work and reduce the benefits trap. The Lib Dem policy of raising the basic threshold is a start, it is a disgrace that on the minimum wage you still pay income tax at all
- We need to tax undeserved wealth. Vince Cables mansion tax was a rough and ready stab at that but land value tax and other taxes that tax money that you gain from, for example, the increase in value of land due to the council building a new access road must be looked at.
- Everyone must have access to cheap and accessible public services.

Not hard is it? Well it must be because since the 70s Britain has been going backwards. If we don't give everyone a fair chance in life then we will definitely go backwards as a country in terms of GDP, but more importantly in terms of decency.

Pick up your dogs Poop or Pay up!

2011-12-09T12:29:00.007Z

Following a rash of complaints about the amount of Dog mess around Prudhoe, I've been asking people on Twitter (@bradburysworld) to identify problem areas. Some of the areas where there are problems are where children regularly walk and play. It is beyond belief that people
don’t pick up their dog’s waste.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the Dog Poo Fairy!

More stickers warning people to scoop their dogs’ poop have been placed around the town and a council “hit squad” has been dispatched to clean up the areas identified.

The Council has also pledged to monitor two problem areas so if people are seen not bagging up their dog’s faeces, they will be prosecuted and taken to court. If you are not scooping up your dog waste, then be warned. You can put it in any council rubbish bin so there is no excuse. If you see any problem areas, please get in touch with me.

Come and shop in Northumberland at Christmas

2011-12-08T23:22:00.000Z

Parking will be free at certain times of the day

Parking in Hexham, Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick council car parks will be free all day on Sunday 18 December and free between 9 and 11am and 3 and 5pm from Monday 19 to Christmas Eve. This is all part of the councils attempt to help local shops and to encourage people to come and do their last bit of Christmas shopping. Car parks will be clearly marked with the temporary changes.

Of course parking in Prudhoe town centre (and Ponteland) is already free at all times and I have fought hard to keep it that way so you can take your time even more in Prudhoe!

This is a foretaste of the shoppers permit that all residents will be able to apply for next year, which will offer all residents a free permit to park for free between 9-11 and 3-5 in all our main towns that charge for parking. This scheme has worked well in Morpeth and encourages people to shop when the car parks and shops are a bit quieter. It also means that spaces are not clogged up with shop workers parking all day for free stopping customers get a space.

Winter preparations update

2011-12-08T12:00:00.000Z

After two extreme winters, I've been working hard to ensure that the County Council improves its response this year.

Grit Bins have all been given unique numbers and the phone number to get them filled up has been put on the bins. New grit bins have been placed in the ward and new concrete bases have been put in place where grit bins were on unstable ground, which caused them to tip over. Contracts with local farmers to
grit estate roads that gritters find it hard to reach have been issued.

In addition, the county has 40,000 tonnes of grit in storage and has spent £2.14m on grit for the winter. Previously secret priority routes are now being published online so people can understand the Council’s grit routes. In a town like Prudhoe, I can’t say that we won’t have some issues if we have snow but I genuinely believe we have the best preparations at the Council since I have been involved.

As always, if residents have suggestions, please call me on Prudhoe 832933

Unaffordable affordable housing: A messed up world

2011-12-08T00:15:00.001Z

Madness - the £189k unaffordable affordable house

It was a lively meeting of Northumberland County Council today. The highlight was the slightly surreal moment of the Tories proposing a motion urging ring fencing second home council tax money for affordible homes and the Lib Dems, Independent and Labour groups uniting to oppose it! The Lib Dems and Independents opposed it because it would have inadvertanly reduced the amount the council spends on affordible homes, Labour because they vote against anything the "party of Thatcher" put forward even if it makes sense.

But it did lead to a debate about affordable homes. The Tory group, which is incidentally made up of a large number of very wealthy landowners, think we just need to raise the amount we spend on buying sites, presumably off very wealthy landowners. Labour have no solutions. Cllr Andrew Tebbutt for the Lib Dems pointed out that there are more than a 1,000 affordable homes with planning permission that are not being built and we have land banks across the county we could give to proactive developers. I was really pleased to hear from Cllr Tom Brechany that the counties "lend a hand" scheme, where we guarantee mortgages to new home buyers who can't get a mortgage, had given its first mortgage.

In my own little way, I contributed to the debate because in my home town of Prudhoe we have an example of everything is wrong with affordable housing. In the town we have only three sites where significant amounts of new housing can be built without encroaching on greenbelt land. There was only one in "public" hands where there is the most chance of a development. That is at the former Prudhoe Hospital site. Back in the distant past of the Blair government in 2004, deputy prime minister John Prescott said that he would be making all NHS sites be turned into social housing sites for key workers (I'm not dreaming this, see the article on the BBC website here - it names Prudhoe). Great news, as Prudhoe urgently needs more social housing with a massive waiting list for affordable homes.

Of course it was total rubbish. NHS estates sold the site to the highest bidder, as it needed money for the new hospital building (of course that's not true, they had full funding for it). They sold it to Gentoo homes, a profit making division of the Gentoo group which has its origins in Sunderland's council housing stock. They put in an application with 40% affordable homes, the minimum allowed in Tynedales plan for new homes. I wasn't as happy as when Mr Prescott pushed the 100% idea. But at least a developer with a strong commitment to social housing was developing the site and we would get 40% of the homes for the people who need them.

But of course Gentoo don't give a monkeys about people in Prudhoes needs, they just want to make as much money as possible to ship back to Wearside. They slapped in a change to the affordable level to 22%, using a tool called the "economic viability test". Across the county, developers are now using this tool to make a methodology to push the idea that in the recession they can't build any homes unless we reduce the number of affordable homes. The councils planning department appears to not have any discretion and has to listen to these arguments. It drives a coach and horses through then planning system, which tries to ensure that homes are built which are needed rather than what makes developers the most money.

The homes in the "Humbles Wood" development have gone on sale, with house prices going up to £360,000. Within a week a majority of them have been snapped up, off plan, without a brick being laid. So much for there being no market or profit in this development! Scandalously all the affordable homes are not what I would call affordable. Firstly they are for sale not for rent. The disadvantaged people who need my help as a councillor are nowhere being in a position to buy. When you are a victim of domestic violence, for example, you and your children need a place of safety to rent. And as for them being affordable, these so called affordable homes are from £108,500 to a staggering £189,000. And then you only own 70% of the property! The median wage in this country is £25,000 (much lower in Prudhoe). To buy even the cheapest affordable home here you need to earn considerably more than that. You can buy houses in Prudhoe for a lot less and you get 100% of the house to yourself.

So a public body has ignored its responsibility to the people in the community it serves to give them affordable homes, a public housing association has manipulated the planning rules to reduce its obligations to the minimum and has then completely taken the Michael in terms of what it defines as affordable Until councils can crack down on this madness, I fear the idea of us getting homes for local people that they can afford is a pipe dream. I will be working hard to get Northumberland council to be a leading body trying to sort this out.

Lib Dems invest record amounts in Libraries and Leisure in Ashington - we need your views

2011-12-06T11:55:00.002Z

The Grove centre in Belfast - Ashington deserves a high quality facility

I'm really pleased to share that the councils £20m investment in Library and Leisure facilities in Ashington has moved on to the consulation stage. If you use or might use a new centre, we want your views. I am keen to hear from people who have stopped using existing facilities and use other centres or people who would like to use them if they suited their needs more.

After 30+ years of neglect of libarary and leisure facilities in the former Wansbeck district by Labour, I think local politicians don't believe the council is "for real" on this project. They worry it is too ambitious and that we won't be able to build on a town centre site, our preferred option. Well I am ambitious and so I should be with £20m to spend. I want a centre that helps increase participation in reading, and healthy living and gets more people to get the services from their County Council. I want this centre to be something that draws people into the town centre, which needs all the help it can get in these difficult times. I want the Ashington facility to be a national exemplar. The question from people shouldn't be "it can't be done, can it?" but instead "why hasn't it been done before?"

Across Northumberland we have great facilities, with the exception of the former Wansbeck district. I am not a "local" so I can't say why the District Council didn't apply for the many grants from the lottery that were on the table in the early 2000s for leisure centres. All the other district councils in Northumberland did and did so sucessfully. So I'm not going to take any lectures from local Labour politicians who did nothing to help their local people on this front for years.

As portfolio holder for culture, I am responsible for giving everyone in the county the responsibility to access good quality services from their council. We hope to be on site next summer so its vital you tell us what you want in a new centre and if you are happy with our vision. We will be consulting ext year again with more details.

Please go to http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=11437#how and give us your views.

New website to promote Northumberland

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000Z

I was pleased to be interviewed the other day for the new website promoting the county, www.thisisnorthumberland.com . Its a combination of tips for residents and a guide for tourists. I recommend you have a look. The interview with yours truly is at http://t.co/H1w9pvOW

Stormy times for Northumberland Tories

2011-12-05T23:55:00.001Z

The Conservative group on Northumberland County Council is experiencing a bit of turbulance of late. In particular their leader, wealthy landowner Cllr Peter Jackson, is facing a lot of criticism from local residents. An application for a controversial wind farm has come through to the council on land that is owned by Cllr Jackson. On 2nd November, Cllr Jackson curiously was reported in the Journal as saying that he knew nothing of the application and that he had no connections to the company applying, Ponteland Green Energy. He said that "I do not want to be seen to be for or against, I want the planning process to take its course and not influence it one way or the other" - very odd considering that if he didnt favour it, one cannot imagine the applicant even bothering to put in an application for it.

Ponteland Green Energy is a very odd company. It was founded as a company on the 11th July 2011, although the details weren't filed at companies house till October. It is a shell company, with one director and shareholder - Louis Fell. He is a surveyor at George F White, who submitted the application. He is also the son of one of the two managing partners of George F White, Hugh Fell. He is the director of 2 family companies as well as the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth and is on the board of Alnwick Sporting Club. The company is registered at the offices of Greaves, West and Ayre (accountants) in Berwick, who coincidentally audit the accounts for the Berwick Conservative party at no cost. Ponteland Green Energy is clearly a shell company set up purely for the purposes of this application. If additional directors have been taken on (its very unlikely to continue for long with only one director) it wont show up for a while.

One thing is for sure. As the land owner, Cllr Jackson will be set to profit massively from a successful development, either by being made a shareholder in Ponteland Green Energy or by being given a share of the profits.

Cllr Jackson was forced to admit in the Journal on 12th November that “it is true that I was contacted by George F White about the possibility of a planning application, ahead of it being submitted However, I was not aware of the details or timescale of the planning procedures, which is what I meant to express previously, albeit imperfectly. I accept that I might have been clearer on this point.”

The application is opposed by the local Town Council (controlled by the Tories), lots of local protestors and civic groups in the town. Many of the protestors have called in the journal on the 1^st December and yesterday for Cllr Jackson to resign as a councilor. They feel he has been dishonest on a very important application in his area. The application is recommended for approval by planning officers and it will be interesting to see if the Conservative councillors on the committee declare an interest by being friends with the land owner. If not then it's clear he's not friends with them, if they do then there may not be many members left on the West area planning committee!

I do think the case shows the difficulties for the Conservatives in Northumberland. A lot of the senior councllors are big landowners and, whilst some senior conservatives like Cllr John Riddle and the Duke are implacably opposed to wind farms others are attracted to the lure of making big money from wind farm applications. There is a lot of tension about this. A motion that was put to council by Conservative deputy leader Glenn Snaderson about wind farms that was broadly critical was withdrawn just before the council at the last meeting at full council and a number of other anti wind farm campaigners on the tory benches have recently become becalmed.

At the same time, the Conservatives have selected their candidates for the local elections in 2013. I am told that a number of high profile councillors have been deselected, causing a lot of of noses to be put out of joint. It wouldn't surprise me if the top Tories on the council lose some of their breezy disposition over the next few months.

What would Dorothy do about Education?

2011-08-30T23:54:00.002+01:00

I absolutely love Yes Minister and I adore Yes Prime Minister. Like many people before me from Mrs T on, I chuckle at how the cynical officers manipulate the clueless politicians, no doubt before going to County Hall to be told how my ideas aren't practical by the officers!

But the character who always impresses is the person who the Chief Civil Servant in the series (Sir Humphrey Appleby) refers to as “the enemy” or “that Wainwright woman” (not to forget “dear lady” when they are in the same room!). Dorothy Wainwright, the prime ministers political advisor.

Dorothy is always portrayed as having really sensible but radical ideas that are always thwarted by the self serving civil service. I've just watched the episode “the National Education Service” in which Dorothy proposes abolishing the department for Education and just paying schools per pupil directly from the treasury (administered by local authorities) with only a central inspectorate. All schools would have to take as many children as want to go to a school and if they get too popular they can take over other schools buildings.

Although Sir Humphrey is prepared to settle for no change, he would prefer to centralise and to put all power to the national government abolishing LEAs and, if possible removing parental choice. After all “parents are not qualified to decide what is best for their childrens education”. He feels that this will keep the teachers unions happy, and that is what the comprehensive system is designed for.

I always think a lot of the issues in the Yes Minister series haven't dated much. Today we have a constant direction of all governments from Major onwards to favour Academies free of central control. Now we have “free schools” which are the next step.

So is this Sir Humpreys vision or Dorothy Wainwrights? The question almost no one asks is “what would Dorothy Wainwright do?”

Well in some ways she would approve. Academies (lets not look at Free Schools – they are a tiny number and we have no idea how they will work) are supposedly free of control. But of course they (unsurprisingly) look a lot more like Sir Humphreys vision. Central Government has removed them from the overview of local people through their local authorities. They are still controlled from the centre and because there is usually only one per area in the north, they tend to put the power of choice firmly into the schools hands not the pupils. Selection through the back door, through exclusions and expensive school uniforms means they are often the preserve of the pushy parent.

So I think the current arrangement is a centralising one. It is ever thus from Whitehall. The funny thing is how successive secretaries of state fall for it.

I quite like Dorothys idea. Parents should be able to select their school, regardless of its popularity. That may cause planning difficulties for schools but we have coped with worse. Schools could do with being freed from the tyranny of the national curriculum and just being judged on meeting a minimum standard. They would then become like small businesses. Why shouldn't children from County Durham go to schools in Gateshead or Northumberland if they live nearby (something the Durham LEA is keen to cut off by removing school transport subsidies)? Who are the better judges of education, the experts or the parents?

There would have to be some regulation in the real world. In more rural areas, there is little choice and if a school fails in such areas something would need to be done. But I'm not sure that Wainwright woman isn't on to something. If nothing else it would save a lot of money in DfE bureaucrats and their colleagues in LEAs. Would it lead to much worse educational standards?

Seahouses community is a big society without needing the name

2011-07-21T00:21:00.000+01:00

I was invited by the excellent County Councillor for Bamburgh, Pat Scott, to talk with the Parish Council and the development trust about moving the library into the youth and sports centre in Seahouses. I am was keen to do this, partly because I was asked but also because the Seahouses library is in a bad condition and is beyond economic repair.

I turned up to only be able to find a space in the overflow car park and to find it was a public meeting with about 50 people present. It was a great event. There was so much passion for a great library service but also a lot of questions about how putting a library in would affect other services. The level of involvement is great. The development trust needs to raise £100,000 to fit out the new building. Some residents even suggested that everyone put £50 in. Buildings used to be built by public subscription, which is interesting. A great event and people really got the Lib Dem executives determination not just to preserve libraries but to provide a joined up service from these buildings so residents can access a large range of council services in their community. Pats tray bakes were particularly yummy and very welcome before I went back to Prudhoe!

PFI a lesson in Public Sector naivety

2011-07-20T00:54:00.001+01:00

I am pleased to read on the BBC website that the government has run a pilot looking at saving money on PFI contracts and found that, surprise surprise, substantial savings can be made on existing PFI contracts. Pilots in the MoD (which is ironic considering the waste I refer to in my previous post) and at Hatfield Hospital could result in 5% savings on existing contracts. Considering the cost pressures in the NHS, that could play a major factor in helping it meet its efficiency targets.

No one can fail to be impressed by the new PFI constructed facilities, whether that be the new "tip" (sorry refuse centre) in Prudhoe to Hexham hospital or the school buildings in places like Birtley in Gateshead. I am not opposed to using private finance but PFI has been a disaster. Simply, the public sector has not employed contract specialists of the calibre of the people on the other size of the table. I remember, in my previous life as a civil servant, being involved in attempts to hire a PFI contracts negotiator for a major schools project. Adverts were placed for the post at high wages with no success. Simply, the lawyers we wanted were being paid more than the public sector chief executives pay. A wise move, as the private sector is making billions of pounds from PFI.

The current government seemed to have learnt little from the Labour governments failure on PFI. It has pressed on with countless PFI projects. If a public sector funded project is better value but that increases the public sector borrowing requirement, then so be it.

I hope this initiative of the government will signal much better value on PFI and a taming of existing contracts. We could save billions of pounds if we take this seriously.

Don't Panic! TA increase will not create Dads Army

2011-07-18T21:19:00.001+01:00

During the general election, I had the pleasure of visiting one of the HQs of our local TA (http://neilbradbury.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-are-scottish-not-scots.html) to speak with the Tyneside Scottish Association. It was clear that despite the obvious benefits of having a strong TA in keeping our defence costs down and in bringing valuable experience into the Army, they felt demoralised and that the TA was suffering from chronic under-investment.

The decisions of the last government to reduce TA payments as a desperate way to reduce the army bill seemed like a very counter intuitive piece of public policy. All the time this was being done, the MoD was racking up mega bills signing massive aircraft carrier contracts for kit we didn't need, conveniently built in Gordon Browns back yard.

So I really welcomed the announcement by Liam Fox that the government is going to spend an extra £1.5bn on the TA and fund this by reducing our regular troop commitment. The TA represents tremendous value but, somewhat like retained fire fighters, is undervalued. A journalist on a 24 hour TV news broadcast I watched talked about the TA as a "dad's army" which just shows how out of touch the media are.

The governments move to legislate the military covenant into law, to strengthen the TA and to get the military the right kit (which a select committee has agreed that the last government did not do whilst sending our troops into Helmand) are implementing Lib Dem manifesto commitments and are to be welcomed.

Personally, I think our armed forces should be moved to a smaller core of well paid (current military pay is too low at private level) professional soldiers, able to help out with humanitarian problems, allied to a strong TA to help with larger commitments. We spend 2.4% of our GDP (Source: CIA factbook) on military spending, including £3.6bn on overseas military aid. I would like to see that go down and for us to stop our penchant for overseas adventures, which have seen us be involved in foreign conflicts continuously since 1997. A well equipped, well supported TA is a crucial step to achieving this.

Why the Council leaders are right and big business is wrong on LEPs

2011-06-30T01:34:00.000+01:00

I was disappointed to read the news that the chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the former chief executive of the Sage computer software company, went to government to stall a decision of the board which went against his views. He seems to have persuaded the government to postpone a decision until the board becomes dominated by colleagues from the tiny circle of North East business titans, including Greggs pasty tycoon Ken McMeikan, who back the alternative plan.

The difference between the Sunderland Echos take on this to the Newcastle Journal is striking. The LEP has to propose plans for an enterprise zone. New businesses in the zone will get five years of free business rates if they start up in the area in the next five years. After that the business rates will be given to the LEP to spend on regeneration.

The choice was between a Newcastle Gsteshead dominated scheme or an A19 corridor bid that ran through much of the North East (excluding Newcastle Gateshead). The COuncil leaders, including our leader in Northumberland, voted for the A19 bid apart from, guess who, the leaders of Gateshead and Newcastle.

The business leaders want to make sure the LEP gets the most tax revenue in the future. The Newcastle dominated zone claims to generate 32,000 jobs and generate £900m in tax take. The A19 bid was projecting 11,000 jobs and £200m. So you can see why businesses were miffed that what they perceived to be parochialism from local council leaders against a greater number of jobs and income.

Leaving aside the fact that I have learnt never to trust outlandish predictions of job generation (if all the jobs that were claimed would come from regeneration projects had done so, the North East would be thriving), I think business leaders are being naiive and do not have the best interests of the North East at heart.

The A19 zone was generating the types of jobs the UK and the North East needs. A zone in Seaham for components manufacturers supplying Nissan UK, money for port regeneration in Sunderland and a new business district, off shore wind turbine manufacturing in North Shields and 1000 jobs in green energy manufacturing in Blyth. Manufacturing jobs in things we can export and take a lead in new industries.

And the Newcastle Gateshead supported bid? A new shopping district in Newcastle, a new Gateshead town centre and conference centre, a four star hotel in Newcastle, new homes in Sunderland and sports and leisure facilities at the Stadium of Light. Now I would like to see many of those schemes but they are re runs of lots of other residential and leisure dominated regeneration we've seen in the North East. But lot's of new shopping units are not generating new jobs when there is no wealth being generated. And concentrating all development on our city centres repeats the faults of previous "trickle down" models of regenerations where we have sparkly town centres but massive poverty outside of our city centres.

Neither of these proposals will benefit Prudhoe, my home town, much but I want to see us prioritising sustainable manufacturing jobs. That is real growth rather than leisure jobs that rely upon more personal debt fuelled spending and hen parties coming to our towns. This may generate less jobs overall and less money for LEPs to spend on yet more gentrification of our towns but it is what people keep telling me they want. The elected leaders of our councils got it right this time but the unrepresentative scions of big business look like they will get a chance to repeat the mistakes of the past 30 years on regeneration and overturn that vote. That's a shame.

Time for the Lib Dems to "Man Up"

2011-06-02T00:14:00.004+01:00

Along with a lot of Liberal Democrats in the North East, I was disappointed to read the increasingly isolated former parliamentary candidate Cllr Dr Ron Beadles column in the Journal today where he advocates that it “is time for the Lib Dems to reclaim the party”. Quite who we are to reclaim it from I'm not sure. According to Ron it seems to have been stolen by a tiny clique of renegade pseudo Tories and the only way to get it back is to get rid of any “sell outs” and start again with a pure year zero party. But it did get me thinking of what the temperature of our party and how we need to “man up” by which I mean stop whining and get on with what needs to be done.

As a party many Liberal Democrat activists are in a new place. After years of national “critic” politics, where we say how we could make the world a better place if only we had some power, we are back in the world of real politics. In short we could “talk the talk” now we need to “walk the walk”.

Those of us who, as Liberal Democrats, have run or are running local councils understand that running public bodies is hard and that the right thing to do is not always the easy or immediately popular thing to do. In a county like Northumberland, where like in Westminster no one party has a majority, you learn that even the parties that share your overall aims on issues will be quite happy to hit you when you make a tough choice that they really agree with.

The Liberal Democrats and their predecessor parties gradually fought back from electoral irrelevance by building a reputation street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We proved we could be trusted with national power by showing we could be good councillors and then by running councils well. However, when you are involved in trying to change society in the most centralised state in Western Europe (apart from Malta I am told!) that is not enough to make the difference. Parties in national power take a hit in mid term local elections. We experienced this in May for the first time in 80 years. As a councillor, that upsets me but if we have to be the fall guys in exchange for making the changes that are needed, we need to “man up “ and take that on the chin.

Divided parties are hated by the electorate. The Tories learnt that in 1997 and Labour did in 1983. If we think it's bad now a messy factional internal rebellion that will not succeed will result in total rejection by voters.

I'm not sure that many Lib Dems really opposed the coalition in May 2010 or do now. The myth peddled by the tiny minority of activists who do so is that somehow our national leadership tricked our activists. But we are a democratic party. Unlike many of these people, I attended the historic Special Conference in Birmingham where the party as a whole moved forward on this.

Nothing has changed since then. The course is right, this country has to get it's structural deficit down and get the state off peoples back. We have also made impressive progress on human rights and helping the working poor. Where I do agree with Ron and others is that seeing Lib Dem government ministers try to attack their colleagues over synthetic differences is not edifying. We need to defend our alliance with the Conservatives nationally. It was the right thing to do now. People respect people in the long run who don't act like quarrelsome children. So we need to improve national communication. But his idea that we need to reclaim our party means in reality a bitter turf war over synthetic differences that will have the reverse effect.

The siren voices to pull out of the coalition and should be ignored. The overwhelming majority back this – we will be rewarded for integrity not internecine politics. This message will not play with the local and national media as much as a sensationalist statement urging internal conflict but it is the one I believe that is right.

We may lose a few council seats and voters may not like the necessary changes this country needs, when a fairy land alternative is put forward by the Labour party. Long term though, we will do better by maintaining the course, manning up and winning a hard won reputation for integrity.

Freeriders are doing it for themselves

2011-05-18T16:48:00.000+01:00

Meeting with the Alnwick freeriders

I had a great meeting this afternoon with the Alnwick Freeriders, a group of young lads who are trying to get a bike track to enable them to keep up with their sport, which is one of the fastest growing in the country.

They have been working with the Gallery youth project to get a space that is suitable. They are negotiating for some land from Northumberland Estates. I met with them to see how the County Council could help. I'm taking it back to county hall and we're going to see what we can do. This is a really good example of young people breaking with the stereotype that is all too often attached to them. I was really impressed and am going to do what we can. I recommended that they get in touch with people from my home town such as Neville Potts, who has done a lot to push forwards Mountain biking in the town. Incidentally, it was a good day for cycling all round today as Berwick MP Sir Alan Beith introduced a ten minute rule bill in parliament calling for blind spots in lorries to be eradicated to make things. You can watch it here

Alnwick to swap Potter Magic for Olympic Magic

2011-05-18T09:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I heard the wonderful news that The Olympic torch relay is going to be running through Northumberland for a day and a half during the 14th and 15th of June next year, which has been announced today. It will be stopping for the evening of the 14th in Alnwick. There will be a big celebration event that day and the world will be looking at Northumberland. It is chance to put the whole county in the shop window and a brilliant chance to get the next generation motivated.

It is well known with my friends that I am a bit of a sceptic when it comes to some of the wilder predicitions of nationwide economic gain from London 2012. Nevertheless, these two days are the opportunity to get people involved and to put on a really good show for people.

I am really keen that residents get involved in these two days. We are lobbying for additional events over the two days and I hope that we will be able to take the torch out to other parts of the county that are not on the main route of the torch. In particular, I would love to see the torch being brought to Hadrians Wall, which would highlight the appeal of the west of the county as well.

Ashington Leisure Centre - an update

2011-05-17T01:02:00.001+01:00

Ashngton deserves better and we will deliver

Yesterday, I went to Ashington in my role as portfolio holder for culture and customer services. I took a team of senior officers to have a good look round the leisure centre and Library, both of which need major investment.

I just want to say that the council is 100% committed to funding a massively improved leisure facility. Senior officers have now set up a working party and we are getting a dedicated officer to push this forward. We are going to get a full options appraisal to look at all the options including refurbishment on site and then we are going to press ahead.

I love the Waterworld facility in Prudhoe. It's a great facility and the people of Ashington deserve as good a facility. The current centre is not good enough and is not getting enough users. It has suffered from decades of no investment under Labour run Wansbeck Council while places such as Prudhoe (where I'm the councillor for) and Hexham were investing in new faciltiies.

So just to reiterate. We will not close Ashington Leisure Centre. We are going to build a better centre. There is money allocated for this. It will probably take a few years but we will deliver it as quickly as possible. This is just to counter some of what has been said to date by people looking to create arguments as opposed to people who haven't been kept informed.

Personally, I think there is the scope for the new facility to drive the regeneration in Ashington. If we are going to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers cash, we need to ensure it makes the town more attractive. We also need to make sure that we use this opportunity to integrate leisure services with other services for the public so that they can feed into each other. Examples would include the Library and the Customer service centres in Ashington, which badly need better facilities.

In addition, I want to make sure we learn from mistakes made in the past. I want to make sure people in Ashington are kept "in the loop" and that we never again fail to keep people informed. ALso I want to hear your views. Comment below or send me an email at my county council address. I would put it here but I will then get lot's of spam!

A bad day at the office for Willetts

2011-05-11T22:55:00.000+01:00

The governments tuition fees policy seems to be in a right mess. Considering that the Browne report was in line with the big party consensus (any idea that Labour wouldn't be doing this now if in government is laughable They commissioned the report), the whole thing seems to be unravelling very quickly.

I have no problem with the concept that students should bear more of the cost of their education. It is awkward though because before all this we must ensure it doesn't put a single person who should go to university from a poorer background going. As a friend of mine (who is not as far as I know a Lib Dem) just said on Facebook, "I don't feel that I have the right to advocate for a drawing up of the rope ladder for anyone who comes after me.".

I have made this argument before but Universities have presided over a massive power grab to turn what were vocational professions into ones that require a degree. Governments have massively expanded the number of places to get more people from a poorer background into unis. But the top universities have not made great strides in getting more people fro deprived backgrounds into their campuses. Governments approach to this reminds me of a top boss who once told me that half of his staff were women so there was no equality problems at his office. He forgot to mention that 99% of the women were the secretaries and the tea ladies.

The new schemes mean half of people will never pay off their tuition fees and push repayments far further back. Obviously this, along with cuts in grants to universities, means that fees have to go up. The problem seems to be that government naiively believed the fees would come in at about £7,500 when many more unis than anticipated have set their rate at £9,000, the cap. To be fair most people will pay an extra £4,500 in many years time if they earn enough money to pay for it.

All these stresses and strains could be met if the government borrowed money to finance the scheme. But my understanding is that the treasury is insisting that the funds for these fees are met up front by the Department of Education. This is causing a big problem and I believe was part of David WIlletts rather desperate attempts to raise money by people from the UK paying the "full whack".

I do not support the current tuition fees arrangements. If there was a majority Lib Dem government they wouldn't have happened. I do think we need to cut the number of university places to enable them to be more fully state paid places for people from poorer backgrounds. If that means some thicker posh kids go to get their university education abroad then that would be no bad thing for them. I know my views are not even in the Lib Dem mainstream but the current problem was entirely avoidable by the treasury realising you need to borrow to facilitate the new regime. With interest rates at record low levels for UK government borrowing (due to the essential decisions of the UK government) this wouldn't be such a bad thing. Borrowing to fund regular spending that is not sustainable is a bad idea but borrowing money when you know you will get it back is not such a bad idea.

It is probably not Willetts fault that the Treasury are not playing ball but his ideas seem unlikely to make things better.

Time to stop "a coach and horses" being driven through affordable homes policy

2011-05-10T10:30:00.000+01:00

My political stalkers will know that I have had issues with the recent decision to lower the affordable housing levels on the development at part of the Prudhoe Hospital site (see my letter to the Courant here). I am principally concerned not with the councils handling of the decision, which was correct, but of the fact that developers who buy land at high prices and who then see that land drop in value can just recover their losses by reducing the affordable level of housing. The "economic viability" test is perfectly normal elsewhere but has never been seen (to my knowledge) in Tynedale.

We have precious few sites suitable for housing and it's deeply disappoint when such a low number of them go towards solving the affordable housing crisis here. There are thousands of families and vulnerable people who can't afford market prices and need a help. I have met with the portfolio holder in Northumberland, Tom Brechany, and he agrees that we need to feed in our views to the government. Fingers crossed that they listen.

First day at work

2011-05-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

Today was my first day at work as the Portfolio holder for Customer Service and Culture. First thing I had a chat with the outgoing portfolio holder Cllr Jim Smith, who has been elected as vice chair of the council. He's been doing a good job in the portfolio and briefed me on the developments. Then it was for a quick chat with the head of the department. Very important to me is the Customer Service brief. I think it's very important that we get every officer and worker at the council with a resident friendly attitude. Staff already go the extra mile for residents but the challenge is to make 100% sure that residents are "kept in the loop" at all times.

Then the Executive itself. The council reaffirmed it's commitment to look at closer working between the Northumberland and Cumbria fire brigades. We are looking at the possibility of merging some senior manager positions and a full merger. There are some problems about the finances of it but it's completely right to look at any saving that doesn't cut back on the front line.

We then looked at the petition opposing changes to the counties music service. This petition was posted before the current service review concluded and what I believe was the principle objection, the loss of an experienced music teacher, has been sorted as all staff have been found a role without any compulsory redundancies. It gave us a chance to see the breadth of the counties music service which is far more comprehensive than neighbouring services.

We then discussed some very exciting and alarming issues that were on pink paper (ie confidential) so I can't tell you. Needless to say, when it all comes out residents will be very happy and angry respectively. The administration is taking the initiative on both and doing a good job. All in all a busy day and it will take a while to get my head round what the council is doing and to get my vision for this portfolio across.

Some of the people may have abandoned us but they can't afford for us to abandon them

2011-05-08T21:35:00.001+01:00

Thursday was a bad set of elections for the Lib Dems. In Blaydon constituency, where I stood at the General Election last year, the trend of Labour gains against the Lib Dems accelerated. I was particularly sad to see Brenda Osborne in Winlaton and Derek Anderson in Crawcrook lose their seats. Brenda has worked tirelessly for her community and gives people hell when they are not doing their job and helping people. Derek has worked tirelessly with a residents group (the DSD estate) to generate a real community spirit. In addition, SOnya Hawkins in Whickham East and Dunston Hill was a great candidate who would have been a great councillor. All lost to Labour candidates with little pedigree. In Whickham East, Sonya lost to a Labour councillor who defected from the Lib Dems when she saw the way the tide was turning, which is hardly an honourable way to behave.

In Newcastle we lost some great councillors, such as Karen Robinson in North Heaton and Philip Lower in Blakelaw. All were positive influences on local politics. It was a bad night for anyone who is a Lib Dem. We had taken many these seats over the last 13 years under a Labour government. But we kept some seats like Whickham North, which were just as marginal. When you are unpopular nationally, you have to redouble your efforts to keep in touch with the electorate. In Bedford, we kept the elected mayor seat, even though we came third in the local elections on the same day. We increased our seats in Eastbourne and did well in the Redcar constituency.

The thing is, I joined the Lib Dems when we were on 4% in the polls and we were being called a dead parrot by the Tories. I joined because I believe in Liberalism. I don't believe in left vs right or working class against middle class. I want the state to get off our backs and to help everyone achieve what they are capable of. The AV referendum confirmed for me that I could never be in either of the two conservative parties, that hate radical reform. Labour is happy to rack up votes in its northern heartlands and lose the argument in the south. The Tories don't believe in change. There is still a massive need for a thoughtful, moderate political party that believes in giving people the power to change their lives. If there wasn't a Lib Dem party then we'd have to invent it. If we want to increase our appeal, the answer isn't to engage in recriminations but to get out there and make a difference to peoples lives and then to let them know what we did.

Guess What? I'm voting yes

2011-05-05T00:21:00.000+01:00

I know, it has been the talking point for months (well at least if you haven't read an earlier blog posting of mine). How is committed Lib Dem and and broadly progressive local politician Neil Bradbury voting in the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum?

Well ...... I'm voting yes! AV isn't a massive change from the existing system of electing First Past the Post. Personally I would like to see where people can elect politicians in proportion to the votes they cast. A Tory councillor said to me that the argument would have been easier if it had been full PR that had been on the ballot. But he then said "of course you wouldn't get that as an option from us or Labour because people might vote for."

But AV keeps all the perceived benefits of the current system (one member constituencies, an easy to understand system) but ensures that the MP elected has to be the most popular candidate in the constituency. First Past the Post should really be known as Candidate Elected Well Before the Winning Post. But CEWBTW is even worse to use as an acronym. AV will at least mean that the most popular front runner is elected. It won't make a massive change, maybe 2 or 3 seats would have been in different hands in the North East at the General Election. But is is better than the current system so we should make the change.

A few myths from the No campaign to dismiss. It won't cost any more than FPTP to count. Australia has used AV for years and counts by hand. In the US they use our system and count using expensive machines. It won't create more coalitions. Most analyses show that all the winners of general elections in the UK would still win. In Australia there has been only one coalition in years. We get coalitions when people don't just vote for 2 parties. In the UK the days of there being just two parties is long dead. And rightly so, we know there is no right or wrong answer on many issues.

Many labour MPs from the north are backing the No campaign (although I commend those such as Catherine McKinnell for campaigning for a Yes vote) while a lot of southern Labour MPs are backing YES. If Labour is ever to become a truly nationwide party again, it needs representation in the South. AV could also help the Tories win a few more seats up north. Then you might see less of the phenomenon of Northern and Scottish Tories moving south to become MPs and Southerners like Ed and Dave Millliband moving up north to get into parliament.

So make sure you vote tomorrow and vote yes. Also if you live in an area where there is a local election, consider supporting the Lib Dem. I have been helping a little in Gateshead and Newcastle and in both areas you have hard working Lib Dem councillors who genuinely care about their communities. In Gateshead you have a Labour group accusing us of being Nazis and in Newcastle the Labour group promise if elected to have an emergency budget. Why, I wonder? The current administration has protected front line services in the face of big cuts, so I would imagine they will be following the example of other Labour councils and cutting services like Libraries and toilets to protect the terms and conditions of managers.

Bus Fares to fall in the West

2011-04-09T01:11:00.000+01:00

I am very pleased to confirm that, after a number of months of lobbying of GO NorthEast by myself, they have agreed to resolve an anomaly in the bus fares on the number 10 bus. For many years people getting onto the 10 bus in Prudhoe west of the Dr Syntax bus travelling to the Metro Centre, Blaydon or Newcastle have paid substantially more in bus fares than residents living in East Prudhoe.

It was a situation inherited by GO when they inherited the route from Arriva. This is because we are in a fare zone that stretches from the Dr Syntax to Corbridge! So if you live in Prudhoe you pay the same to get to Newcastle as people who live miles further away. If you get on the bus at The Halfway stop in Prudhoe, this means a return to Newcastle is £4 instead of £2.80 at the next stop.

GO North East told me yesterday that from 17th April fares from the Halfway and Old Eltringham School stops to Newcastle, Blaydon and the Metro Centre will be the same, potentially saving residents a lot of money.

I must pay tribute to GO. They have been a revelation since taking over the bus service, running the 10 much more frequently and using new Mercedes buses. They have improved the 11 service (which was the 604) for west residents by cutting out underused stops further east and they have brought back the Prudhoe town service on an unsubsidised basis, when Arriva was charging the county and unsustainable £4 per passenger.

As a result, their user numbers have gone through the use and I am told the 10 and the 11 are some of the fastest growing bus services in the country. It seems that public transport is like any other good, if you promote a quality product, more people will buy it. Good news.

A busy day at the office(s)

2011-02-23T23:37:00.001Z

What a day today! I got into the office early to try to get some work done. This time of year is very busy in my work at the CAB, as the end of the financial year ends. It's been hard this year as we have been dealing with a changing funding landscape, with cuts from national and local funders. As I prepared for my organisations board meeting, where my trustees will consider our budget, I got a call from BBC radio Tees, who wanted to find out about the work of or CAB and the challenges we face, both in terms of funding and the higher workload we are experiencing in these hard economic times. One of our clients, Irene, was keen to speak about the difference the CAB made to her life. I was very grateful, because we really value client confidentiality and wouldn't ask most clients. Irene, who we have helped with financial problems after she was hospitalised, was a great advert for our service and talked about how having the stress relieved from her life was as important to her health as a recent operation.

As a result of all that, I was running late for our group meeting before the Northumberland County Council meeting to decide next years budget. So after, a brisk drive up to Morpeth, I went into the bear pit of the council chamber. Since the council became No Overall Control in 2008, with the Lib Dems leading a minority administration, the full council has become much more vital. You never quite know how the vote is going to go! Despite a lot of noise before the meeting, for the third year running our budget was the only one presented and was passed with one amendment, proposed by Simon Reed our portfolio holder for adult services. Labour leader Grant Davey moved a few amendments, proposing various extra ideas for spending. Some of them sounded worthy of further investigation but unfortunately he had not put them forward in advance and they weren't very well advocated. For one of them, he stated that a move would save £64,000, when in fact it would only save £6,000. So they were voted down but I hope he will bring them back for further consideration. We genuinely need all the good ideas we can get!

The headlines are a 0% council tax rise and a drive to save front line services. In many (mainly Labour) councils, there have been library, leisure centre and toilet closures. Despite a tough settlement that has been unfairly front loaded by DCLG, I think the budget proposed is a good one and was relatively happy to vote for it. It makes the best use of the money we have. I was particularly pleased with the freezing of council tax. Council tax is a particularly unfair levy, with the poorest in society paying a much higher share of their income in it. If a purely Lib Dem government had taken office, we would be abolishing it but at least we are able to stop it increasing.

Then it was off to a meeting of Prudhoe Town Council and a very busy agenda! We looked at plans for a community governance review of the council, which means reviewing the number of councillors and ward boundaries in Prudhoe. Then we heard about changes in affordable housing rules from the government and how some of this may impact a 60 house development on the site of Prudhoe Hospital. I am concerned that the poor state of the housing market is helping developers from using the low value of property to renege on their previous commitments on the number of houses that are affordable in developments. We also looked at plans from Northumberland Water to improve the sewerage system on the Castlefields estate. This is long overdue, as residents have long experienced flooding. It unfortunately means residents will have to put up with Castlefields Drive being closed in part for 5 weeks but I cannot praise Northumberland Water enough. They have kept us all informed at all stages and have not gone for the cheapest option.

Then I updated Town Councillors on the Decisions taken at County Hall and went home. A busy day but I enjoy doing a bit of everything.

Poetry in tarmac - progress on the worst road in Prudhoe

2011-02-18T13:00:00.001Z

Since I was first elected to the District Council in 2003, I have been campaigning for Milton Grove in Prudhoe to have it's road surface and pavements sorted out. This road was completed in 1940 and hasn't been resurfaced since! The problem is that it is a concrete road and these surfaces are so robust they don't suffer structural damage. But Milton Groves road surface is now very tatty, with cracks all over its surface and the pavements, which have no foundations, have sunk below the level of the road in some places. These pavements are now wobbly and hard for the pensioners who live on the street to walk on.

In 2004 a large petition was raised but the County Council at the time was not interested. When I got elected in 2008 to the County Council, I set out to sort that out. I got the road onto the list for resurfacing but after two years, it was not getting high enough priority as the cost of completely replacing the concrete plates was a likely six figure sum.

So on Tuesday, I had a meeting with council officials to look at the road and see what can be done. They have agreed to sort out the structural cracks and to resurface the road in the summer and are looking a programme of replacing the pavements. I will not stop on this one until it is finished but I am glad we are at the start of the end.

Chopwell and Kielder need better management not sell off

2011-02-17T13:00:00.001Z

Over the hills from my house is the excellent Chopwell Woods, a Forestry Commission property. It has a great range of walks and is well used. The Christmas fayres there are great and raise money for the active friends group.

Further north, in the constituency I live in, is Kielder forest. It's a massive expanse of managed woodland and is a great place for a break. One of my friends regularly gives talks at the excellent observatory there (it is remote and a great place to watch the stars) and there is a great ferry service around the lake with a wonderful walks and mountain bike trails. So when the news was announced that they were going to be sold off, I joined MPs such as my local Tory MP Guy Opperman and my friend Tim Farron, Lib Dem MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, in condemning the move.

Now it seems David Cameron has listened and is putting the breaks on the move. I welcome this. There is no doubt that the Forestry Commission is too bureaucratic and doesn't make enough money from its forests. But the thing to do is not to sell off the forests before they can be turned around and the rights of users can be more enshrined. Sometimes governments need to be congratulated when they do a U turn. This is one of them.

I agree with Pickles but he's not extreme enough

2011-02-16T23:14:00.000Z

It's fair to say Eric Pickles isn't the most popular minister in the coalition government with Lib Dems. I have been disappointed with many of his initiatives which often promise to devolve power but often take away power as much as they give. Ultimately, I just don't think he believes in decentralisation if it doesn't go the way he wants. If you decentralise power it will be delivered differently everywhere. That's not a bad thing. Both parties in the coalition (and apparently Labour too) believe in localism but too often national politicians cannot resist keeping control. The main freedom we have been given is how to cut our councils, which is hardly the positive idea I was hoping for.

Pickles latest crusade is against Council chief executive pay. He is proposing to make councils vote for the pay of any officer paid more than £100,000. I have no major issue with this. Councils, along with much of the public sector and the private sector, have let top executive pay get out of control. When I came onto Northumberland Council, at the very first meeting it was announced that the Chief Executive was leaving and that his severance pay had been agreed a few days before the election by the outgoing Labour administration. Worse still, it was subject to a confidentiality agreement so couldn't be reviewed in anyway. That was wrong. Our current chief executive, Steve Stewart, took a voluntary pay cut of 5% but did not want an announcement made about it. He is also signed up to our agenda of scrapping the councils generous lease car scheme, which is an effective salary perk which councillors like myself and Derek Kennedy from Hexham have been criticizing.

At £179,035 his pay is still very generous, although less than his predecessor. The counter argument goes that he is managing a budget of half a billion pounds and if he does not deliver on his targets we will get rid of him.

But hang on. why just pick on Local Government? What about Chief Executives of PCTs? Chief Executives of the SHA? Permanent Secretaries in Central Government? Heads of Government Agencies? There are far more central government bureaucrats on more than £100,000 and we know far less about them. The House of Commons should vote on each of them. The problem with his policy is that local government seems to being picked out for scorn. It is inefficient and at Northumberland we have stripped out millions of pounds of expenditure and thousands of jobs with little effect on front line services. This year I hope we can not rise the unfair council tax. But central government and other public sector organisations are far far more inefficient. Some NHS organisations have just cut management costs by 40%. Noticed a difference? Central Government is the worst. Anyone working with it (and I did for a number of years) will see how they dither for months to make a decision then just shorten the timetable for you to respond to keep the end date the same.

Pickles should get MPs to vote on all mandarins under his control paid more than £100,000. Otherwise it is just an attack on Local Government for purely ideological reasons.

The future is bright, the future is Orange (Book)

2011-02-15T12:03:00.001Z

Every time I hear a Labour party talking about the Lib Dems (including Dave Anderson MP during the election campaign), I hear us being split into the good Liberals, who are slightly deluded but well intentioned, and the Bad Thatcherite Economic "Orange Book" Liberals. The Orange Book liberals believe in a small state and want vicious cuts. They are virtual Tories except they are maybe a bit more in favour of civil liberties.

This Orange Book must be a very powerful book, I hear people say. Well not really. I bought a copy when it was launched in 2004. It's name is a sly reference to the Yellow Book (aka Britain's Industrial Future) of 1929, which outlined a firm shift in the Liberal Party towards a Keynesian agenda.

It's a book of disparate essays by a variety of Lib Dem parliamentarians who were seen as prominent at the time. Some like Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne (both then MEPs) and Vince Cable, have gone on to great things. Others such as Mark Oaten and Susan Kramer, have foundered politically (but for very differing reasons!). It is seen as marking out a more economic Liberal direction for the party (ie small state) but in reality is a bit of a mixed bag. What I think it marked was the party starting to transform itself from one of protest to one that may be able to exercise power. It started a serious debate about our values. But there is no "Orange Book" wing in the party. We leave internal factions to the Labour and Conservative party. We are too small to be able to fall out between ourselves. As long as there is a need for a Liberal agenda to be presented, we will be here.

Libraries matter but need reform

2011-02-05T23:46:00.000Z

Today has been a day of protest. First the deluded fools of the EDL unfortunately chimed with David Cameron's anti multicultural speech (more about that later). More important to me was the nationwide protests of people whose libraries are at risk of the cuts.

Hopefully there wasn't much protest in Northumberland. The council remains committed to our libraries. Personally the library growing up was very important to me. I devoured books as a child and remember the excitement when I was allowed an adult ticket. It filled me with a love of reading. When I go to other peoples houses thought I often notice the lack of books in peoples houses. Councils need to preserve the facility for people to read and learn independently.

In Northumberland, we are cutting out Audio visual lending, as demand for CDs and DVDs has collapsed. This saves around £40,000. We are cutting one mobile Library facility, which covers areas with very low demand and where we think the remaining mobile vans can cover the work. All told the library service has escaped rather unscathed compared to the big cuts and efficiency savings we are making across the council.

The council has already been working on making our small libraries more cost effective. In places like Haddon, Corbridge, Heddon and Kielder we have been putting our libraries in the same building as other community facilities. Some of our libraries are now community run. In Haltwhistle we have a brand new library. Mopeth library was renewed after the floods in that town.

Most exciting, in my biased view, is the new multi million pound library and info point being built in Prudhoe now. This embraces all the positive changes in Libraries in the county. The building will be community owned by the Prudhoe Community Partnership, and the library will be part of a much more varied range of council and other public services. Our library staff continue to deliver brilliant inclusion programmes on very tight budgets. For the past 3 years, I have handed out medals at Prudhoes summer reading challenge, which is aimed at younger children. Last September, the award ceremony had to be held over 4 evenings as record numbers of kids took up the challenge.

We need to continue to invest in libraries to keep them relevant. The public demand higher and higher customer service. and in an age of instant downloads and cheap books from Amazon and others, they demand an almost infinite range of books available at a time of their choosing. I am keen that the county looks over the next few years at the growing ebook revolution. Other councils are trialling ebook lending, where you can download a book for free for a month long period. This can of course be done at any time and from anywhere. As the technology becomes ever cheaper, there may be merit in giving ebooks to people in areas of the county where Libraries are hard to access and where young people might live in a household with a lack of books.

Unless libraries improve they wither away until they are prime candidates for cuts. It is important that we do not let that happen in Northumberland.

Why I won't Condem the changes proposed in the NHS

2011-01-19T09:15:00.000Z

Today, the government is publishing it's Health and Social Care Bill, which envisages the abolition of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) and the transfer of most commissioning powers to GPs and responsibility of Public Health to local authorities.

For the last few years, I have sat as a Non Executive director on Northumberland Care Trust, our local PCT. When I read the coalition agreement and it said there would be no top down re-organisation of the NHS, I was relieved. Every year under Labour a new secretary of state would put forward a new minor tweak of the NHS which would cost a lot of time and money to implement.

Labour abolished the Tories internal market, as in their manifesto, then spent 13 years introducing it again. We had Primary Care Groups, then PCTs, then PCTs were merged into larger organisations (except in the North East where the boards weren't merged but management was!), SHAs were founded. Then there was Practice Based Commissioning, the compulsory provider-commissioner split, which saw my PCT have two boards, compulsory commissioning of private sector treatment centres (which has led to a private sector hospital in Washington which has not many patients but has to be paid for at 100% occupancy).

All this change was possible with an overall improvement in the standard of the NHS because there was a massive increase in funding for the NHS. It did lead to a massive (PFI funded) building spree and a genuine improvement in standards in the NHS. All during this time the NHS budget for drugs and treatments was outpacing inflation as medical science improved. Towards the end of the last government, the above inflation increases stopped and it was clear that savings would ave to be made to keep pace with the above inflation increases in treatment and drug costs.

The government decreed massive savings in NHS management, which led to between 20% and 40% reductions in PCT management costs. This has had little effect, perhaps proving they were somewhat overstaffed before.

However, if NHS funding increases only keep up with inflation (and both Labour and the coalition government don't seem to propose anything more generous), you actually need to cut back in areas of the NHS. Obviously management charges are the obvious area. If you keep the SHAs and the PCTs you can't cut them back much more without them not working. I was very happy with the abolition of the SHAs (and had advocated it during the election) as they served little role in the North East and mainly just seemed to boss PCTs about, further reducing the sovereign nature of the PCT. I was a bit stunned by the abolition of the PCTs, it was a big bold step. I was pleased with the movement of public health to local authorities, which have accountability to local people (although PR for local government would increase that but that's another story!).

Labour say that the NHS shouldn't reform radically at a time of cutbacks in management. Ideally not but if we are to make further savings in management and not lose money for front line services, how else do you square the circle? I do not think it will mean a widespread abolition of the NHS model but hopefully it will be less of a nationally controlled "top down" NHS. That does mean there could be differential levels of provision locally. As a Liberal, I think that is a price worth paying for local accountability and decision making.

Rural Northumberland needs action on Fuel prices

2011-01-17T17:42:00.001Z

Danny Alexander was right to mention work within the government on getting fairer fuel prices in rural areas where people have little choice but to drive and emissions are lower per mile travelled. As Local Authority budgets are pressed further, there will be increasingly less public transport (witness the decision to have no subsidised buses on Sundays in County Durham). Danny Alexander was particularly worried about remote areas such as his own patch in the Highlands where petrol prices are much higher than the norm. But any scheme must remember isolated parts of the North East, such as North and West Northumberland (Kielder is the most remote village in England and petrol is about 20p a litre more expensive on occasions).

As Ed Milliband has mentioned, this is hard to do but it is important consideration is given to creative schemes.

After Oldham, let's look to 2015

2011-01-16T20:32:00.000Z

After the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, where we grew our vote share and didn't collapse as a party, the Liberal Democrats have proved that they will not fade away and the front page of the Spectator, depicting a dying yellow bird, is a bit premature.

But unless we begin to build a distinct identity with the public again we will lose seats and influence nationally even if we get the same share of the vote. First of all, let me say that I would rather remove myself from politics than sanction a merger or permanent coalition with the Tories (or indeed the Labour party in the future). Britain needs a Liberal voice and we must provide it.

Oldham has shown that in Lib Dem – Labour marginals, as things stand, it is likely we will pick up a share of previously Conservative voters impressed at our fiscal responsibility in government (now we have proved we are not the irresponsible “tax and spenders” depicted by the media). However we will gradually lose the left wing fellow travellers who have voted for us, dismayed as they were with the awful New Labour project. Ed Milliband is now able to promise them a more left wing agenda. These voters have always been hard for us to retain. Their instinctive home is with the Labour party.

The problem is that in Lib Dem – Labour seats, a shift as described above will result in a similar result to that in Oldham – i.e. a similar level of the vote to the Lib Dems but a higher Labour vote. That is because in the crazy world of FPTP (and still to a certain extent in AV), a vote transfer between the top two parties is worth twice as much as a vote “squeezed” from the third party.

In Lib Dem – Conservative seats, we will lose some votes to Labour but may find Conservative voters less motivated to get us out. The end result is less certain but it still poses a challenge to us.

To succeed, we need to give people a reason to vote for us and get new supporters. The Conservatives will be able to stand on the record of the coalition and offer their voters a more full bodied Conservative government. We will be able to put the myth to bed that we are a bunch of amateurs who can't be part of government and can point to successes in government. On it's own, this is not enough. If people want to vote for the coalition, they will usually vote Conservative.

At the next election, we need a distinctive message and some distinctive policies. I believe that we need to build upon our hard won reputation for making hard choices but also emphasise the fact that we have fought for fairness – i.e. measures that help the poorest in society have more opportunities for them to advance their lives. In addition it is essential that we work on radical measures to reduce the power of the central state by passing power to local communities. So I would argue for an fiscally conservative agenda combined with a highly socially liberal agenda.

What this means in terms of policy is debatable. But I have a few thoughts. Economically, we should commit to never having a structural deficit and for national debt to be reduced over every economic cycle. Socially we need to continue to push for a pro-work benefits system, a removal of the regressive council tax and considerable investment in infrastructure and education.

Constitutionally, I think we should give local authorities much more tax raising ability and only use the central government grant to equalise spending power (to remove problems like East St Louis in the USA, where the council had virtually no income and couldn't even collect the rubbish). Policing, public health, local infrastructure, business promotion, benefits administration and planning should be fully devolved and the DCLG and BIS should be scrapped at a national level. If House of Lords reform hasn't happened we should campaign for it and whether the AV referendum is won or not, we should push for a properly proportional system at all levels of government.

Of course 2015 is a long way away and our record in government will only be clear in a few years but we will only do well with distinctive policies.

Oldham East and Saddleworth: my post mortem

2011-01-14T18:50:00.001Z

Well first of all congratulations to Debbie Abrahams for winning the Oldham East and Saddleworth by election yesterday. She comes across as a nice enough sort and I wish her well in her crusade to never break a political promise (I presume the Labour party manifesto will never be construed as such a thing!)

I gave a few days of my time to support Elwyn Watkins, the Lib Dems excellent candidate and am naturally disappointed by the result. he would have made a great MP and been a real character in Parliament.

Over at politics.co.uk there is a fairly good article looking at why Labour won but I would just make a few observations:

- The great news is that Phil Woolas's career is over, his literature was disgusting, trying to stir up racial hatred. I was staggered that Ed Milliband appointed him as shadow immigration minister with the leaflets he put out. The Labour party should have suspended Woolas immediately, not waited for a court to decide. Elwyn has already achieved more as a candidate than many backbench MPs do in their whole career. He has reminded candidates that they have to tell the truth in elections or face the consequences. Saying that, I was surprised how little traction the issue had on the doorsteps. The fact that it was the first such conviction in 99 years and their former MP was a convicted liar unfortunately confirmed peoples opinions that all politicians are liars. A bad thing we need to prove wrong.

- The Lib Dems came together and worked as a team - contrary to reports that we are horribly divided and about to cease to exist, the Lib Dem activists came to Oldham in their droves. There was a great sense of togetherness and I met some old friends and some great new people. For many of our newer members, this was their first big by-election and I hope they "enjoyed" it. Our party is very resilient and full of great people.

- Elwyn did not lose this election, the party did. In normal times Elwyn Watkins would have walked this election, he is genuinely popular in the area and Mrs Abrahams is relatively unknown. Our collapse in popularity at the moment was moderated to some extent by this and the result was respectable rather than disastrous. To be honest I didn't even find Labour voters that enthusiastic about their party, most people are not that keen on a lot of us at the moment!

- Labours by-election machine has now improved and is matching our previously peerless campaigns department. They put out some quirky but good literature and had a lot of good voter ID, matching us for the first by-election in a long time. Andy Burnham has said the party is trying new techniques to be more informal with voters. The Lib Dems need to raise our game again. Saying that, the campaign team led by Dave McCobb did a great job in holding our vote share.

- The Tories did not throw in the towel but still got squeezed. They are not brilliant at campaigning in these kind of events and I predict they will not win a by-election whilst they are in government. The Lib Dems may still be able to win the odd one but it will be hard.

-This election was all over the place. Voters were changing preferences a lot at the moment. The electorate is more fickle or thoughtful (depending on how bitter you are!) and does change preferences more. This demands more of an effort to persuade them of your cause. Our vote share increased marginally but the Tories share collapsed. But this was not a linear swing. We lost some voters to Labour and gained some from the Tories (as did they) but one vote lost to the Labour party from the Lib Dems is worth two votes from the Tories in our crazy FPTP system.

- Among the minor parties, UKIP spent big and edged out the BNP but did so by pushing a very right wing anti immigration agenda. Is their future to be "BNP lite" perhaps? The BNP were the cause of the only agreement I had with Labour activists in the field. They are scum and just gang up like school kids, shouting and swear at people. All very intimidating and not the way to do well! Finally, the English Democrats must win the "Bootle" prize (named in honour of the rump SDPs disastrous showing in the bootle by election in May 1990) for being discredited by coming behind the Monster Raving Loony Party.

A century of delay - time to act

2011-01-02T14:28:00.000Z

2011 is the centenary of the passing of the 1911 Parliament Act, which curtailed the power of the House of Lords to delay money bills passed by the House of Commons. It was part of a concerted attempt to assert the powers of the democratic part of the Parliament over the undemocratic element of it by the radical Liberal Government of the early 20th Century that brought us the state pension, properly funded state schools and National Insurance. This change came at a considerable price to the government of the time and since then people have not been very keen on touching Lords reform with a bargepole.

It is a national embarrassment that this country, which flatters itself as having the "mother of parliaments", is one of the least democratic in the western world. Our second chamber is now a combination of hereditary privilege and patronage. It is embarrassing that when we lecture other countries on democracy ours is so rotten. The House of Lords was an anachronism in 1911 and is a corrupting influence now. There are arguments on how a selected chamber is effective but it is immoral that people can make our laws without us being able to boot them out.

I am passionate that we need to reform the House of Commons, of which the forthcoming AV referendum is a part, but actually the House of Lords is far more pressing. Since 1911, various royal commissions have looked at this issue, with the purpose of delaying reform.

I am told that Nick Clegg will shortly launch consultation on an 80% elected House of Lords. That is better than nothing but it is vital that it happens with the speed that issues (which the Tories support) such as equalised constituencies have been given. History like this shows that change like this only happens when it is pushed through with urgency.

For the record, I think it is vital that the House of Lords retains its revising nature but it is vital that it gets a different mandate. A fully proportional method of election on a fixed term different from that of the House of Commons would give some balance from the "other place". Hereditary peers and bishops must stop being automatic members (they are welcome to run for election!). Then we might start to become a proper democracy, about fifty years after the rest of Western Europe.