At today’s meeting of the Northumberland County Council, Ian Tompkins ( my fellow councillor for South Newsham on BVBC)  was confirmed as Chairman.

 He will be the last County Council chairman of course, as the new Unitary authority takes over next year.

The better weather this week saw me disappear into the front garden for a while.

It’s good to get out, and although I’m not yet fit enough to actually do any gardening I got the opportunity to “potter”.

In just a short time I had several council queries from passers-by, and was able to answer them immediately or take details for further investigation.  I may turn these into regular garden surgeries!

 Now that’s what I call local politics….

At a meeting of residents, called by County Council officers, there were calls for local residents to write to the brewery to ask them to reverse their decision about the “temporary” access road to the school.

I was not at the meeting, so I can only say what I have heard. In fact District councillors were not invited, this being a county matter.

But the whole problem could have been avoided by siting the Academy elsewhere. When this was South Beach First School I fought to keep it on it’s present site. But now this is to be an Academy for the whole of Blyth there is no need to keep it what is an inappropriate, difficult to get to, site.

I will be meeting with councillors Rickerby and Reid to discuss possible solutions.

Despite objections from some residents the (then) County Council granted themselves planning permission for a new temporary road looping around the South Beach pub to the school.

Their meeting was held before Blyth Valley councillors had chance to comment and so took no notice of any local comments.

But now the brewery that own the pub are reported to have denied them rights over the land, and so it is likely that traffic will have to go down Shearwater Way instead. This is equally unacceptable!

Why can’t the council take the hint and move the Academy primary site elsewhere?  We cannot stop the Academy, but we can have a say on where it is sited.

No doubt this will go on and on and on……… (to fade)

The Liberal Democrat councillors on BVBC and their wards are:-

Cramligton Parkside

Peter Lovatt

Cramlington South East

Tom Brechany

Penny Reid

Jeff Reid

Cramlington Village

Alan Armstong

Barrie Crowther

Geoff Wilkin

Hartley

Anita Romer

Holywell

Margaret Nixon

South Beach

Lesley Rickerby

Fiona Wilson

South Newsham

Ian Tompkins

Alisdair Gibbs-Barton

Full details and contact details are on the council’s website ( www.blythvalley.gov.uk )

The 1st May election for the new unitary council for Northumberland gave the Liberal Democrats a great result and (probably) minority administration of the council.

Overall we took 26 seats, 8 of which are in the Blyth Valley area. From a start of 2 seats in Blyth Valley that is an increase of 6.

The Lib Dem councillors elected are :-

Lesley Rickerby held South Blyth (of which South Newsham ward is part) and Tom Brechany held Cramlington South East.

The gains were Barrie Crowther (Cramlington Eastfield) Alan Armstrong (Cramlington Village) Anital Romer (Hartley) Bobby Nixon (Holywell) Jeff Reid (Plessey) and Ian Tompkins (Wensleydale)

Congratulations to all of them.

 Full details of the election are on www.northumberlandcouncil.gov.uk

Tonight was business council, and we met prior to the council to confirm the officers of the group.

Our new group leader is Penny Reid, and her deputy is my ward colleague Ian Tompkins.

Penny’s husband Jeff is leader of the Lib Dem group at Northumberland, and probably the new leader of the council, so he does not have the time to devote to being leader at Blyth Valley.

 I should like  to put on record my thanks to Jeff for his work as leader over the last few years and wish him well at the new authority.

 Over the next couple of days I will list the local Lib Dem members on Blyth Valley Borough Council and on Northumberland council.

As this is my last year as a councillor, I thought I would use this website to keep people informed of progress.

As you may know, Blyth Valley Borough Council ceases to exist next year, and it’s work will be taken on by the new Unitary authority, Northumberland.

I did not stand for election to the new authority, but I fully support Jeff Reid and the team as they try to get a working relationship with other counil groups.

I will certainly keep you updated as things progress.