Morpeth Greens

Getting the Morpeth South blues...

2011-06-26T09:10:00.003+01:00

Well - the Tories took the South ward from the LibDems in their first attempt at a Town Council seat after both parties put a huge amount of effort in, with three-four leaflets, a full canvas, County Councillors being wheeled out - and knocking up on polling day. More the sort of thing you'd expect in a marginal seat at a General Election than a byelection for a Town (parish) council. The Tories had nine people turn up at the (45 min) count. Since officially only one counting agent, candidates and candidates' partners were allowed to attend, you might infer that new Town Councillor Dave Herne is a bisexual bigamist [joke Dave! Don't set your legal advisors onto me!].
I didn't see much about what the Town Council actually is about in any of the other campaigns - but with the Tories' campaign mostly about car parking, the LibDems weren't helped when the LibDem County Council published their long-awaited car parking strategy a few days before polling day.
Ron did well - with a massive personal vote of 120 - but in the end, it was another case of people voting tactically against the blues or the yellows - and of the two - more people voted against the yellows.
I only hope now that we won't see County Council politicking being replayed in the Town Council, but with a two year campaign for the County elections [May 2013] now underway, I think we're in for a rough time on the Town Council.

A geography of voting

2011-06-19T10:16:00.002+01:00

To save money, there'll just be one polling station - at Storey Park Community Centre - for the Town Council byelection on 23rd June. So - will people travel the mile or so from Allery Banks or Southgate Wood to vote? I know in South Africa and elsewhere, people walk 20 miles and more to vote, and queue for hours or days - but, despite heavy canvassing by the yellows and blues, I suspect Morpeth South voters won't be readily inclined to pop down to the polling station before or after work or squeeze it into their daily routine.
So - if voting intentions are linked to house type or neighbourhood character, as most parties assume - then the parties favoured by the neighbourhoods nearest Story Park - High Church, Deuchar Park (?) - might do better.
On the other hand - a lot of people will have, and use postal votes - but then, are certain parties favoured by people with postal votes? Perhaps it would have been better to make to by-election entirely postal?
But - in an election, with a likely turn-out of 20-30%, a couple of score of loyal party voters could swing it.
I hope Ron Forster has a big personal following! Vote for Ron on Thursday!

Vote for Ron!

2011-06-13T13:30:00.004+01:00

Town Council by-election in South ward on 23rd June - and there's a lot of interest with red, yellow, blue and green candidates, with particularly intensive campaigning from the blues who have never shown the slightest interest in the Town Council before. And of course, we are all saying that party politics has no real place in parish councils. The Independents (Chamber of Trade) did select a candidate - but he had to withdraw due to health reasons.
The huge interest is that this is the first local election in Morpeth since 2008 with the next scheduled elections not due until 2013 - unless there are more byelections as existing Town Councillors - who are just starting the fifth year of a six year term - drop by the wayside.

And these are interesting times: Northumberland CC is keen to devolve services - and Morpeth Town Council, as the biggest spending parish council in the county, is expected to take a lead in forming a local 'parish cluster, but without overwhelming neighbouring parishes. NCC are also routinely consulting parish councils as the voice of their local communities, Morpeth is under huge pressure from housing developers, and within the next two years - we're going to have both the Northumberland LDF Core Strategy (with designation of the Morpeth Green Belt) and neighbourhood planning under the new Localism Bill.

So - we've put up Ron Forster, who is probably the best known of the candidates through his (Sun)day job, and has a good track record in understanding and expressing community views. And - I'd suggest that the Greens also have a good track record in challenging and contributing to Town Council work without descending into party political bickering.

So - lets see what the voters in South ward think...

The Last Bite at the Cherry?

2011-05-25T12:33:00.001+01:00

The Low Stanners supermarket plans are going to NCC Planning Cttee for a final decision in early June – and Morpeth TC are about to submit their final comments.
National planning guidance effectively means that we have to have two ‘big name’ supermarkets in Morpeth to ‘provide competition’ – the wide range of local shops, Iceland, M&S and Lidl count for nothing. But Dransfield have not yet announced who will be operating the new foodstore – so lighting and signage will be finalised ‘after the events’, any conditions regarding deliveries or range of stock and opening hours are likely to be challenged or ignored – and we won’t get anything like the community benefits that towns dealing direct with say Tesco or Sainsbury’s have got. And I’m thinking about the £10M shortfall in funding for the Morpeth Flood Scheme. Currently the only community benefit I can see offered is relocation of the vets to Whorral Bank!

And it is a new full application, not a reserved matters application – so none of the conditions and mitigations agreed under the existing outline planning permission apply, and we’ll need to see that they are reconfirmed.

So a number of points I’ll be raising at the Town Council this evening:

Cotting Burn: The ecology report says that the construction of the bridges and the re-alignment of the Burn could be disastrous to its role as a wildlife corridor. The upstream two-way road bridge looks as though it carries several car parking spaces as well as the road width, so it will be a deep dark cavern underneath. Apart from measures to relocate crayfish during construction, there seem to be no mitigation measures proposed.
The runoff from the car parks – including oil, fuel, grit and salt in the winter – looks as through it will run straight into the Burn. There seem to be no traps or filters proposed – and the Burn is sufficiently small that ‘dilution effects’ will not be adequate,

Flood Risk: Although the developer cites OKs from the EA, I have not (yet) seen any direct documents giving the EA seal of approval.
Besides the obvious concerns brilliantly put by MFAG and others about the speed of major flooding and evacuation plans – it sees to me that the underground car park will flood slightly – or at least pond - every time it rains. It is 0.5m below Staithes Lane, which floods regularly. There is likely to be a flow of water in through the access road, maybe water swelling up through the ground when the water table rises etc. It will be perpetually dank and damp – and they admit that there will be danger of cars floating if water depth exceeds 300mm (1 ft). Even if the pumping system can cope, it will be operating near continuously at some times of the year.

Traffic: The underground carpark has 225 spaces incl 12 disabled ones. It will generate congestion at rush hour morning and afternoon. That’s one car every 24 secs! And the morning filling up of the longstay car park will coincide with the later part of the agreed delivery times. Comparison with existing traffic flows on Staithes Lane to the vets don’t apply because that is throughout the day, not concentrated in 90min morning and evening.
And even if HGV lorries only make deliveries early morning and evening – the vibrations they generate along Staithes Lane are likely to be severe.

The traffic report says that NCC Highways has deferred implementation of traffic light co-ordination, and the signalisation of the Bridge St roundabout – which was generally welcomed - as suggested in the outline planning application, because it might contribute to the ‘urbanisation of Morpeth’. As a result, Dransfield is offering no transport mitigation with the plan, and cannot be asked to pay for a subsequent scheme when NCC Highways gets its act together.

Travel Plan: I am surprised that the site travel plan does not include measures to encourage ‘linked trips’ ie people shopping both in the supermarket and in the town centre.

Environment Impact Assessment (EIA): The developers suggest that because no EIA was requested at the outline stage, they assume none is needed at the detailed stage. I’d have thought that the need for the EIA only really comes at the detailed stage.

Construction: a number of factors need to be taken into account
a) availability of car parking on the Dark Lane site during construction
b) construction noise – start and stop times and weekend working
c) light pollution during construction
d) timing of tree and building demolition – they say they’ll time it to avoid disrupting bats – and relocate the crayfish, but they also need to consider nesting birds, and riverbank wildlife

Signage: As with the filling station, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of advertising signage in the application. Obviously the detail of the signage will depend on the market operator, but it would be useful to lay down the basic specs now – rather than have to fight a retrospective planning application later. For a start – I’d like to know what sort of signage will appear on the road at Dark Lane, they certainly won’t settle for signage just on the building.

And Finally : Move of the Vet to the top of Whorral Bank
This is a separate planning application, but which is closely linked. I have three main issues:
a) the site is well outside any settlement boundaries. What guarantees are there that this is not a precedent for infill between the roundabout and Pegswood village, or ribbon development along the bypass. I’d like it spelt out that this is a discretionary exception and does set a precedent.
b) the nearest Pegswood-bound bus stop is the other side of the Pegswood village road, so people will have to cross both that and the bypass, or the roundabout – with a sick pet – to get to the vets. Not sure where the Morpeth-bound bus stop is (if any). Can we have some crossings or at least traffic islands?
c) There’s a nice SUDS water treatment site. I’m assuming it is good enough to treat vet waste. Can we condition and management and refurbishment plan? Given it’s location at the top of Whorral Bank, there could be a lot of ‘fall-out’ if it failed.

Alcohol Licensing in the Arcade

2011-05-16T11:46:00.002+01:00

Barluga Deli moving into the Arcade and the Corbridge Larder cafe moving into the bus station have both put in for alcohol licenses, Corbridge Larder wanting both at table and off-license sales. Both are looking to serve alcohol from 8am through to 9pm or 9:30pm. I've got two main concerns which I've put through the Town Council....

i) why do they want to serve alcohol at 8am - do they expect people to order a full English breakfast and a glass of Chablis? I'd be happier if they waited till the 'sun was over the yardarm' - say midday at the earliest
ii) they both refer to the Sanderson Arcade security (beadles) and CCTV in their applications. Now - as far as I'm aware - apart from M&S, these are the first alcohol licenses in the Arcade - and I'm not aware that the beadles have had the appropriate training for dealing with drunks. And - again, as far as I'm aware - the beadles and CCTV finish at around 8pm to 9pm - so they are not going to provide closing time cover
- and that is particularly concerning if we have an off-license open to 9:30pm in the bus station which stays open - unstaffed till 11pm. I'd have thought it would become a magnet for drinkers who - for one reason or another - can't or don't want to drink in pubs or at home.
Hope the NCC North Area licensing committee thinks this through...

And another thing, so far as I'm aware, Corbridge Larder have not put in a planning application from change of use (from CMDA offices). Either an oversight - or they think that a retrospective application will be easier to get. if they already have the license. Licenses are much easier to get than planning permissions and are, I gather, often used as a 'back door' approach. As it is - I'm already concerned that the handful of cycle racks (a nod to an original planning condition) have been removed and aren't likely to be put back.

There are no (other) alternatives (on offer)

2011-04-03T14:54:00.002+01:00

AV doesn’t give people an extra vote, it just allows people to express 2nd and 3rd choices to be applied if their 1st choice doesn’t get many votes. So for example, a Labour voter in Berwick who wanted to keep the Conservatives out could vote Labour 1st choice and LibDem 2nd choice (this is hypothetical), rather than having to vote LibDem tactically straight off. With first-past-the-post, you have to choose – either vote with your heart or vote tactically, with AV you can do both.

AV isn’t proportional because you only get one MP, and they can’t be part-Tory, part-Labour, part-LibDem or whatever. In proportional systems, you get several people elected in a constituency, so you can have a mix of Tory, Lab, LibDem elected in proportion to the share of the vote. However it is better than FPTP. It has to be better to have an MP who is 2nd or 3rd choice of over 50% of the electors than one who is 1st choice of just 27% and no way of knowing who the other 73% would have settled for.

Yes, the other side of AV (and of proportional systems) is a strong likelihood of a coalition government – and I’d be the first to admit that the current government is not a good advert for coalitions. But, coalition governments have worked well in Germany, France and elsewhere (less well in Israel or Italy where the threshold for getting elected to parliament is too low) – and a significant number of our local authorities are run by coalitions. Northumberland CC would be doing better with a coalition rather than a minority administration.

I've written elsewhere about how campaigning with coalitions in mind would (IMO) lead to less negative campaigning and clearer policy arguments - and will probably do so again.

So, on May 5th don’t vote ‘No’ to punish the LibDems (they aren’t worth it!) and don’t vote ‘No’ because you want a more proportional system than AV (because if the Noes win, we’ll be stuck with FPTP for decades) – only vote ‘No’ if you truly believe that FPTP is the best possible electoral system for the Westminster Parliament – otherwise vote ‘Yes’.

News from SENRUG

2011-04-03T14:46:00.002+01:00

SENRUG’s next public meeting will be on Thursday 21st April, 19.30 at Morpeth Town Hall. The guest speaker is Neal Smith, Head of Communications, East Coast Trains.

East Coast is significantly increasing the number of services to and from Morpeth from the 22nd May timetable change. It will now be possible to get to London from Morpeth by 09:40 each weekday, and to return at 18:30. I guess it'll be important to use these new services if we want to keep them.

Times of local trains are changing slightly as well and there will now be an hourly pattern throughout the day, with the long gap in southbound services between 09.32 and 10.50 eliminated. But the morning peak hour train at 08.32 from Morpeth moves to 08.49, though there will additionally be a retimed CrossCountry service at 08.14. So still only a 35 minute gap. There'll also be a better distribution of morning services to Newcastle rather than the current situation where the 07.49 (NT) and 08.02 (XC) arrive at Newcastle at virtually the same time. From 22nd May Morpeth will have services to Newcastle at 06.35, 07.07, 07.54, 08.13, and 08.49.

AV: Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

2011-02-21T13:41:00.002Z

The similarities between the AV Referendum and the ill-fated North East Regional Assembly Referendum are uncanny, and do not bode well for the Yes campaign:

i) in both cases, the Cabinet is/was divided between Yes and No camps
ii) neither Referendum offers/ed the Yes campaign what it really wants/ed
iii) both are/were about quite complicated matters that need/ed an impartial explanation - but all explanation is/was being/een left to the campaigners, with the result there is/was a lot of misinformation flying around.
iv) both are tied to unrelated issues (reducing number of MPs, unitary local government) which will only muddy the water - and will be/was brought in whatever the referendum result

And if people do vote No - there'll be no way to distinguish between the 'No, we want to keep FPTP' and 'No, we want something better than this'

It isn't looking good for the Yes campaign...

Pre-empted but not defeated

2011-02-13T12:22:00.000Z

The ‘Plan A’ response to the news that the EA were unlikely to find funding for the Morpeth Flood Alleviation Scheme (see previous post) assumed that the EA Board would not be making their final decision until their March meeting, and that there was time to lobby them. Unfortunately, in the words of our local EA contact:

“The Environment Agency's Board meet each month and we were advised that they would be discussing the indicative allocations at their February meeting but, due to the number a schemes without funding and the representations that had been made, that the final allocation would probably not be agreed until the March meeting. As it happened the Board agreed the allocation at the February meeting. Therefore the final sanctioned list has now been published. The final approved allocation for 2011/12 does not include funding for Morpeth.”
In other words, the lobbying campaign has been pre-empted, and as the EA contact explains:

“At the moment we have not received any scheme allocations beyond the 2011/12 financial year because of Defra's consultation on funding reforms to start in April 2012.

“So at the moment we are facing at least a 1 year delay to the project due to the lack of funding in 2011/12. However, we are currently exploring options to try and secure some level of funding in the 2011/12 financial year to at least continue with some of the planning and design work so that we are ready to start on site if grant funding did become available.”

That is – they are looking for £500k to bring the scheme through technical approval and planning approval, so if and when funding becomes available, they can start work straightaway.

Meanwhile, the Town Council has responded to the Defra funding reform consultation - which is mainly about Government only part-funding schemes and the local community coming up with the rest. And the campaign is continuing to lobby – both looking for a political change of mind (and we know the Government has ‘contingency funds’) and to keep awareness of the Morpeth Scheme live.

Chasing the money

2011-02-04T14:14:00.000Z

So – funding for the Morpeth flood prevention scheme which politicians of all colours (not just Nick Clegg) assured us was safe – has been deferred. But Morpeth is going to fight the decision (apparently)

As I understand – EA flood protection funding has been cut by 27% for 2011-12, and with existing contractual commitments – they are left with only £19M uncommitted funding for the whole country, and first call on that is for statutory functions such as maintaining reservoirs.

Meanwhile – though the whole Morpeth Scheme costs £17M – allocation of £4M for 2011-12 will see the technical preparations, planning permission etc completed and work started on the ground. And starting the work next year is critical because the Government is consulting on new funding arrangements to start in 2012-13 which would require a significant community contribution to the cost. If we don’t get the scheme started next year, then whatever happens it won’t be funded fully by Government.

So Plan A is to lobby the EA Board (chaired by Lord [Chris] Smith) ahead of their meeting in March to fully fund the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence (NRFC) programme – the top priority of which will be the Morpeth Scheme

If this fails, then we are told that £500k will cover the costs of completing the details of the scheme, gaining planning permission etc so that work on scheme can start as soon as funding becomes available. So Plan B is to raise that £500k either from the NRFC local levy (they have discretion over a c£2M pot ) or from other sources. And the NRFC meet to confirm their programme, informed by the EA Board’s funding decisions in April.

And finally – though it is possible for the work on the scheme to be phased, it is not a good idea to break up the overall scheme since the business case for separate elements of the scheme is weaker than that for the full integrated scheme.

So – let’s tet out there and start lobbying…

Goalposts moved above the floodline

2011-01-24T09:15:00.002Z

Update from NCC councillor to Town Council

"It was confirmed at the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence Committee that the Morpeth scheme has not scored sufficient points on the Outcome Measures to be included in 11/12 allocation DEFRA's budgetary landscape has changed to the extent that the OM required score of 5 (which Morpeth scheme comfortably achieved) to 14.
This could hardly be more disappointing, especially coming on the back of over 2 years-worth of reassurances.

"The whole committee and officers were devastated and there is a clear determination to progress a suitable scheme for Morpeth.

" The responsibilities and funding landscape around flooding is also in the throes of change. The new Floods & Water Management Act allocates responsiblity to local authorities (NCC) to lead on flood-related matters ('Lead Local Flood Authorities') but with EA retaining responsibility for coast and main watercourses. It also proposes changing the way funding is allocated with fewer schemes receiving full-cost funding and most will be dependent on local discretion - the replacement for the NRFDC (Regional Flood & Coastal Committee) will have more responsibilities and enhanced decision-making (which at the moment is largely restricted, in practice, to allocation of the local levy-funded - relatively small - schemes).

" How this will play out in practice is unknown, but we should share the EA's determination to see this interregnum and the new system as an opportunity."

Not good news then - and it also leaves the Dransfield foodstore application with two dilemmas i) is it really safe without the promise of comprehensive flood defences and ii) their 'community obligation' was to build the flood defences (bund) along the river edge of their site - will that still hold?

Maintaining the Link

2011-01-04T16:11:00.001Z

Mark Dransfield is coming to town next week: he’s meeting as many local groups and interested parties as he can over 11th-12th Jan before he puts in the full application for a supermarket on the Dark Lane site. As I understand it. he’s hoping that if he gets permission by Feb/Mar and have builders on site in Jun/Jul for a twelve month build. He says he’ll be announcing the supermarket operator in February – but the strong rumour is that Morrison’s will cross the road, and Waitrose will move into current Morrison site.

It all rather dashes any hopes that follow-through on the outline application would be delayed, but I guess proof is needed that the Dark Lane site is viable to head off appeals over the two edge of town applications. So it’s all to do with mitigation now, and that falls into several themes:

Staithes Lane residents: are not happy about having car parking at the level of their bedroom windows, light pollution, delivery lorries using Staithes Lane – especially late at night and very early morning – and access for long stay car parking. Some residents are also worried about the loss of the Red Bull which would be demolished to give wide enough access to Staithes Lane for the delivery lorries.

Environment: It’s not clear how the proposed re-alignment and partial culverting of the Cotting Burn will maintain its role as a wildlife corridor.
The Wansbeck itself is also an important wildlife corridor, and the riverside walks are a major Morpeth attraction which would be marred by the delivery area of a supermarket backing onto the river. I’m particularly concerned that the trees along the river on both sides of the footpath will be lost. A lot of money has been spent through the Castle, Woods and Water (liveability) programme making the river walk attractive – lets try to avoid throwing all that away!
Then there’s the flood risk: there’s going to be a massive new area of tarmac and concrete – take a walk along Staithes Lane, downstream along the river and back down to Dark Lane from Tommy’s Field to get an idea of the size of the site. Burnside Terrace nearly got flooded from runoff from Lidls and the bus station in 2008, and Staithes Lane got runoff from three directions. Then deep concrete foundations so close to the river must disrupt groundwater flows. It isn’t enough to managing flooding on site, building must be designed not to exacerbate flooding elsewhere.

But the main thing, perhaps, is will the new supermarket damage or support town centre shopping? The real distinction between edge of town and town centre supermarkets is whether they generate ‘linked shopping trips’ with people going to both the supermarket and town centre shops. Obviously Mark Dransfield has an multimillion pound interest in promoting town centre shopping, so he’s going to try to make it work, but I have my doubts. The current Morrisons supermarket is just about managing it. However, I cannot see people parking on the far side of Dark Lane and shopping in a supermarket sited roughly where the vets is now then walking up to the Sanderson Arcade let alone the Market Place to do further shopping. To all intents and purposes, the new site is an edge-of-town site, and having the supermarket right at the back of the site makes this even more so. Maybe we just have to hope that shoppers at the current Morrisons site (whoever is running the supermarket) will increase their ‘linked trips’.

It's not going to flood....

2010-12-10T14:34:00.003Z

We are experiencing a fairly rapid thaw of the snow in the Wansbeck catchment. Apparently it's nothing to worry about, though.

The last time there was a flood in Morpeth because of snow melt was in March 1963. Then there was twice as much snow, it melted over 2 to 3 days and it was accompanied by heavy rain. And the ground was frozen so it couldn't soak up any of the melt.

Today there is only the equivalent of 3" of rain held in the snow, there is no rain forecast and it will probably take 2-3 days at these temperatures for a total melt (we are in December, not March, so the average temperature is a lot lower).

75mm of rain over 3 days equates to approximately 1mm/hr. We are told that the Wansbeck can cope with more than 4mm/hr before there is any worry of possible flooding - even before the flood alleviation measures are built. For it to flood ALL the snow would have to melt within 15 hours and enter the river!

I'm told that the river level may rise a foot or so, but that is all.

Watching the water level.... http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120694.aspx?stationId=8139

Fair for All or Free for All?

2010-12-08T10:57:00.001Z

Thought I’d better put in my two penn’orth on the Council’s car parking strategy as the consultation comes to an end:

The Morpeth Herald campaign – like all press-run, yes-no, petition-led campaigns – does oversimplify things, but the principle that car parking should be charged for is basically correct.
On the other hand, the Council needs to be more careful about why it is charging for car parking: from my fading memories of Castle Morpeth BC, I recall that if charges are simply to raise revenue, they are liable to VAT (20% from next month), but they aren’t liable of they are part of a comprehensive traffic management strategy. And, if it is revenue raising, they do need to recognise they are in competition with free private sector car parking in Cramlington, Ponteland and elsewhere.

I put forward a compromise position – that all county-run car parks in Northumberland should by liable to charging, but some could be ‘zero-rated’ – for inclusion in the Morpeth TC response, but my fellow councillors didn’t appreciate the subtlety of the position.

Then again – the pattern of shopping imposed on us by supermarkets and malls almost requires the use of a car. Which is why you have people living within 20min of Morpeth town centre driving in to do their shopping. A car parking strategy which – integrated with other planning and transport strategies – tried to modify this would certainly get my support.

The Chamber of Trade continue to get way with their classic 1984 ‘doublethink’ arguments: i) car park charging in Morpeth is keeping people away and ii) there is not enough car parking provision in Morpeth to cater for all the shoppers. The end result is that Morpeth has a reputation as ‘the town with car parking charges’ when Hexham, Alnwick, Corbridge etc have equal or greater charges – not to mention Newcastle.

Given that the RAC reckons it costs average £113 a week to run a car, 50p an hour or £2 a day doesn’t seem an awful lot extra, even if you don’t get a permit. So – it must be the principle not the amount, or the inconvenience – and the time restrictions. I guess people don’t idly browse or take a leisurely coffee if they are limited to ‘two hours on the meter’.

But – on a third hand (?): car parks in town centres are very valuable properties, and a hard-strapped Council has a responsibility to maximise the return on their assets. Car park charges generating anything less than a reasonable return on the asset value of the site – let alone free car parking - are effectively a Council subsidy for car users. Council tax from non-car users, who are generally less well off than car users (especially if they are paying full fare on public transport!), is subsidising car users.

I am looking forward to the introduction of civil enforcement of on-street parking – ie car park attendants rather than traffic wardens giving out parking tickets – which goes with the strategy, though.

Legislating for Happiness?

2010-11-28T11:10:00.000Z

As Ken Dodd reminds us, happiness is a gift, so it is odd that a Government making ‘state gifts’ - grants and benefits – more conditional, is keen to start measuring happiness.

Yes, as we Greens have been saying for sometime, measuring economic wellbeing by the rate at which we consume resources is shortsighted in a world with limited resources. It doesn’t make sense that a flood or an oil spill mark increases in economic activity.

And a financial system which depends on ‘market confidence’ remains subjective, even if those subjective view are ‘anonymised’ by the abstraction of ‘the market’. As someone said, money was created to obviate the need for trust between people - but you still need to be able to trust in the system.

So yes – the present method of measuring the economy is obsolete and needs to be replaced.

And – yes, we need efficient and productive use of resources, but in an engineering rather than an economic sense, and we need systems which conserve and re-use resources, and draw more heavily on renewable resources.

But we also need to assess ‘social and environmental’ well-being, and the New Economics Foundation, amongst others, has developed several indicators for this. But the aggregating and weighting of the various components of these indicators carries embedded policy decisions (a bit like the Index of Multiple Deprivation).

Then again, we need to recognise the difference between standard of living and quality of life. Studies show that above a certain level of income, subjective contentment does not correlate with income. On the other hand, a high quality of life can be achieved when living quite simply.

Happiness and contentment are states of mind, like tranquillity, and all we can do is try to create the conditions which bring about those mental states. But – we need to identify those conditions first.

Even more reasons...

2010-11-12T14:00:00.002Z

Further to my last post - Morrison's are applying for extended licenses for all their non-24 hr stores across the country, as a step towards getting 24 hour 7-day a week oening.
So, although NCC report that:
"Morrison’s have now re-submitted the application and the formal 28 day consultation period will commence form today and finish on the 9th December 2010" - the parallel applications elsewhere in the county have not been delayed, and the NCC Licensing Committee will be hard pushed to come up with reasons why Morpeth Morrison's should be treated differently.
The only grounds for objecting to licensing applications are:

prevention of crime and disorder

public safety

prevention of public nuisance

protection of children from harm

I think that my argument that this subverts the PubWatch network and that supermarket cashiers are not trained to deal with 'people under the influence' in the way that bar staff are - should hold up, but concerns about light pollution and boy racers in well-lit carparks would be stronger if it were a variation on a planning permission rather than a license.

And that is where Morrison's are manipulating the system - as well as the sheer weight of a national move, they are using the narrower licensing regulations to pre-empt a variation in planning permission, to move towards 24-hour opening.

And they are not the only ones: word has reached me that M&S in Sandersons Arcade have applied for a 24-hour alcohol sales license, and an acohol license for their restaurant - also a move towards 24-hour opening.

More reasons to drink?

2010-11-09T13:06:00.004Z

I gather that Morrisons have (rather quietly) applied to be able to sell alcohol 6am-11pm seven days a week from their Morpeth store...

This seems a bit excessive to me on a number of fronts:
i) buying cut price alcohol and drinking at home is already damaging the pub trade in Morpeth and elsewhere, the habit of 'preloading' or drinking before you go out is particularly pernicious
ii) who wants to buy alcohol at six in the morning? Or from a supermarket at 10 or 11pm at night? Are we going to have people popping in to Morrisons for a carry-out on their way home from the pub? Pub staff are used to managing customers who have had too much, and will refuse to serve them. Can we expect supermarket checkout staff to do the same?
iii) And why seven days a week? That's longer than the current opening hours? Ah! Is this part of a cunning plan to extend the opening hours of the supermarket? Are we going to have a 17-hour supermarket in Morpeth?

Anyway - they applied (to NCC) so quietly, that no one has objected so far - and the objection period runs out on Friday (12th). So the Town Council will be discussing it at their meeting tomorrow (Weds 10th) and will probably ask NCC to extend the consultation period.

Hunt the witch?

2010-10-31T09:06:00.002Z

Wiccan friends of mine are offended by the ‘Hunt the Witch’ promotion by Newgate St shops for Hallowe’en – where you are supposed to seek out stereotypical images of witches in the shop windows. After all, a ‘Hunt the Jew’ promotion with Shakespearian images of Jews wouldn’t be acceptable – so why are Shakespearian images of witches acceptable?

I guess with the Northumbrian witch trials of the 17th century, there is a historic basis. Then again – I don’t know if Rapper Dance traditions are similar to Morris Dance imagery, but if they were – there could be cultural justification for a ‘Find the Moor in Morpeth’ promotion.

Fundamentally though – we do need to be careful that popular imagery does not colour the way we think about any group of people.

Road Closure Warning - Damside

2010-10-13T15:24:00.004+01:00

Cheapskate County Council expecting Town Councillors to do their comms work for them for nothing....

Damside closed from Staithes Lane to Telford Bridge Sunday 17th, 24th, 30th Oct
..... Morrisons and the Sanderson Arcade won't be pleased!

"Essential maintenance works are about to be carried out to the A197, Damside, Morpeth. The work involves the removal of the existing surface, laying new surfacing and road markings. Due to the traffic sensitivity of this particular road and the extensive disruption these works would cause during the normal working week, the decision has been made to restrict the carrying out of the works to Sundays only.
The works are intended to be carried out in stages over three consecutive Sundays, starting 17th October 2010. In order to comply with safety regulations relating to required safe working zones for operatives a temporary road closure will be required during the course of the works . A fully signed diversion route will be put in place over this duration. Please find attached a copy of an O.S. plan showing,coloured red, the extent of the surfacing works and the temporary diversion route that will be put in place during the operations."

It's Recycle Week!

2010-06-20T17:33:00.004+01:00

Apparently, this coming week (21st-27th June) is Recycle Week – and since this blog is evidently well thought-of, I’ve been approached by a PR company to write something about recycling.

This year, they are focussing on recycling electrical goods – working on the premise that we get too attached to toasters and TVs etc to throw them out when they fail: “our modern reliance on electrical goods and the emotional bonds we form with them prevent people from recycling unused items”. Personally, it’s more a combination of laziness and the strictures of the WEEE directive that stops me from getting rid of electrical goods.
I see the County Council will accept electrical goods at their ‘household waste recovery centres’ and there are lots of charities (eg British Heart Foundation) which will take working electrical goods for re-use.

However, I really don’t like the loose way the term ‘recycling’ is used – true recycling, which is breaking something down into its component materials for re-use is (for me) the lowest level acceptable way to dispose of waste. Electrical goods do contain valuable metals and semi-metals that are worth recovering. But, I’d far rather see more use being made of local repair and refurbishment facilities – creating local jobs and keeping money in the local economy, than wholesale scrap work. And I’ve written several times before about the excellent Free Cycle system, which allows people to give away unwanted stuff, while eBay and Amazon have really rehabilitated the secondhand goods market.

So – before we think about recycling: what about re-sale and re-use, then adaptation and refurbishment, then repair and cannibalisation – and only as a last resort scrapping for component materials.
Of course, it does mean that we need to get the designers to work on adaptability, refurbishment and most importantly design for repair – so that you don’t have to throw away eg whole car headlamp units for want of a lightbulb.

Built-in obsolescence is so 20th century, we need to base 21st century economics on re-use and repair.

Supermarket Wars – the Planning Decision

2010-06-16T15:31:00.000+01:00

Several interesting byplays at the special County Council Planning Committee on Monday considering the three supermarket applications: John Taylor is a very good Chair, and Peter Rutherford, the planning officer kept the meeting calm with his slow, deliberate presentations. The councillors themselves seemed to be too aware of likely appeals to go into any detailed discussion, so it went entirely by officer recommendations. The applicants were all preparing the ground for appeals too – and an interesting difference in approach between those who addressed the committee and those who addressed the public. Good presentations from objectors too – with Ken Stait and Marcus Hopper both particularly effective IMO.

OK – enough of the Robert Pollard-style punditry, what happens next?

Well – they went with the least worst option – working on the assumption that one supermarket application had to be approved – with evident sacrifice of the views of the Staithes Lane residents for the perceived greater benefit for Morpeth. And there was an implicit heavy dependency on getting another go when the full application comes in.

I guess we can expect appeals against refusal from both Sainsbury and Tesco’s – and the political cynicism is that they will be persuaded to drop their appeals for deals to become the operator for the Dark Lane site and/or to move into the former M&S Food Only store on the Market Place. I’d also say that there’ll be a bit of a race to bring this forward before the public sector recession hits – and it’ll hit Morpeth bad in the next 18-24 months.

So – I’d imagine Mark Dransfield is quite keen to crack on with his development.

Meanwhile – I still do not recognise that even an edge of town supermarket is needed or will not damage town centre trade.

Rebirth after ten years in Ponteland

2010-05-16T10:56:00.003+01:00

Press release from Northumberland CC about the relaunch of Ponteland Farmers' Market on 22nd May (guess which bits were in my original draft?):

Ponteland Farmers’ Market will be celebrating its 10th birthday on Saturday 22nd May with a change of venue and a full-scale re-launch.
The market is moving to the Merton Way Shopping Centre from its former base in the Memorial Hall, where it has been for most of the past ten years.

Market supervisor Robert Hindhaugh, says:
“We hope that this move to an outdoor location in Ponteland’s main shopping centre will help to rejuvenate the market. We already have bookings from a number of producers and can expect more to sign up if the market goes well.”

Producers booked for the day so far include:
Castle Bakery, selling fresh bread and pastries;
Curly Farmer Fine Food, selling cakes, pates, scones etc;
Middle May Lamb selling Organic Lamb;
Patterson’s of Eyemouth, selling fish and seafood;
Richard Dennis, selling fudge;
Vince Frain, selling plants, herbs, shrubs etc;
The Women’s Institute (WI), who will be trading from the Merton Hall; and
Zest Catering, selling pasties, chilli, homemade soups.

and with a bit of luck a local microbrewery

Words put into the Council executive member’s mouth by their press office:
“We are very keen to promote sustainability through self-sufficiency and farmers markets are an excellent way of helping to support local enterprises, as well as greatly reducing food miles.
“We hope that this re-located market will have the added benefit of bringing more visitors into the shopping precinct at Ponteland, thereby supporting local trade as well.”

There will be some added attractions at the market to celebrate its 10th anniversary including a special birthday cake, plus cooking demonstrations by the ‘Cool Food Dudes’ from Real Food Works.
(photo courtesy of NEEFM)

It was a good result for us....

2010-05-08T12:14:00.003+01:00

In the traditional words of the party hack "It was a good result for us"...

OK - it was slightly disappointing to get just half the votes I got at the last General Election, and slip back almost to my 1992 levels. And it was galling to be patronised again by the other parties - "You are doing a really brave thing - keep it up" - when I had graduated to being attacked and slated because I was beginning to make an impact. And - although I'm assured otherwise - I feel I've let down my supporters and donors by losing my deposit again.

Still and all, it was a good result for the Green Party - we've got an MP at long last! And media-willing, Caroline Lucas should carry the Green message into people's awareness. Her comment on the hung parliament and the FPTP voting system is a good beginning:

“The first past the post system has created a situation where people cannot vote positively for the candidate or party whose policies they most agree with. Instead, they are forced to vote in fear, working out how to vote to keep out the party furthest away from them in policy and values. This leaves us a grotesque democratic deficit and a poor basis on which to govern.”

Cameron and Clegg be warned!

Meanwhile - it's back to local activity and campaigning for me, but carbon emissions are still increasing - and at the risk of sounding like something from Flash Gordon - 'we've only three or four years to save the Earth'

I must be making an impact....

2010-05-03T16:32:00.003+01:00

I gather that the yellow party are concerned that the 'five hundred votes that Nic gets' may be all that pushes them into second place behind the red party in Wansbeck.

This is fascinating on a number of levels:
i) they feel threatened by me: when other parties' feel safe they patronise me, they only attack if I'm making an impact
ii) of course, I'm going to get more than 500 votes (I sincerely hope!) - and from feedback I'm getting, I'm taking votes from the red party as well as the yellow.
iii) they still don't understand that green party policies are fundamentally different from yellow party policies

And of course - this time, with the real chance of a couple of Green MPs being elected - the national Green vote is going to be important. Green MPs with three million votes behind them would have a much louder voice than if we only got say half a million votes nationally.

So - vote Green in Wansbeck, it isn't a wasted vote - and as it says on my election leaflet "Don't settle for least worst - vote for what you believe in!"

Who do you hate? A voters' guide

2010-05-03T09:58:00.002+01:00

Actually - this is a yellow party bit of frippery - but it is an interesting approach - and possible a bit too close to the truth to be really amusing.

Vote Green and pay more tax?

2010-04-30T08:20:00.001+01:00

“So” – asked Mark Denten, interviewing me for BBC’s Politics Show – “your manifesto says you would increase taxes to create a ‘fairer’ society. Are you telling people ‘Vote Green – and you’ll end up paying more tax’?”

Well – you can find out my response at the time when the show is broadcast on Sunday, but as they say ‘repartee is what you think of on the bus back home’ – so this is perhaps what I should have said:

“The Green Party manifesto addresses the recession, jobs, threats to public services, climate change and peak oil. We are trying to move towards a fairer, more equal, greener, lower carbon society. Our spending plans – centred on the Green New Deal – focus on this; where we propose cuts – they cut schemes and projects that do not contribute to these aims.
We are told that any government will need to introduce taxes equivalent to 6p on income tax – but while the other parties are taking an ad hoc, vote-garnering approach – but we propose to use the tax system constructively towards creating that greener, more equal society.

“So – yes, we will increase taxes – as would every other party – but we will be rehabilitating progressive taxation and Green taxes. The rich and those generating environmental damage will bear the brunt.
Our taxes to reduce inequality include:
• 50% income tax on earners over £100k
• abolish the upper limit on National Insurance contributions (and raise the lower limit)
• increase Corporation Tax to 30%, but reduce it to 20% for small firms
• base inheritance tax on the wealth of the recipient rather than the value of the estate
and – crack down on tax havens, tax evasion and tax avoidance”

That’s what I should have said – but then Mark asked two other questions, and I knew I only had 45 sec total time, so I think what I actually said was OK.

Friday Market blues...

2010-04-29T10:48:00.000+01:00

Off topic for the General Election

– but I have to write something about the Morpeth Chamber of Trade’s intransigence over the proposed Morpeth Friday Market, as reported in this week’s Morpeth Herald:

Chamber of Trade representatives have been to every meeting of the Morpeth Markets Partnership since last September and have been fully informed about the trials for the Friday Market. They were fully consulted about the second trial and agreed to help distribute the council’s survey to their members themselves. And they have known from the beginning that the Council was looking for organisational responses which were not to be restricted to the survey form.

And representatives of the Chamber of Trade were present at the Markets Partnership meeting where the survey results and feedback were discussed in detail. And those reps agreed to report back to their members and produce an organisational response as quickly as possible.

Yet – three months after the second trial began, they still have not submitted a formal organisational response. Now as far as I am concerned, no reply and the coverage in the Morpeth Herald constitutes an adequate response – but I believe that the county council officer actually responsible for making the decision has been told by his political masters not to make a decision until a response from the Chamber of Trade has been received.

So the Friday Market is stymied….

Might as well be hung for a sheep….

2010-04-26T08:59:00.003+01:00

A hung parliament or a coalition Government? The very terms are as emotive as describing transport funding as investment or subsidy. And, yes – maybe there is a difference between a third party with say 50-60 seats which supports a minority administration, and one with say 120-150 seats which actually takes seats in a coalition cabinet.

But, despite media claims that this is all new constitutional ground, coalition-building is a well-practiced skill in local government. Councillors from different parties negotiate a published common programme, share Cabinet seats and committee chairs and then work together.
As a councillor on Castle Morpeth BC, I was involved in a ‘traffic light’ (red – yellow - green?) coalition, then an all-party alliance and finally the so-called ‘unholy alliance’ – a Lab-Con led coalition. And they worked, the work programme was reviewed annually and CMBC pulled itself out of a big, dark, financial hole.
(It is unfortunate that the members of Northumberland CC have not been able to work together in a similar way. An all-party coalition was really the only hope for that ill-fated monstrosity.)

But ill-judged negative campaigning and a lack of trust between parties is a huge barrier to coalition-building. It too a full year of negotiation to build the CMBC all-party alliance and just one ill-tempered election campaign to destroy it.

And that is the other side of the proportional representation coin: it is very rare under PR to get an outright majority, political parties campaign on ‘shopping list’ manifestoes with one eye on likely political partners. Across Europe, mature PR systems tend to have one or two ‘natural parties of government’ in alliance with different smaller parties which colour but do not dominate the policies of the coalition government. And we are beginning to see that sort of approach in the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Greater London Assembly.

Curiously, the LibDems – as fierce proponents of PR – do not seem to have grasped the need to modify their campaigning approach to take into account the need for coalition-building. They’ve blown it in the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly – and arguably on the Northumberland shire unitary. We can only hope they’ve learned lessons for the next parliament, though the signs are not promising.

On the other hand, the Greens have always done well as junior coalition partners, in Germany, France and Italy. And in the Scottish Parliament and the Greater London Assembly, their constructive opposition has enabled several Green policies to be implemented. And this is how the two-three Green MPs we can expect in the new parliament will behave – and a strong Green national vote will give them that extra clout.

So (political slogan bit) – don’t settle for ‘least worst’ - vote for what you believe in – vote Green!

Piece for SENRUG

2010-04-08T14:06:00.000+01:00

Although I didn't get an invite to the SENRUG hustings - I have been asked to supply a piece for their 'elections newsletter' - along with the Red, Yellow and Blue candidates. This is what I've sent them - note it was written before the Yellows made their policy announcement about funding the railways. I think it just points up my last paragraph about parties 'stealing' our policies, though as usual they don't have the nerve to do it properly....

We need major investment in public transport – and in rail even more than buses – to encourage people to switch from using cars. Apart from the carbon emissions argument, good quality rail travel is healthier, less stressful and more sociable than car travel. The Green Party proposes to reallocate the £30bn earmarked for road building over the next 10 years to investment in public transport, which incidentally will create considerably more jobs. At the very least, transport budgets ringfenced by mode makes no sense if you are trying to develop an integrated transport network.

Locally, this re-allocation of investment would allow:
• opening of the ABT line to passengers including links to Morpeth and Woodhorn
• opening up of the Leemside line
• and various other loops to increase the capacity of the ECML

Increased capacity would enable improvements both in local and long distances services, and in also intermediate services such as direct links to Durham and Hexham. I am also keen to see a new semifast service between Newcastle and Edinburgh stopping at all the principal stations. There would also be investment in rolling stock to make best use of the capacity of the existing network.

We also need considerably increased capacity if there is to be any significant shift of road freight back to rail. Again, rail freight and railhead freight depots will create more local jobs than road freight does.

Public transport overall needs to be more coherent, with simpler, more transparent – and integrated – fares. It may be that the only way to do this effectively is to follow Green Party policy to re-regulate bus services and return the railways, both track and operations, to public ownership. At any rate, successive governments’ use of fare increases to manage demand must end.

I realise that I am rather unlikely to be elected as MP for Wansbeck, but the other parties have been stealing policies from the Greens since we were first formed. A strong Green vote would encourage them to steal these policies too.

Banks and Credit Unions

2010-04-02T13:49:00.000+01:00

At the Northumberland Credit Union AGM in February, a Board recommendation that no dividend should be paid was accepted unanimously. This wasn't because the credit union was struggling - in fact it is thriving with both total savings and total loans at an all-time high. No - the Board decided simply that because the credit union is still dependent on grant-funding (a little under £6k a year) - it was inappropriate to pay out.

It makes a nice contrasts with those banks which accepted Government handouts and subsidies - and then felt it was OK to pay bonuses to their staff.

The Green Party has endorsed the 'Robin Hood' tax campaign - taxing bank transactions at 25p per £10,000 to provide a ringfenced revenue stream. However - we woukd like to bring in much stronger policies. We want to separate high street banking from merchant banking, and from currency and commodity speculation - and we want a 'Tobin' tax which also taxes banking transactions, but designed deliberately to discourage financial speculation. Like all real Green taxes - it is intended to change behaviour more than raise revenue.

Repossession Prevention

2010-03-27T10:26:00.002Z

I've just signed an agreement for the credit union to manage loans from the Mortgage Respossession Prevention Scheme. It's an interesting example of how government initiatives filter down...

About two years ago, when the recession was still a credit crunch, someone in government thought 'people may be having problems paying their mortgage, what can we do to help them?' So about a year ago, Northumberland CC got about £76k from Government with the guidance 'use this to bung an interest-free loan to anyone having problems with their mortgage (or rent)'

And now - after a lot of effort to make the thing practical, we've got a three-way arrangement: NCC provides the money, CABx money advisors assess and authorise applicants, the credit union lends the money from the NCC pot and manages the loan. So if you want an interest-free loan of up to £5000 over five years to help with your mortgage or rent payments - this is for you.

But - the people who come to the CABx for debt advice are usually in more trouble than that, and wouldn't be able to repay such a loan. So how to get the message out to people with temporary problems who will be able to repay such a loan, and keep up with the mortgage payments in the future?

A nice-sounding idea from Government - but not really thought through, but we'll do our best to make it work

Cars: The future is electric?

2010-03-02T15:46:00.002Z

Massive investment in developing a network 11,000 plug-in points for electric cars across the current! And the North East is officially the Low Carbon Region with responsibility for developing electric cars in this country. Hat's off to the marketing people at Nissan Sunderland.

And we're getting hundreds of plug-in points in the North East too - not only in the Tyne & Wear conurbation, but a whole series strung along Hadrians Wall.

So yes - electric vehicles are quieter and cause less pollution on the roads, but there's the rub. Until we get electricity generation sorted out - with the right mix of low carbon renewable energy - electric cars will just increase carbon emissions at the power stations. And if our power grid is creaking now - how can it possibly take the strain of the extra demand from hundreds of thousands of electric cars.

No - I'm afraid electric cars may be another form of greenwash, from people scared to admit even to themselves the scale of change needed to reduce CO2 emissions by 34% by 2020, let alone 80% by 2050. I rather think we need start planning to massively reduce the need to travel - and that goes for freight transport too.

Or - if we are going for electric cars, then we need a low carbon generating network first.

Friday Market trial extended...

2010-02-26T16:01:00.000Z

The current trial of a Morpeth Friday Market will be extended until Easter - so there'll be markets on Friday 19th and 26th.

Then no market on Good Friday - and not on Friday 9th, because that is Gathering Weekend, and the Market Place will be full of jugglers, centurions, punch & judy men and rioting peasants. (Not to unlike a normal Friday and Saturday night in Morpeth then?)
There will be some stalls from the Wednesday and Farmers' Markets at the Gathering too...

So, there'll be a final deliberation by the Markets Partnership on Weds 31st - and if the decision is yes, the Friday Market will be permanent from Friday 16th April.

So - get hold of a copy of the Council's survey (the only one that will be counted this time) - fill it in, and get your views heard.

It'll be a riot!

2010-02-19T08:56:00.003Z

"This year’s Morpeth Gathering will feature a distinct agrarian theme, unrest amongst the labouring classes in the late eighteenth century, revolutionary and republican sentiments filtering across the Channel and protests from locals crammed in dreadful conditions, many for what we’d now deem petty offences but awaiting trial or even transportation to the colonies. Unrest will spark riot and civil disturbances, anger at the hiring fair, discontent on the streets and a final violent confrontation with militia – paramilitaries as we’d now describe them, drafted in from Yorkshire!"

I guess re-enacting the Miners' Strike would be too recent....

Anyway - if you fancy being a revolting peasant - there's a rehearsal next Tuesday (23rd Feb) 7pm-8:30pm at Morpeth Town Hall, contact Tamsin Lilley for more info.

Friday the Market II The Return

2010-02-08T09:23:00.004Z

The second six week trial of a market on a Friday in Morpeth started last week and runs through to March 12th. This time there'll be a big effort to channel all feedback into the County Council's formal survey - which I've had a hand in refurbishing. I think the idea is that if the market is popular, then it'll just carry on into the summer. I know I'm already in discussions about how we can manage the market on the weekend of the Northumbrian Gathering (9th-10th April).

The actual market last Friday had about 16 stalls - but was fairly quiet. It was pouring with rain though. The weather on the Saturday for the farmers' market was better (if a bit cold over 4-5 hours) - and so far I've heard no indication that having three markets in the week diluted trade that much.

I see Northumberland CC has posted a voxpop video of responses to the first trial of the Friday market (last Oct) on U-tube:

Do we know how lucky we are?

2010-01-02T15:37:00.000Z

The fourth annual Halifax Quality of Life Survey rates Castle Morpeth as having the highest quality of life in the North, 43rd in the UK, with no other districts in the North East appearing in the top 100.

The Survey tracks ranks local performance across key indicators, including labour and housing markets, environment, education, health and even weather. It 408 (ex-)local authority districts drawing on data from a number of sources, including the ONS, DEFRA, the Met Office, the Department for Transport, Department of Children, Schools and Families and Experian.

They don’t add in access to beautiful tranquil countryside and coast, or the availability of local food and distinctive locally-owned shops – or we would have been even higher.
On the other hand, the data is all pre-local government reorganisation, and it could all go much more horribly wrong when the public sector cuts really start to bite from 2011 onwards.

Morpeth Wednesday Market is the greenest

2009-12-16T13:51:00.000Z

Morpeth Wednesday Market has just won a national competition for ‘Greenest Market’ organised by the National Market Traders’ Federation and judged by FoE.

The entry was put together by the traders – with photos of all the stalls and write-ups from each of them – with just the finishing touches added by the market manager. I hope the press coverage will include the stallholders, but there were a lot of bigwigs (including me!) appeared for the photo call this morning.

The entry covered the obvious things like recycling waste, biodegradable bags and composting the street sweepings. Then there were less obvious things like minimising the use of generators, the predominance of local traders selling local produce (a carry-over from the farmers’ market) and even led lights in the Christmas Lights display.

But for me – it is also ‘green’ that the traders support the market so well, and the Markets Partnership (which I admit I do chair) helps engage local people in addressing problems and developing new ideas. Although it is run by the remote County Council, you feel the decisions are taken locally. I gather the Council are looking to create local Markets Partnerships for the markets in Blyth and Berwick, and perhaps in Ashington and Bedlington where I understand they are planning to take back in-house the markets licensed to Spook Erections.

So – congratulations to the stallholders who won the national award for the Morpeth Market!

A Christmas Carol for Morpeth?

2009-12-13T13:48:00.000Z

A nice press release (which I've edited down a bit) from my employers, CPRE:

CPRE is encouraging people to spend their money locally when buying Christmas lunch this year. Charles Dickens’ three visions of Christmas are a useful reminder of how we have changed our food buying habits in recent years, and what future Christmases could look like if we don’t reconsider how and where food money is spent.

Christmas Lunch Past
Bought from a variety of local shops owned and run by knowledgeable traders, stocking distinctive produce that bolstered the local economy. Little packaging and virtually no waste.

Christmas Lunch 2009
The same big names in cloned towns and high streets and retail sheds spreading across the country. The model of ‘big and cheap is better’ retail is concentrating our food shopping into the usual few chains. Job cutting efficiency combined with excess packaging and needless waste.
[though Morpeth is luckier than most in still having a variety of local shops not to mention an award-winning Wednesday Market and an excellent farmers’ market]

Christmas Future?
If we don’t support the shops and markets the future could belong to the retail giants. In their relentless expansion they could squeeze out remaining local traders and any real choice of where to shop. We will forget what fresh, seasonal food tastes like.

In contrast, local food can offer incredibly good value and it doesn’t need to be the expensive option. Local food bought from farmers' markets, farm shops, pick-your-own farms and box schemes also tastes superb with wholesome, fresh seasonal foods aplenty. The variety on offer is the spice of the season.

A tale of two consultations

2009-12-09T13:46:00.000Z

An interesting contrast in consultation approaches in the last few weeks between Northumbria Police and their proposals for a new Morpeth police station on their existing site and the Primary Care Trust with their superclinic proposal on The Mount site.

The PCT are going for planning permission by March ’10, so they can get construction underway before the money is taken back by Government. So – they wanted to identify and head-off all problems as early as possible. So they put up a single draft proposal and sketch plans, as a basis for discussion. And they had some of the people who’d actually be working there talking over the plans and listening to what people said.

And the proposal itself is probably the best redevelopment of The Mount site, given that it will be redeveloped. The proposal doesn’t sprawl out over the Easter Field, and the building - though probably not very pretty – won’t be highly visible.
Scope for energy efficient buildings, grey water systems – and possible a ground source heat system under the Easter Field. Cleaning up the Easter Field and returfing it – it was left in a mess after construction of Easter Field Court – would be a possible community gain bringing the field back into use for children. Some concerns about bus and pedestrian access, especially the distance from the bus stop to the entrance - though I was told there’d be facilities for cyclists. And a 95-space car park which may be available for park and ride at weekends. There’ll need to be some work to the junction too – I’d like to see (pedestrian-friendly) traffic lights there.

Compare the mess the police made of their consultation: they want to sell off a chunk of land to pay for a new or refurbished police station – which will actually have a very small footprint. However they put forward four options – two of which involved building on Goosehill School – with very vague suggestions as to how the land sold off could be developed, housing, a supermarket or a hotel were all mentioned.
Then they had stiff in-house project managers and planners at their consultation who explained the development options and answered questions but didn’t really talk with people.

Being Morpeth – this approach obviously raised a real storm which focussed on a perceived threat to Goosehill School and inappropriate development on the edge of the town, in the flood plain. So – I don’t think the police got any real feedback on the proposals for the police station – which was what they really wanted.

Continental Market - not as good these days?

2009-11-22T10:58:00.001Z

I thought this weekend’s ‘Continental Market’ in Morpeth was more than a bit disappointing. There were far fewer stalls than in past years, and prices were sky-high. They used to be a bit pricey – but £12 a kilo for cheese and £3 for an ordinary loaf of bread is taking the mickey.

And that is the point – we can get better cheese cheaper in the Cheese Shop, we have a baker on the Weds Market, one on the farmers’ market and two bakers in the town all selling as good if not better bread cheaper. And the other stuff on sale:
pate and dried sausage we can get at Morpeth Deli or Gebhards, or the monthly farmers market – again cheaper
dried fruit and nuts we can get at Julian Graves or Morpeth Deli
we can get better sweets, chocolate, fudge – again cheaper – at the excellent sweet shops Morpeth has, or again the Wednesday and farmers’ market
- and even the wine on sale was nothing to write home about

I’m biased – but I think both our Wednesday Market and our monthly farmers’ market have more atmosphere and offer a better range of products and considerably cheaper prices. So – I suggest that the Chamber of Trade review their regular booking of this ‘continental market’ (which is apparently based in Manchester anyway) and start supporting our local Northumbrian makets.

Morpeth Friday Market – the story continues…

2009-11-20T11:38:00.001Z

Evaluation of the Morpeth Friday market trial:

NCC reported that the logistics of running a Friday market worked OK and the costs were pretty well covered by rents received – so it is practicable. Meter records show that the car parks in Morpeth were 87% full at peak occupancy over the market Fridays, though this excludes season ticket and permit holder who do not use the meters.
The response to the NCC surveys was disappointing with only six shopkeepers and seven members of the public responding: the shopkeepers were 3 to 2 against the market, with one uncertain, the public were 6 to 1 in favour of the Friday market.
The market traders had a petition of over 200 market customers in favour of the Friday market, and a survey of shopkeepers with 87 returns, showing 80 in favour and 7 against.
The Chamber of Trade’s own survey had 26 responses with 6 for, 18 against and 2 undecided. There is obviously a mismatch between the shopkeepers surveys carried out between the market traders and the Chamber of Trade.

Terry Garnick for NCC concluded that another trial was needed, since there is little firm evidence on the impact of the market on Morpeth, and there was a poor response to the impartial NCC organised survey. However, with the opening of the Sanderson Arcade and in the run-up to Christmas, there were too many extraneous factors to make a fair assessment. He therefore proposed to suspend the Friday market for the present and run a second trial Friday market in February, with the intention of making that permanent if the assessment then was positive. He would also bring in advice from NCC Regeneration team to ensure a proper assessment is carried out. However, he pointed out that he would need clearance from councillors to go ahead with this proposal.

Denis Murphy

2009-11-14T14:04:00.001Z

I am quite sorry to see Denis Murphy standing down as MP after 12 years in the job. Despite his reputation as ‘MP for Ashington’, he has been a consistent and enthusiastic supporter of the Morpeth Fairtrade Forum – and he strongly backed the formation of Morpeth & District Credit Union, now Northumberland Credit Union. And, he has always responded to my letters and requests, even if only to pass on a Minister’s reply.

And in election campaigns, he has always been friendly and considerate, even to the point of ‘endorsing’ me on a couple of occasions, suggesting that he’d prefer me to be MP than any of the other candidates.

So, as I gear up for what will be my fifth General Election campaign – I will have seen three Labour candidates, four LibDem candidates and five Conservative candidates. There really should be an award for consistency and persistence!

Friday Market - what do you think?

2009-11-05T17:21:00.002Z

Tomorrow (Fri 6th Nov) is the last of the six week trial period of a Friday Market in Morpeth. There'll be no market on Friday 13th (understandably), the Chamber of Trade are hosting the Connental Market on Fri 20th (and Sat 21st) - then if the evaluation of the Friday Market is positive, it can return on Fri 27th.

But that's the point - unlike many Council-led consultations, this isn't predecided. There'll be a meeting of the Markets Forum on 18th Nov - when both enthusiasts and doubters will be able to report their experiences. NCC has carried out surveys of customers, traders and shopkeepers - and I'm pleased that the Chamber of Trade is having a meeting on 16th Nov to collate their evidence.

I'll be chairing the Forum meeting - and I'd appreciate any comments or more particularly experiences of the Friday market to feed in. I'm going to try to be systematic, looking at:
i) the practicalities of running the market on Friday (from NCC)
ii) the results of the surveys
iii) feedback from Chamber of Trade, Morpeth Town Council, GMDT and any other organisations with evidence
iv) feedback from the Friday traders, shopkeepers - and Wednesday traders
and v) feedback from the public

I hope that will cover everyone concerned - if not, let me know!

Party Leaders' Knock-out Competition?

2009-10-27T16:34:00.000Z

Here’s an idea about Party Leaders’ Debates in the run-up to the General Election – a bit off-topic for a blog about Morpeth but….

I’m not happy about debates between Party Leaders being televised because they imply a presidential style of election, and people have enough problem understanding that they are voting for someone to become MP, and only indirectly for someone to become Prime Minister.
And… they will only feature the major two or three parties, which makes things even more difficult for us minor parties.

So why not have a knock-out series of debates in the style of the FA Cup?

The leaders of very small parties would be drawn against each other for debates televised on say Five – and a phone poll would take one of them through to the ‘next round’. And just like the FA Cup, the leaders of the major parties would enter the competition in later rounds – and the ‘final’ debate would get broadcast on BBC1 – the media equivalent of Wembley Stadium.

Well – I think it’s a good idea…

Happy Birthday Morpeth Farmers’ Market!

2009-10-26T15:25:00.002Z

Morpeth Farmers’ Market celebrates its 10th Anniversary on Saturday 7th November.

There’ll be a real party atmosphere on the market with competitions, buskers and a birthday cake provide by Country Markets (aka the WI). And there’ll be a chef doing demos throughout the morning using what ingredients he can cadge from the market stalls – a bit like a live version of ‘Ready Steady Cook’.

And the Barnacre alpacas will be back.

It’s hard to imagine it’s been going so long. I’d been a councillor for just six months when Castle Morpeth BC first started the Farmers’ Market in November ’99. And apart from a five month gap during the foot & mouth crisis, missing one market on the day after the 2008 flood and the occasional January market date that was too near New Year - it hasn’t missed very many months.

Initially it was held in the Town Hall, then after refurbishment of the Morpeth Market Place it was split between the Town Hall and the Market Place. Then in October last year, it was switched from a Sunday to a Saturday and is now located entirely on the Market Place. And it is still thriving when other farmers’ markets are in a bit of a decline.

I think a lot of people don’t realise just how lucky Morpeth is in still having locally owned shops. These have always sold local produce, but I think the farmers’ market has raised an awareness and appreciation of local food with a wider public.

In fact, a number of businesses – including Doddington Dairy Ice Cream and Northumberland Cheese Co – which started selling through farmers’ markets are now supplying the local shops, and in some instances supermarkets – so the wheel has come full circle in a sense.

And several producers from the farmers’ market – like Jimmy Bell and Janet Lawlor – are now selling at the Wednesday Charter Market too – which I think is part of the reason why that is flourishing so much, against national trends.

Remembrance of wars - past and present

2009-10-25T10:40:00.004Z

It looks as though there will be rather more awareness of the Remembrance Sunday parades this year - with increased awareness of death tolls in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I'll be wearing both red and white poppies again this year. As far as I am concerned, the red poppy commemorates all those who have died or suffered in wars on all sides - not just the soldiers. And the white or 'peace' poppy (and I have a few available if anyone wants one) is to highlight that war is not a solution - for example, it is rapidly becoming obvious to everyone that the 'war on terrorism' will not be won by military means.

In Morpeth, Morpeth Town Council are taking on full responsibility for the main Remembrance Sunday th Nov) parade and service for the first time (though they have run smaller parades in Morpeth in the past when the Castle Morpeth Mayor attended a service elsewhere). There'll be a lot of people attending - so let's hope it goes well. We are still not allowed to lay a wreath of white poppies though - because the British Legion considers that this would be a 'political act' - and Remembrance Day is supposed to be apolitical.

Then on Weds 11th -Armistice Day - there is the two minute silence at 11am. Over the past few years, there's been a campaign by the British Legion to turn this into a mini-Remembrance Day service. And, the Town Council will be making a civic event of it at the Town Hall. I disagree with this - for me, the two minute silence should be held, but it should be held as a simple pause in the middle of the working day.

Let's Talk about Death

2009-10-08T10:28:00.002+01:00

Message from the NE Director of Public Health… please complete the survey

North easterners are being asked to tackle a taboo and talk about death as the region launches the UK's first ever charter on end of life care.

The pioneering charter sets out proposals for the kind of care and support which people who are dying, their families and carers, can expect. Once agreed, it will guide those who plan and provide end of life care or support.

NHS North East has worked with a range of partners across health, social care and voluntary sectors, plus patients and carers, to produce A Good Death charter. A public consultation on the charter will run until December. It aims to gather the region's views and start a discussion about death and dying, an issue which is often avoided and ignored, despite being the one common inevitability we all share.

Professor Edwin Pugh, consultant in end of life care in NHS North East, says: "Death and dying is taboo, its reality is put off until the last minute. We live in an increasingly death-denying society, despite the fact that all of us will die. Death and dying is seen as a medical problem. Almost six in 10 people die in our hospitals, even though most people wish to die in the comfort of their own homes. The launch of this charter is the start of a process to make sure our society, and the support services people rely on during these difficult times, respond with compassion to the needs of those people who are dying and their loved ones. This is not principally about dying - it's about ensuring we live life to the fullest of our potential, with meaning and value, in whatever time we have."

The consultation on A Good Death centres on a questionnaire available at www.agooddeath.co.uk and research will also be carried out by an on street team in towns and cities across the region.

Crunch Time at Low Stanners

2009-09-22T15:51:00.002+01:00

I understand that Mark Dransfield’s application for a supermarket on Low Stanners is designed mainly to pre-empt applications for edge of town supermarkets by demonstrating that a site nearer to the town centre is viable, and by providing the necessary level of ‘choice’ required by national planning guidelines.

But the three applications cannot be considered together – so we could end up with three new supermarkets in Morpeth.

Mark (I’m sure he doesn’t mind me calling him Mark) is only going for outline permission, so a lot of his plan is ‘indicative’

- but some of these ‘indicative’ elements are essential to demonstrate that the site is viable – and it would be useful if these ‘fixed’ elements of the indicative design are made clear. In other words – what can’t be changed once outline permission is granted.

I have been lobbied heavily by residents of Low Stanners, especially Staithes Lane, whose main concerns are:

Traffic levels
Noise and light pollution
Overnight security in the car parks (including recycling centre)

There is also a strong lobby opposed to the demolition of the Red Bull Inn, for both community and heritage reasons. This proposed demolition seems only to be part of the indicative design, it needs to be clarified whether demolition of the Red Bull would be included in the outline permission.

Choice and Need
Morpeth has Morrisons, Lidl, M&S (main store from November), Iceland and a significant number of independent food shops – not to mention a thriving market. It is not clear to me that there is not already adequate choice meeting local need.

Traffic and Car Parking
The scheme has a loss of 29 longstay car parking spaces (194 down to 165), and it is a moot point whether the 300 short stay car parking spaces will allow or encourage people to shop in the town centre whilst parking at Low Stanners – or whether they would just be shopping at the supermarket.
The longstay carparking will probably fill up 7-9am and empty 4.30-6.30pm – that is there will be two two-hour periods with 80 vehicles an hour joining or leaving Dark Lane from Staithes Lane. In addition, Dransfield estimates that there will be 14 lorry deliveries a day between the hours of 7am and 10pm (approx) – so on average there will be four lorry deliveries during these peak congestion periods.
The suggestion that traffic lights be installed at the two junctions is welcome

Flooding
It is not clear whether the proposal has been endorsed by the Env Agency. Currently there is 60% impervious cover on the site, with 40% allowing soak away. The development will have 100% impervious cover so that all rainfall will need to runoff and so will be entirely dependent on effective gulleys and drainage channels. The prospect of contaminated runoff entering the Cotting Burn or the Wansbeck will be increased.
The loss of hedging and trees will also reduce local water soakup.

Trees and Wildlife
The Cotting Burn and Wansbeck are designated wildlife corridors – including significant widths of the bank to be effective. Re-alignment of the Cotting Burn is very likely to disrupt wildlife and will destroy the local habitat. Locating the rear of the supermarket – with lights, smells, noise etc for 16-20 hours a day – hard on the river bank will disrupt the main Wansbeck wildlife corridor, as well as threatening the tranquillity of the riverside walk.
Loss of trees and established hedgerow will also destroy key habitat in the wildlife corridors.
And construction work will also disrupt wildlife

Site
It is not clear that this site will be ‘integral’ with the town centre shopping ‘hubs’, with primarily short stay car parking, it might just as well be an out of town supermarket
The 'indicative' layout does little to integrate the development with the town centre.

It is also not clear that Library-Willows site along the river is a suitable site for the proposed new Health Centre, Library and Info Centre complex. Certainly displacing that development from this site will delay the replacement facilities for Morpeth Cottage Hospital.

I hope the councillors on the North Area Planning Committee make the right decision for the right reasons! It's a tough one

Drought in the Bus Station

2009-09-02T15:56:00.004+01:00

Hanging baskets got everywhere for the Britain in Bloom competition - including at the end of each of the bus bays outside the new bus station.

Unfortunately, Heighleygate staff (contracted by the Town Council) to water all baskets could not get to these. The bus drivers reckoned it was too hazardous to bring the watering equipment onto the bus apron. So - unlike most of the hanging baskets around town, they've shrivelled and died.

Put it down to 'teething problems' with the bus station, and do it differently next year.

Fungus damages Tree

2009-09-01T15:50:00.001+01:00

Local people may have noticed the largest of the cherry trees in the Rotary Gardens on the corner of Wellway has been cut down. Apparently it was badly affected by plum fungus (photo) to the point where it could start dropping branches on people.

NCC are proposing replace the tree - using a native species of appropriate fullgrown size, but not a cherry which would be susceptible to lingering fungus in the gardens. Any suggestions?

I'd quite like a see a crab apple tree....

Setting a Premium on Insurance

2009-08-26T10:14:00.000+01:00

Following on the varied experience of insurance companies in response to the flood, my attention has now been drawn to a curious situation with Castle Morpeth Housing and its tenants regarding insurance:

Obviously CMH insure the buildings themselves, and have arranged a good deal for contents insurance for their tenants with their insurance company.
And – ever keen to save money, they encourage their tenants to claim on contents insurance for any damage to fixtures and fittings – which is all above board under the terms of the policy.

However – where routine maintenance is behind schedule or not a priority (and my informant tells me their estate hasn’t seen any significant maintenance in the last eleven years), then the lack of maintenance can lead to more frequent damage and hence claims than might otherwise be expected.

And here’s the nub: my informant says they have had to make four claims in the past five years, and now their premium is so high (even under the CMH-negotiated scheme) that they can’t afford it – and are running the risk of having no contents insurance.

And worse – if and when CMH contractors do a bad job or accidentally damage fixtures and fittings, again CMH encourage tenants to claim on their insurance. Now normally, in such circumstances, the insurance company would make a claim against CMH, and the tenant would not lose their no claims bonus – but because they are also CMH’s insurers and get good business from them - they seem reluctant to do so, and the tenant has to cough up higher premiums.

Now it seems to me that there is a systematic problem here – CMH are quite reasonably trying to save money on their maintenance budget, but in the end it is their tenants who are having to pay out extra. CMH needs to rethink it’s policy.

Problems with the Low Stanners Scheme

2009-07-27T12:16:00.002+01:00

The trouble is – if too much detail is put into the outline planning application – then we are locked into a rushed scheme which may not be the best possible option. I’ve heard a number of concerns:

i) the urban design of the site – with the supermarket backing onto the river – is poor, and not well-integrated into the town centre or the river walks.
ii) Loss of the Red Bull to provide access for delivery lorries. A building is going to be needed at the ‘front’ of the site as i) – I reckon at a pinch the Red Bull could afford to lose the modern extension but stay in place
iii) Traffic levels: we’re told there’ll be about 14 delivery lorries a day, which could be kept between the hours of 7am and 10pm – that’s about one an hour. Then assuming access to the 167 space longstay carpark is concentrated 7-9am and 4-6pm, that’ll be 80 additional vehicle movements an hour along Staithes Lane for four hours a day.

Mark’s Cunning Plan

2009-07-25T12:13:00.000+01:00

When the Morrisons & Back Riggs development started, Government planning guidance required retail developers to prove that a ‘need’ existed and that the location of the development was the nearest developable site to the town centre (the sequential test). A consultants’ study ‘demonstrated’ that the expanded Morrison’s would meet the ‘food shopping need’ of Morpeth for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, the Government then moved the goalposts – and now require demonstrable competition and proof of ‘demand’ – though the ‘sequential test’ remains. So Mark Dransfield’s ‘cunning plan’ is to use his ‘Low Stanners’ proposal to demonstrate that a second supermarket – providing competition – can be built close to the town centre, so that the out of town proposals from Sainsbury and Tesco are thrown out.

For some reason – the existence of Morrisons, Lidl, Iceland, M&S, three butchers, two bakers, two greengrocers, two delis and a cheese shop in Morpeth town centre does not meet the Government requirement for ‘competition’. And, the rumoured appearance of a small Sainsbury’s on the Market Place when M&S move into the Arcade isn’t likely to change this.

So – all Mark needs is outline planning permission with enough detail to show the plan is viable. The siting of the supermarket, carparks, delivery access etc ideally needs further consideration…

And I’m not sure he has the OK from the Environment Agency yet.

Culture Shock! Shopping Hours in Morpeth

2009-07-23T13:45:00.000+01:00

Well - so the refurbished Sanderson Arcade will open on Nov 12th, with the new M&S and the town centre car park opening a couple of months earlier.

I gather that the Arcade will be open 9am-8pm Mon-Sat and 11am-5pm on Sundays - which will come as a bit of a shock to the independent shopkeepers on Bridge St and Newgate who are struggling to cope with 9am-5pm Mon-Fri and 9am-2pm on Sat. Of course the supermarkets and some chain stores already open long hours, seven days a week.

Morpeth is already busy at weekends - especially with summer visitors - so maybe we need a bit of a rethink about the best times to open, though I know it is difficult for small shopkeepers and coffee shops to cover long opening hours.

However - having shops open till 8pm will help towards filling the notorious 'dead zone' between the shops closing at 5pm and Morpeth's 'evening economy' starting up around 7pm.

Accident and Emergency

2009-06-21T15:16:00.000+01:00

A specialist A&E Hospital at the Moor Farm roundabout in Cramlington is being proposed by the Northumberland & North Tyneside Health Trust (NNTHT). The formal consultation is running through till next month.

Their argument is that for serious ‘blue light’ emergencies, a concentration of specialist care is better for patients that having that care spread across three (local) general hospitals. The general hospitals will still offer ‘walk-in’ A&E care, and patients will normally decanted out to these more local hospitals after 2-3 days, but the specialist hospital will have consultants available 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

Newcastle Hospitals Trust (NHT) points out that their new regional trauma centre and other specialist hospitals are only eight minutes away (by ‘blue light’ ambulance) from the proposed site, and there is a risk of duplication of function.

NNTHT need a catchment area of 0.5million pop to provide enough accidents and emergencies to make their new hospital viable both financial and in providing sufficient professional challenge for the concentration of consultants. That’s why North Tyneside was added onto Northumberland in the first place. And that explains the choice of location, which is a population-weighted mean – it’s the place that’s nearest most people. So – as usual, sparsely populated north and far west Northumberland miss out.

I’m concerned about transport access: Moor Farm roundabout is already one of the most congested points on the Northumberland road network and walking, cycling and public transport access is poor. As far as I can tell, there has been no assessment of traffic impact, and the Trust has only just thought about talking to the Highways Agency. Even disregarding the need for car-free access, there’s a serious risk that ‘blue light’ ambulances will get snarled up in congestion of the hospital’s own making.

Then – there’s the standard climate change question: I’ll (generously?) assume they’ll go for a low carbon operation, but will they design and build to cope with the inevitable climate changes that will occur within the 50-60 year planned lifetime of the building?

As usual – watch this space….

Nothing to do with us!

2009-06-19T10:48:00.000+01:00

According to NCC Public Transport team, the new Morpeth Bus Station is nothing to do with them. Apparently it is an integral part of the Sanderson Arcade shopping centre, so is owned and run by Mason Owen, in their local guise as the new Centre Manager. This - so I'm told - has come as a bit of a surprise to Mason Owen.

NCC has magnanimously agreed to include the bus apron in their gritting schedule, but that's about all.

I gather both sides - bus operators on the one hand and developers & contractors on the other - are keen to establish communication channels at the right level, but haven't quite done so yet. Seems a little late in the day...

Supermarket Sweep

2009-06-18T13:56:00.005+01:00

Mark Dransfield and his team hit Morpeth yesterday - talking to residents of Staithes Lane, and then the Town Council - don't know who else besides.

Essentially, he's worried about his investment in the town centre development if Sainsbury's or Tesco's get permission for an out-of-town supermarket. [When he talks about Morpeth as 'our town' - think of it as ownership as well as identification]. So he's bringing forward a planning application for a supermarket on Low Stanners in the hope that this will stymie planning permission for the out-of-town supermarkets.

Essentially - the Highways Depot will become an extension of the existing car park with bridges over the Cotting Burn, and the supermarket will be roughly where Robson Prescott's (the vets) is now. The car park will be two storey, with the lower level half underground - with flood water storage tanks below that. Delivery lorries will access along a widened Staithes Lane - which will require the Red Bull pub to be demolished.

He has backing from the Chamber of Trade and he was lobbying the local residents and the Town Council yesterday. And he's doing a very complicated dance with the County Council: they have their eye on the site for a new library, info centre and health clinic (replacing the Cottage Hospital). He is now trying to convince them that the NHS/NCC land along Gas House Lane (Terrace Car Park to The Willows) could be used for this. (He suggested the Willows could be relocated to the Easter Field, next to Easterfield Court - obviously doesn't know the history of that site)

Anyway - the timing is very tight: for this scheme to have any bearing on the Sainsbury decision, the planning application has to be in before the Sainsbury application comes to committe. I thought that was Thurs July 2nd - but Mark assures me it is now Thurs Aug 6th. BTW - our two 'local' Morpeth councillors on the ten-member Northern Area Planning Committee are Cllr David Woodard (lives in Ulgham) and Cllr David Moore (lives on the west edge of Morpeth).

518 bus success

2009-06-17T10:58:00.000+01:00

Back in 2005, NCC in partnership with Arriva got some money from government ('Kickstart' programme) to put on an extra #518 bus from Newcastle to Widdrington Station to give a half hourly service. It was unfortunate at the time for Northumbria Coaches who had introduced a parallel service out to Widdrington Station backed by their own money, just four-five months earlier.

However, apparently, the route is now a commercial success so Arriva will be running it without subsidy. And - NCC & Arriva have been awarded Kickstart 2009 funding to extend the half hourly service out to Amble, while out of the own pockets, Arriva will take the risk of funding the rest of the route Amble-Alnwick.

So - a half hourly #518 service from Newcastle to Alnwick via Widdrington and Amble starting from April '10.

Acronymania

2009-06-16T08:47:00.001+01:00

You knew (roughly) what Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP) were about... the clue was in the name. But LMAPS?

Local Multi-Agency Problem-Solving partnerships apparently....

If it takes two traffic wardens 45 min to patrol three streets, how many traffic wardens does it take to patrol Northumberland properly?

"It was a good result for us"

2009-06-08T11:12:00.000+01:00

Just in case you didn't hear... the Green Party got just over 34,000 votes in the North East in the Euro-election, up from 4.8% in 2004 to 5.8% of the vote this time. Best results were 6.9% in Northumberland and 7.5% in Newcastle. The three existing MEPs (one each Lab, Con & LibDem) were re-elected.

Nationally, the Green vote went up by 44% (relative) to 9% with our two MEPs being re-elected - and we missed out by a couple of thousand votes on getting MEPs elected in the North West and East of England.

Thanks to everyone who voted Green - and stick to the habit when it comes to the General Election!

What is this Euro-election about?

2009-06-01T09:59:00.001+01:00

What is this Euro-election about? How are you going to use your vote?

With the media full of the MPs’ expenses scandal, there has been little or no coverage of any European elections. And what coverage there has been has been rather hi-jacked by the Euro-sceptics who are still fighting the 30-year old battle about membership.

Votes in the Euro-election on June 4th will determine the political make-up of the European Parliament for the next five years. In the lifetime of the next European Parliament, we need to:

restructure our economy to start reducing carbon emissions – starting with the Copenhagen Summit in December
deal with the global recession
prepare for peak oil – and water shortages
develop immigration and aid policies that can cope with the impact of climate change on the developing world
revise the Common Agricultural Policy to adapt it to the impact of climate change

So – are you going to use your vote to protest about MPs expenses, or to whinge about EU membership, or maybe not vote at all because nobody has told you what it’s about?

Or are you going to vote for MEPs who will take the work of the European Parliament seriously and face up to the real challenges that we face?

Look at what the real issues are – and vote Green

Tamsin needs help with Banks

2009-05-30T11:19:00.001+01:00

Tamsin Shaw, a postgraduate student at Leeds University has contacted me through this blog. She is doing a postgraduate degree dissertation looking at the interactions between industry and communities, in particular exploring H J Banks Developments (Shotton and Delhi mining sites, in particular) and the communities around the Cramlington area. She’d like to hear from anyone who has been involved in any of Bank’s Liaison Committees or other community engagement work.

Contact her at jha4tes@leeds.ac.uk or mob 07817 405 621

I was on the Liaison Committee for the opencast near Pegswood for a while – nominated from CMBC – and Banks’ were very good indeed at consulting, keeping people informed and funding a community chest - considerably better than their competitors by all accounts! However Shotton is their biggest venture by far (so far as I’m aware) so it’ll be interesting to see how they progress.

And it doesn’t really address fundamental opposition to opencast coalmining in the first place.

Investing in the car industry is wrong

2009-05-29T15:33:00.000+01:00

This is an article by Cllr Prof John Whitelegg, which I think is so good, I'm going to post all of it...

We live in interesting times. Almost all the largest world economies are assembling packages of financial support for the car industry and financial incentives to persuade citizens to throw away an older car and buy a new one. The recession and the rise in unemployment is a personal disaster for many and the pressure to “rescue” industries is intense. Sadly global thinking and decision taking on this matter is way out of line with evidence and with the need to identify opportunities out of the mess rather than continue on the same lines that created the mess.
Investing in the car industry is wrong. We need large scale investment in things that create real jobs in real communities and have a huge impact on the big things that we are all trying to address including peak oil, climate change and poverty eradication. Investing in renewable energy anywhere in the world is a “no brainer”. It will create lots of jobs in every community. Designing, equipping and retro-fitting every building with whatever is needed to reduce energy use by 50% is also a front-runner for climate and job creation success. Investing in high quality streets for walking and cycling and public transport will do the same but throwing cash at an early 20th century industry based on moving objects that weight about 75 kg in a metal container weighing about 1 tonne is not very intelligent. We can restructure cities, mobility and accessibility and in one highly co-ordinated policy deal with road safety, health, obesity, climate change and peak oil but it looks like the answer is, as usual, “no”.

Farmers' Hustings

2009-05-28T15:11:00.000+01:00

Euro-election hustings organised by the NFU last night. It was a cosy affair with less than a dozen farmers and just three candidates, me, Fiona Hall for the LibDems and Martin Callanan for the Tories.

I was surprised that there was no one from Labour or UKIP there, though someone unkindly said the only food & agriculture policy UKIP has is a dislike of Brussels sprouts.

Anyway it was far more a discussion than a question & answer session. Main messages to would-be MEPs was that the CAP should be common ie applied equally across the EU and a policy ie with a clear, relevant intention. I’d already tried to make the distinction between the intention of a policy, the systems put in place to achieve that intention and the way those systems are implemented. Much of the bad press the EU gets is (IMO) down to the way our government (and particularly DEFRA) chooses to implement Directives etc. Sometimes it feels as though a policy is being deliberately sabotaged.

Main message to the farmers was that there’s lots of Euro-money for research but very little in the old Structural Funds. Unfortunately, our Government isn’t helping farmers work with universities to tap into these new funding streams.

And there is a lot of research to be done into adaptation of farming practice to changing climate: the CAP needs to be revised to focus on food production and security adaptations to climate change, and a low carbon economy. I believe the Greens are the only political party thinking in these terms.

A challenge from Susan

2009-05-26T15:26:00.000+01:00

A comment from Susan Scott which deserves a fuller response than it would get as an add-on to an article. She writes:

“I appreciate your aims but your plans for transport do not appear to make provision for a person like me with severe mobility problems who would not get anywhere without a car. They do have some advantages!”

I wholeheartedly agree. There are uses for cars, and helping people with mobility problems is one of them. And if we could reduce the number of people choosing to use a car when they do not need to – then life would be a lot easier for those who do need to – in terms of less traffic congestion, safer roads and easier parking.

And I am suggesting that we provide alternative forms of transport or reduce the need to travel not just making it difficult or expensive to use a car.

Retail Demand and Assessment

2009-05-17T10:28:00.002+01:00

So - we now have planning applications in from both Sainsbury's and Tesco's for edge of town stores out at Coopies Lane (and north Hepscott) - which M&S are expanding into the new town centre development, Iceland are returning to Bridge Street and Morrisons are about to expand too. Recession? What recession?

If they all happen, we may get plenty of choice for a while - but people seem to forget that 'competition' is only one stage in the market cycle, and a temporary one at that - cartels and monopolies are also part of market forces, and where there is competition, there are losers.

We already know that any jobs created are likely to be offset by job losses in shops put out of business or forced to cut back, and they'll be low-paid part-time jobs in the main anyway.

The White, Young, Green consultants' study on retail provision in Morpeth published by CMBC last September does not even include the local shops - butchers, greengrocers, bakers etc - in Morpeth as part of their assessment. They just looked at supermarkets for food shopping.

Morpeth shopping is special - is still special - precisely because we have locally owned shops like this. There are few market towns that have them. Even in Northumberland, Hexham, Alnwick and Berwick are in a steeper decline that Morpeth as far as shops go - partly because they all have edge of town supermarkets.

We should value what we've got and shop locally - for the good of the town and the local economy.

Expenses and Voting

2009-05-15T09:54:00.001+01:00

The MPs' expenses debacle has really undermined the public's faith in the political process and in politicians. And I can't say I blame people for losing faith. On the Borough Council, we were subject to ultra-strict rules about what we could and couldn't claim for. I couldn’t even get my moat cleaned, let alone pay for a second home in Longhirst! So I'm pretty appalled at what many MPs have been allowed to get away with.

The polls are suggesting that many people will either not vote at all, or are looking again at the smaller parties. I’m encouraged that more people may choose to vote Green, but I’m also worried – if the turnout is really low it makes it easier for the BNP look as though they have a lot of support.

So – please do vote – but think very carefully about who you choose to back.

‘For evil to triumph, it is enough that the good should do nothing’ [or something like that]

Oxygen of Publicity II

2009-05-14T10:08:00.000+01:00

They were back again yesterday (Weds) – the BNP - with a stall outside the Town Hall and placards pasted on the hoardings. And they’d brought their own film crew this time, to make sure Morpeth features on their website.

I suppose in a way, it’s a compliment to the way that Morpeth Market brings people into the town now that they should think it worth their while to have 8-10 people out leafleting the market. Though from the comments I got, the market traders were barely aware they were there. And, by and large, people seemed to be ignoring them.

A number of people did complain to the NCC Information Centre (formerly Firstcall) though and as far as I can make out, similar action was taken as last time:
A couple of police were in evidence quietly patrolling the market
The Market Supervisor made a report to his boss which (I hope) will be incorporated into the routine monthly ‘tension monitoring’ report that all local authorities make to the Home Office
They were made to remove the placards from the Town Hall contractor’s hoardings, since they are private property and clearly marked ‘No Posters’

So – Phil’s hope that they wouldn’t come back was over-optimistic but at least they were ignored.

Piracy

2009-04-13T10:10:00.002+01:00

Off topic for this blog but...

Is anyone else wondering why the Somalis have suddenly resorted to piracy? There is no tradition of piracy along that coast as far as I'm aware.

Could it be that their land is wasted by war and desertification and the seas are poisoned so that the local Somalis cannot support themselves by traditional fishing and farming? And so some are resorting to piracy - just as some are becoming economic migrants.

And yet the West is prepared to spend a fortune on the military to deal with the symptoms or piracy - and deal with the symptoms of illegal immigration - but is not prepared to provide aid to re-establish the local economy, or address desertification, or respond to the threat of climate change.

And it is worth noting that the US and French Special Forces killed pirates but we have no reports of the pirates actually killing anyone. Protection of property is obviously the priority.

And while I'm ranting - watch out to see if we get any reports of the 12 alleged terrorists siezed in the North West being released for lack of evidence. For some reason this doesn't seem nearly as newsworthy as the initial raid.

OK - got that off my chest...

A late April Fool or what...

2009-04-08T15:58:00.003+01:00

Tesco's - the company promising to bring an 'eco store' to Morpeth - has got a great new incentive for people to buy low energy light bulbs - they are giving extra airmiles away with every purchase! See Guardian OnLine

Either its a belated April Fool - or Tescos really just don't get it! Which does not bode well for their 'green' approach to a superstore on the edge of Morpeth.

And they are not the only organisation who just can't get to grips with what reducing carbon emissions is all about - let alone the sheer scale of what reductions are needed to avert irreversible climate change.

The whole "everyone doing their little bit" approach is simply not going to be enough - we need structural changes and we need a clearer understanding of what reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 really means.

The Joys of Automated Translation

2009-04-06T17:11:00.000+01:00

Proposals by major supermarkets to build in Morpeth are now international news - as witnessed by this blog entry. The auto-translation into English gives an unusual twist to the arguments (I particularly like Morpeth Bedroom of Switch...

'Giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco both penury to unsnap immense stores on the acrimony of Morpeth - where developers are currently edifice a flagship 26-unit, Edwardian-style shopping gallery at the bygone Sanderson Arcade in the burgh mid-point.

Now Morpeth bedchamber of switch has voiced fears that the supermarket plans could opprobrious the ascendancy of the burgh mid-point intrigue and critically jeopardise the town’s together monogram. Sainsbury’s recently staged a non-exclusive demonstration of its £30m plans destined for a 300-job, 35,000sqft foodstore on farmland at Stobhill. Tesco has submitted a planning utter to sculpture a 200-job, eco-friendly 20,000sqft co-op give credence to on Morpeth’s Coopies Lane industrial class - painstaking to the locate proposed at want Sainsbury’s.

Yesterday chairman Stuart Lishman said: “We paucity on the contrary look at Berwick, Alnwick and Hexham to consort with how anybody planning ascendancy breeds tons more, and also what the colliding on their burgh centres has been when confound after confound appears next door to the nonconformist supermarket.

Morpeth bedchamber of switch says the two companies father not made unsnap how tons jobs want be wrecked in the burgh mid-point as a effect of their projects, or commented on the cool colliding on existing businesses.

Morpeth bedchamber of switch has a impost to demand retail unfolding in the burgh mid-point, and a long-standing map out of adversary to out-of-town retail developments such as those proposed at want Tesco and Sainsbury.

“We be convinced of that such schemes want critically detract from the multi-million bray unfolding in a moment being carried abroad with the Sanderson Arcade intrigue. He said: “The mind-boggling talk has been that there is an high-priority need destined for a unripe supermarket, providing greater Вlite destined for burgh people. We unhesitatingly be convinced of that the together monogram of our burgh want be critically jeopardised if retail giants, whose on the contrary by reason of is profit, are allowed to sculpture their new warehouses on its disguise acrimony.”

Last Stygian Tesco corporate affairs executive, Doug Wilson, said its proposed Coopies Lane locate was the essential accessible destined for a unripe co-op give credence to. More than 80% of people who attended our demonstration said they were in forgiveness of our plans. In the meantime, shoppers want be prolonged to return Morpeth in their droves to go to Kingston Park, Ashington, Cramlington and Alnwick.'

The oxygen of publicity

2009-03-19T08:55:00.002Z

I've received a number of queries about the BNP stall that appeared briefly outside the Town Hall yesterday.

They had not sought permission from anyone to be there - and the County Council, who are responsible for pavements (being the highways authority) are on record as saying they wouldn't give anyone permission to run a stall of that size on the pavement there. However the general opinion amongst the Borough Council Exec was that to take any action to 'move them on' would just have given them more publicity - the notorious 'oxygen of publicity' which the Thatcher government tried to deny the IRA.

Congratulations to the group of KEVI students who argued with them though - rapidly showing up the BNP in their true character.

We did send a Community Safety Officer along to keep an eye on things, and of course, the CCTV on the Town Hall entrance will have a full record. And - and not many people are aware of this - the Borough Council are required to submit regular 'tension monitoring' reports on political, racial and religious activity that could create 'community tension' - so this will be reported routinely to the Home Office.

Personally - I think the BNP would not make any headway if the mainstream political parties and media were doing their job and addressing the concerns of the public. Offering simple, single solutions to complex problems is a hallmark of fascism - but in a 'soundbite' world - the media tend to lead us to expect them.

Age of Stupid - take action now

2009-03-16T18:24:00.004Z

I went to the premiere of ‘Age of Stupid’ at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle last night. It’s a film looking back from 2055 to now and asking why we did not do anything about climate change while we still could.

The key message for me was the timescale we have to work with. It isn’t enough just to set a target of 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 and work slowly towards that. Apparently, unless carbon emissions peak by 2015 and then are reduced rapidly – the global temperature increase will be enough to release greenhouse gases trapped in permafrost and the ocean depths, and climate change will be unstoppable.

2015 – that means action, not just commitments, need to be taken by the Government elected at the next General Election, by the European Parliament elected this June and by the current US President. It is the biggest threat we have to face and every political and policy decision taken from now on, must move us towards a local carbon economy.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, a multi-NGO the protest group backing ‘Age of Stupid’, are pinning their hopes on the UN Climate Change Conference to be held Copenhagen in December. And they are looking for people to lobby government.

I’m happy to support them – but I know the only real way to get politicians to take action is through the ballot box. If they feel their vote is threatened, they’ll listen. So my message is – vote Green in the upcoming European elections, in Mayoral elections, in local elections – at every opportunity. You might not get a Green elected (every time, though it sometimes happens) – but whoever does get elected should get the message.

Morpeth Goes Bananas

2009-03-08T10:09:00.001Z

A hundred and sixty-three Morpethians ‘went bananas’ on Friday and Saturday. They all took part in the world record attempt on the greatest number of people to eat a Fairtrade banana within a 24 hour period.

The attempt was part of Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, and was organised by the Fairtrade Foundation to raise awareness of the plight of banana growers in the developing world. Over 370,000 people took part nationally.

57 people signed up in Price’s greengrocers on Newgate Street who were giving away free Fairtrade bananas all week to support the attempt. A further 65 people signed up at the Fairtrade coffee morning last weekend, and 24 at the Farmers’ Market this weekend. And 17 took part virtually, signing up through a Facebook event.

When so many people take part in an event like this, it confirms that Morpeth’s status as a Fairtrade Town is not just a tick-box exercise, but that people here are really committed to Fairtrade.

Thanks to everyone who took part, especially to Price’s greengrocers who have been loyal supporters of the Forum for over five years.

Nuclear Power a Red Herring?

2009-03-02T09:06:00.001Z

So far most of the nuclear power discussion has been about grid electricity.

Even if the UK replaced all its nukes it would only offset a small proportion of current CO2 emissions (something like 5%) because other major energy consuming sectors use other sources of power than the grid eg gas home heating, industrial use of gas, coal and oil, aviation fuel for aircraft, petrol and diesel for cars and lorries.

The proponents of nuclear will actually achieve little or nothing in terms of emissions reductions (if they get their way) if overall energy consumption continues to rise - nukes will just provide the power taken up by the increased consumption.

What we really need is across the board demand reduction through a massive programme of efficiency improvements, new technologies and a switch to low carbon grid generation if we are to cut UK emissions substantially.

Nuclear is a red herring in this debate - and retains the serious drawbacks of risk, waste and its own form of non-renewable fuel – uranium. ‘Peak uranium’ looms in about a hundred years time at present consumption rates.

Winners

2009-02-25T08:45:00.002Z

Congratulations to KEVI which has just won the ‘Most Sustainable School’ category in the Chronicle (regional) Environmental Awards.

Well done to Victoria Najafi and everyone involved.

It is, of course, a credit to the whole town, with lots of support for the school coming from local councils and other organisations.

27th March...

In response to an anonymous comment implying that the school only pays lip service to eco-status "successfully burning in excess of 100 tonnes of imported coal in its 60 year old boilers, with a whopping 0% insulation rate throughout the building. And a continues 24 hour do-not-switch off any of the 800 PCs system."
- a school spokesperson pointed it that there has been considerable modernisation with actions and systems matching the words: "The boilers have actually been replaced and the PCs are all switched off at the end of the day"

New Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

2009-02-13T12:43:00.002Z

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is developing a plan to build a new £75M Specialist Emergency Care Hospital 'close to the A19 and A1 on the Northumberland and North Tyneside border' (would this be Seaton Burn?).

It is planned that the new centre will have 210 beds, a Critical Care unit, operating theatres, blood sciences, radiology including MRI and CT scanners, maternity and a full range of support and ancillary facilities.

See www.northumbria.nhs.uk

There’s a series of public meetings about this – the Morpeth one is 25th Feb 2.30pm - 3.30pm Morpeth Cottage Hospital, tel 0191 2031296 for more info

It may well be a good scheme, but an immediate concern the springs to my mind is about access by non-car users. NHS has lots of fine words about sustainability, carbon reduction and reducing car dependency, but does it put them into action:
i) how does this location relate to the NHS vision: "NHS organisations are exemplar in leading the population-wide shift to more active and low carbon travel such as public transport, cycling and walking”
ii) would the hospital comply with the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England (January 2009), Section 3 'low carbon travel, transport and access' (all five Key Actions).
iii) and of course, the location must be approved by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit

Access to the new bus station

2009-02-11T15:35:00.004Z

The new Morpeth bus station opens next Tuesday (17th) - and demolition of the old bus station starts straightaway, so lets hope there's no 'Terminal 5' type problems, because there is no fall-back cover if something doesn't work first time.

Access will be from the T&G Allan passageway from Newgate Street while the demolition and redevelopment continues in Back Riggs. Should be a bit of a boost for the Newgate Street shops.

The Comrades Club, HealthiChoice and Ladbrokes are persistently remaining open in Back Riggs at the centre of the chaos. They'll be accessed from Bridge Street.

Friday 13th: possibly a slight hitch: apparently the bus bays have not be laid out in a deep enough chevron, so that passengers will have difficulty getting on and off if buses are parked in adjacent bays. But - I'm sure they'll sort it by Tuesday...

Bus Fares Up Again

2009-02-09T15:26:00.000Z

I see Arriva has quietly increased its bus fares. If petrol had gone up, motorists would be march - sorry, driving - on Downing Street and there'd be more than a hint of revolution in the air.

Bus fares go up - and there's not even a mention in the press, let alone a peep out of the bus passengers. Not sure what the average increase is - and admittedly some fares have increased - but some increases are quite steep. Highest I've found so far is Longhirst-Morpeth return which has gone up 11%

And this all at a time when we are supposed to be switching too public transport

Then again - the buses are full of older passengers taking advantage of the free travel for over-60's. This is going so well that Arriva has renegotiated their deal with Castle Morpeth BC, and is getting an extra £70,000 to cover the cost of concessionary travel. It's a great scheme - but the funding from central Government to local authorities doesn't really cover the costs.

No Action on Cycleways in Winter

2009-02-03T14:23:00.004Z

Remember the correspondent who raised the issue of cycle paths not being maintained or gritted or kept free from overhanging branches.

Well, his UTube video illustrating the hazards has been viewed over 2000 times, and he has had replies from the Netherlands and Germany all expressing surprise about the conditions of our cycle ways.

However there has at yet been no response from Northumberland CC.

He writes: “What to do? The council doesn't seem to bother. May be we should lobby that they don't build any new bicycle paths. If cycle paths are not maintained they provide a false sense of security and suggest to car drivers that we should use them. This in turn makes them more aggressive towards cyclists on the road.”

Leisure Centre Re-Opens

2009-01-24T14:45:00.000Z

Riverside Leisure Centre will be open again on Monday 9th February, both dryside (i.e. sports hall, studio, gym) and swimming pool.

The centre will be open for bookings from Monday 2nd February 2009. All routine club bookings will be honoured to their original sessions prior to closure in September. To confirm bookings, clubs should contact Riverside Leisure Centre from Monday 2nd February tel 01670 514665. Please note that this number will not be in use until Monday 2nd February due to the installation of the new booking system.

Some things to watch out for...

2009-01-15T13:58:00.003Z

With the flood recovery activity, the Dransfield development and Castle Morpeth BC desperately trying to get things done before it disappears, there's a whole load of starts, completions and re-openings to look out for over the next couple of months.

Here are some, according to me best sources of information:

within the next fortnight: work on fixing 'anchor points' in the Market Place - these will allow market stalls etc to be fixed to the paving slabs, making them more wind-resistant

end of January: Riverside Leisure Centre re-opens

16th Feb: New Bus Station opens. I'm told that the bus operators are getting a site visit 1-2 weeks beforehand 'to see if their buses will fit'

mid-end of March: The Chantry re-opens

end of March: Morpeth Library re-opens

end of March: Phase 2 work starts at the Town Hall (depending on planning permission). This should include installation of a lift, clearance of the Butter Market (and new toilets being fitted), renewal of heating pipework and overhaul of electrics

Cycleways in Winter

2009-01-05T09:57:00.004Z

A comment received from a local resident:

“As a regular commuter into Morpeth I am shocked about the state of our cycleways in winter. It is not the first time this year that the cyclepath into Morpeth had black ice or was covered in frozen snow. I clearly think we should lobby to have our cycleways cleared in winter. Not only from snow and ice, but also from hedge cuttings. My daughter fell this morning and I know of at least one other cyclist who fell on the Whorral bank cycle path due to icy conditions.”

See a video about this: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=83oo3xH_mqg

I received this on 11th Dec – and forwarded it to the local county councillor, but when I followed it up with the local resident on 4th Jan, he replied:

“I didn't get much feedback from the people I contacted in Morpeth More encouraging was the response from the Cycle Touring Club, who mentioned the video in their weekly newsletter. The video has now been watched 1895 times and I had replies from as far away as the Netherlands and Germany. In both countries they were surprised about the ridiculous state British cyclepaths are in.“

I appreciate that the additional cost of clearing all cycle ways in winter would be forbidding, but I think, we should identify some key routes to be cleared. There seems to be a lot of encouragement from the government for sustainable transport and I wonder if there would be funds available for projects like this.”

Flood Protection Scheme

2009-01-02T13:51:00.002Z

Lots of rumours going around about the timetable for the Environment Agency's Flood Alleviation (Protection & Prevention) Scheme for Morpeth. The version I've heard is:

consultation on options for scheme: March - June '09
early summer - decision on preferred option and design work carried out
construction work to start in early 2011, depending on the scheme design - and it will take about two years to complete
Cost will be £10-15M out of a total £600M national pot - and the money has been earmarked for Morpeth

Incidentally - the EA flood defence work was delayed nationally because the Government cut the funding. They cut the funding because DEFRA (under which the EA comes) was fined by the EU. DEFRA was fined because of delays in making Single Farm Payments to hard-up farmers. The delays were caused by Government trying to introduce the new single payment scheme in one year instead of five years (as happened in most European countries).

Political Games

2008-12-30T10:41:00.001Z

Some poorly played politics at the last Council meeting in 2008 with the 'surprise' LibDem motion looking to comment on the 'rationalisation' of the former Waters & Robson by Coca Cola.

My views on Coca Cola's take-over are spelled out in this blog and I would have liked to rehearse them in Council - but the way the LibDems brought forward the motion and refused pointblank to discuss it beforehand when asked leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

And - why single out Coca Cola? There are enough jobs under threat elsewhere - particularly with the new (LibDem-run) unitary council (probably 15-20 times the job losses with Coca Cola)

Climate Change - is it natural or manmade?

2008-12-17T10:15:00.002Z

My twopenn’orth on whether climate change is natural or manmade - drawing on climate models from geological history remembered from a Geology degree thirty years ago.... (OK – it won’t convince someone who believes the earth was created just a few thousand years ago – but you’ve got to start somewhere)

Earth seems to develop negative feedback systems to return its surface conditions to a steady state when disturbed – this is the (non-mystical) basis of the Gaia hypothesis.
Forget carbon dioxide levels varying over the past thousand, ten thousand or hundred thousand years (and try to ignore the suggestion that we are about 40,000 years overdue for an ice age on past indications), we are talking about processes taking tens if not hundreds of millions of years. I’m thinking of the Carboniferous Period (354-290 million years ago) and the Cretaceous Period (144-65 million years ago). From what we can glean from the geological record (it’s called ‘palaeo-climatology’) both were marked by small or non-existent ice caps, extensive shallow seas and higher average temperatures than now.
And both Periods are named for mechanisms which absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and trapped it in the earth’s crust.
In the Carboniferous, 'trees' from mangrove swamps were buried over tens of millions of years forming coal (oil and gas were formed in a similar way - though not from trees).
In the Cretaceous, micro-organisms flourishing in the warm seas deposited chalk and limestone trapping the carbon as calcium carbonate – again over tens of millions of years. I’m interpreting this in each case as periods with high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a negative biofeedback mechanism which trapped it in the crust and – eventually – reduced CO2 levels, the earth cooled and the sea levels dropped as ice caps grew again.

So – it’s a natural process?

Trouble is – what we’re doing, by burning fossil fuels, is releasing carbon dioxide that took tens if not hundreds of millions of years to deposit in a matter of a one or two centuries (and that’s not counting carbon dioxide released when we make cement or concrete from limestone). This is simply too fast for the earth to develop new feedback systems!
We're getting the 'greenhouse effect' – global warming, ice caps melting, sea levels rising – including dramatic weather during the (geologically brief) transition period.
And this may well be enough to put paid to what we call ‘civilisation’ – and maybe also to the human race.
But unless the process is so extreme that the earth loses a lot of its water into space (in which case Earth will become like Venus), I think we can rely on negative biofeedback mechanisms developing to remove the carbon dioxide naturally, though it make take a few hundred million years!

To summarise – even though we are releasing carbon dioxide in one-millionth of the time it took to deposit it, it’s likely that biofeedback mechanisms will develop to re-trap the carbon dioxide naturally – but over rather a long time. It is not really the earth that is at risk from climate change – it is humans and human civilisation.

Oh – and a thought about offsetting carbon emissions by planting trees. It took the mangrove swamps of the Carboniferous – hundreds of millions of years, thousands of millions of generations of trees growing over most of the planet – to trap enough carbon as coal to make a difference to CO2 levels. Planting trees will trap a little CO2 while the tree is actually growing, though not when it reaches maturity – but unless the ‘offsetters’ have plans to turn their trees into coal – its nothing like a longterm solution.

And pop go the jobs...

2008-12-14T11:06:00.001Z

I see Coca-Cola is now looking to ‘rationalise’ Waters & Robson with a probable 49 jobs being ’restructured’. This follows on from Sanjay Guha (Coca-Cola GB President) saying (14-Nov):
“No business of course can offer cast-iron guarantees about jobs, particularly when there is bound to be an overlap between departments and functions” … “Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) will be considering how best to integrate the Abbey Well business within the CCE portfolio, and this integration may include job losses.” … “Our hope would be that this could lead to job opportunities for as many of Abbey Well employees as possible.”

And in a follow-up letter (28-Nov):
“The integration could mean job opportunities for many ‘Abbey Well’ employees, however we cannot rule out some job losses.” …. “We believe we have a responsibility to the local [Morpeth] community and we want to continue to make a positive difference.”

So – I guess they’ll offer a number of staff a move elsewhere in the country (world?), and make them redundant if they don’t want to move.

Doesn’t do a lot for the local Morpeth economy, does it?

Local Trains - Sunday Service

2008-12-12T11:56:00.002Z

Northern Rail is running local rail services on Sundays in the run-up to Christmas again. And this year, they are running trains from Alnmouth - and including Sun 28th Dec.

Train services run from Alnmouth through Acklington - Widdrington - Pegswood - Morpeth - Cramlington - Newcastle to Metro Centre and back.

I hope that people will be using these trains to come into Morpeth for Christmas (and sales) shopping as well as going into Newcastle and to the Metro Centre

Train times:
Alnmouth 11:05 Acklington 11:12 Widdrington 11:19 Morpeth 11:29 Cramlington 11:38 Newcastle 11:50 Metro Centre 12:05

Morpeth 13:12 Cramlington 13:20 Newcastle 13:31 Metro Centre 13:42

Newcastle 10:14 Cramlington 10:25 Morpeth 10:33 Pegswood 10:37 Widdrington 10:42

Acklington 10:49 Alnmouth 10:56

Metro Centre 12:14 Newcastle 12:22 Cramlington 12:35 Morpeth 12:42

Metro Centre 16:05 Newcastle 16:13 Cramlington 16:28 Morpeth 16:35 Pegswood 16:39 Widdrington 16:45 Acklington 16:51 Alnmouth 16:59

Trespassers will be prosecuted?

2008-12-10T09:02:00.002Z

English Partnerships (or are they 'Homes & Communities Agency' yet - anyway), the owners of the old St George's Hospital site is suffering another bout of possessiveness.

They have put up 'no trespassing' and 'private property' signs all around the St. George's site, across Cottingwood Common and throughout the Bluebell (Howburn) woods.

Their security guards have been told to forbid dog walkers from the area - though the guards themselves think this is crazy and are on good terms with most of the regular dog walkers.

The people of Morpeth have had access to Cottingwood Common and Bluebell Woods for at least the best part of a century - and we need to get rights of access sorted and confirmed before things go much further.

Schweppes Abbey Well

2008-11-30T09:23:00.003Z

I wrote back to Sanjay Guha of Coca Cola (Great Britain) following his comment on my Pop Goes the Weasel? blog entry:

"Many thanks for taking the time to consider my concerns and send me a response.

I take your points about maintaining local employment and the local base of the company, and I hope that the rationalisation process will permit this.

However you do not address my other concerns about the profit leaving the local economy. I base my comments on the work of the New Economic Foundation 'local multiplier 3' and other work which shows that money spent with locally owned companies contribute to the local economy more than money spent with multi-nationals.

Whilst investment from CCE may support local jobs, the fact remains that the loss of a 'head office' even of a small company from the area, and the region, will be reflected in a reduction in regional GVA - the main measure which Government is using to assess the progress of the region. I don't know whether you can arrange your profit centres to retain the profit from Water & Robson in the North East?"

and he has replied:

"Following our acquisition of the ‘Abbey Well’ natural mineral water source, I am now pleased to be able to share with you the details of Coca-Cola’s plans to develop the brand in the coming months and years.

"From early next year, water extracted at the Morpeth site will be available to consumers as ‘Schweppes Abbey Well’. By combining the track record of ‘Abbey Well’ as a quality natural mineral water, with the world famous, much-loved and iconic ‘Schweppes’ brand, we will give more consumers across Great Britain the chance to enjoy a high quality, British natural mineral water.

"As part of our sponsorship of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, ‘Schweppes Abbey Well’ will be one of the drinks offered at London 2012, meaning fans and athletes alike will be able to enjoy a range of drinks, including soft drinks, bottled water, juices and sports drinks during the games. ‘Schweppes Abbey Well’ will also be encouraging people to get active by offering them the opportunity to go swimming for free with further details to be announced next year.

"‘Schweppes’ has a history of nurturing other well established brands, including Rose’s cordials and Malvern English Water, to grow their sales and retain investment in their local communities. The ‘Coca-Cola System’ hopes to replicate this success in the Morpeth area, using the scale and ambition of The Coca-Cola Company to deliver growth and employment opportunities for local people.

"Now the deal is complete Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the local employer, will be considering how best to integrate the ‘Abbey Well’ business within the company. At this stage, CCE does not have any plans or proposals regarding the best way to achieve this. The integration could mean job opportunities for many ‘Abbey Well’ employees, however we cannot rule out some job losses. As a responsible employer, CCE will consult fully with ‘Abbey Well’ employees before any decisions are taken.

"I would like to thank you for your reply to my earlier email and address your other concerns.
While ‘Coca-Cola’ may be a famous global brand, we are also very much a British business.
The ‘Coca-Cola System’ operates in many areas across England, Scotland and Wales and we have developed strong relationships with the local communities where we are present. We believe we have a responsibility to the local community and we want to continue to make a positive difference. This includes Morpeth.

"Abbey Well is being integrated into our business structure and I appreciate you may have concerns. However, the Abbey Well business will remain in Morpeth and we will invest in it for growth as Coca-Cola Enterprises, as the local employer, continues to bottle the water here. We firmly believe that our investment will help sustain and build on the success of key business in the North East in the long-term.

"Our contribution to local communities goes beyond our operations. We have our own community investment activities and local community sponsorships, as well as charitable donations, employee volunteering and the provision of in-kind donations.
I hope - and expect - this will be the start of a long and rewarding relationship between The ‘Coca-Cola System’, Abbey Well and the Morpeth community and I hope you will agree that linking the ‘Abbey Well’ brand with ‘Schweppes’ opens up many more possibilities and sets ‘Abbey Well’ on course for a very prosperous future. "

Hmmmm....

Pop goes the weasel?

2008-11-12T16:43:00.002Z

I see that Waters & Robson - the local Morpeth firm selling (amongst other products) Abbey Well mineral water have sold up to Coca Cola. Even if Coca Cola keep the Abbey Well brand (and I guess that is what they are paying for), I don't think they'll see any reason why it should come from or be bottled in Morpeth - that'll be 80+ local jobs at risk as the 'rationalisation process' cuts in.

Of course, it is a privately-owned company, and the directors have a perfect right to sell their property - but I'd have said that Waters & Robson, in some way, also belongs to Morpeth. The business has been linked to the town for a century and more. I think there's an issue of loyalty here.

And even if Coca Cola keep the business in Morpeth - the profits will go out of the town, out of the local economy.

This is what I can't understand when people look for the 'big name' multinationals coming to Morpeth: Costa and Starbucks will threaten our local owned cafes, Subway is squeezing our local sandwich shops, Next, Timpsons, W H Smiths etc will all take business from locally owned shops - and (to my way of thinking) the challenge to our local independent butchers, bakers, delis and greengrocers are Morrisons, Tescos, Sainsburys and M&S - not the markets.

Sure the 'big names' may bring more people into Morpeth (though maybe not so many, if Bridge Street looks identical to any other high street) - but those people won't spend that much in the local shops, and though the 'big name' stores may 'create jobs', their profits will go out of the town - and jobs will be lost from the locally owned shops.

Five Years of Fairtrade in Northumberland

2008-11-09T22:26:00.003Z

Last weekend (Sat 1st) – we had a ‘Celebration of Five Years of Fairtrade in Morpeth’ – remembering that Morpeth was the first Fairtrade town in Northumberland, being awarded the status in 2003.

It was a good turnout – with some 50 or so people from all over Northumberland – from Wooler to Wideopen. Hannah Reed came up from the Fairtrade Foundation in London, giving us a preview of their new ‘Tipping the Balance’ campaign to be launched in Fairtrade Fortnight (23rd Feb – 8th Mar) next year. Also a forewarning of the Great Banana Event on 6th-7th March….

Fiona Hall MEP came along and Denis Murphy MP thought he was coming, but his staff sprang a surprise birthday party on him. (Happy Birthday for last week, Denis!)

And the newly formed Morpeth Leos – the ‘junior Lions’ from KEVI – came along with some entertaining Fairtrade games and quizzes. I was disappointed that they didn’t do the promised facepainting though.

We collected ideas and suggestions for what might be done to promote Fairtrade further – and here’s a transcription of what people came up with:

IDEAS

* Raising awareness of fairtrade amongst young people – going into schools and running ‘fun’ events
* Can school ‘shops’ and canteens be fairtrade?
* Northumberland – a fairtrade county?
* Hadrians Wall – a fairtrade zone?
* T-shirts & badges to promote fairtrade
* Councils offer free advertising on website and in publications for local suppliers, sellers of fairtrade produce, including discount coupons for products
* Develop more of a website presence
a web-based Northumberland directory of Fairtrade outlets
* Get someone uninhibited on your committee

PEOPLE & ORGANISATIONS to get INVOLVED

* Local Schools
* Target young people - a Morpeth or Northumberland Fairtrade Facebook group
* Why just young people? Try involving U3A
* Pegswood Parish Council to persuade all community facilities (Uniun Building, Welfare, Project Centre etc) to buy fairtrade tea, coffee etc from the local Co-Op
* The large supermarkets
* Cramlington Fairtrade Steering Group seeks support
* The new Northumberland unitary Council
* Organise a motion in support of Fairtrade to be passed in the month that the new council comes into existence (April-May)
* Parish councils – and the new clusters of parish councils (formerly known as belonging communities)
* The new town councils being created in Wansbeck & Blyth Valley
* Town-twinning people: working on Fairtrade promotion with “twin” towns in Europe and elsewhere
* Churches – together with their sister churches in other countries
* Bed & Breakfasts, Guest Houses, Hotels
* Development Trusts

EVENTS

* Have more gatherings to bring people together – twice a year?
* Cramlington: Photo-Opp of Manor Walks security manhandling fairtrade activist distributing fairtrade leaflets outside the mall
* Fairtrade fair led by young people
* Fairtrade Fortnight 23rd Feb – 8th Mar 09
* Launch of Fairtrade Foundation “Tipping the Balance” initiative
* Bananas! Fri 6th Sat 7th Mar
Banana world record attempt held at all Morpeth schools simultaneously! Perhaps Leos could co-ordinate?
Banana Tour: An inflatable banana or people dressed as bananas visiting shops and supporters in Morpeth/Northumberland
Which building can we dress up as a banana?
* Fairtrade Question Time in run-up to European Elections (June ’09)
Traidcraft may be producing national policy briefing

OFFERS of HELP

* Morpeth Leos
Leos are visiting 7-12 year-old youth group in Longhirst to talk about Fairtrade (and take the games with them)
* KEVI Student Voice
* KEVI Student International Relations Committee

Planning Applications are in Season

2008-11-06T14:07:00.002Z

Traditionally - developers like to bring forward major planning applications over the Christmas break - and this year looks as though we are in for a 'bumper crop':

Tesco say they will submit their planning application for a store up at Coopies Lane 'in December'. No sign of the Sainsburys application which was promised for May/June past, though. There is revised Government planning guidance on retail development ('PPS3') due out 'early in the new year' - so maybe that is determining submission schedules, as well as the transition to the unitary authority.

Novera hopes to submit their application for the Tod Hill wind farm (reduced from 6 to 4 turbines in the recent exhibition) 'by midDecember'

Network Rail is finally expecting to bring forward a planning application for their proposals for provide more car parking at Morpeth rail station 'before Christmas'.

And - further afield, RWE is expected to submit the planning application for the new so-called 'clean coal' power station at Cambois very soon. This will be determined by the Secretary of State, not local councils - though the rumour is that RWE are keen to get the application in before the shift to the unitary, because they think they'll get a more sympathetic hearing from Wansbeck DC

So - there shoud be plenty of paperwork to read through over the Christmas break!

Geoff wants your flood snaps & clips

2008-10-29T10:11:00.002Z

Dr Geoff Parkin is leading a Newcastle University study of exactly how the water reached different areas of Morpeth and how quickly the flood levels.

He wants to do this using pictures, videos and descriptions contributed by the public.

By the end of November, he wants to collect from the public:

photographs showing flood levels at different times through the day

and descriptions of how, where and when flooding happened.

Photographs (preferably digital) and comments can be contributed by any of the following means:

Website

E-mail

Hand in to:

Stait Photography, 51 Newgate Street, Morpeth (who will copy photos from camera, memory stick etc onto CD free of charge)
Castle Morpeth Council FirstCall, 28 Bridge Street, Morpeth
New Life Christian Centre, 24 Dacre Street, Morpeth
Or any residents' meetings

Or post to: Geoff Parkin at 39 Mitford Road, Morpeth, NE61 1RG

Geoff Parkin - who is, incidentally, a Green Party member - argued strongly against the previous Env Agency proposals for Morpeth Flood Protection, advocating a comprehensive flood alleviation system of the sort that the Env Agency is proposing now, more than five years (and two floods) later.

Boys' Brigade 'Bargain Bazaar'

2008-10-26T08:48:00.002Z

It is coming up to the time of year when that 'mother of all bring & buy sales' - the 'Bargain Bazaar' - organised by Morpeth Boys' Brigade and 6th Morpeth Scouts - is held.

This year it runs from Sat 22nd - Sat 29th Nov - with opportunity to bring items for sale to the hall every evening (6.30-8.30pm Mon-Fri) from 27th Oct

It has always been like an amateur version of Smail's Hardware Store - and this year, may help alleviate withdrawal symptoms in fans of Smail's with the shop still closed after flood damage.

And, personally, I'll be looking to do a lot of my Christmas shopping at the bazaar :)

Blocked Drains - what the council did

2008-10-21T09:14:00.002+01:00

Following on from NCC's 'drain unblocking day' on 9th Oct - several people told me that they hadn't seen the work being done. So I asked County officers for a report on what was done and this is what they said:

"I've checked with the team who did the work and can confirm that three gulley emptiers and one road sweeper/gulley emptier were used on Thursday the 9th to cleanse the road gulleys in the flood affected areas in Morpeth. The areas were split up into four locations and each crew were given a map/location plan of their area to cleanse. The CMBC road sweeper/gulley emptier attended to the Low Stanners area and cleansed gulleys with no problems requiring further attention reported. Overall two gulleys that require further attention were reported , one o/s Roch Catering in the Newmarket and one in Phoenix Court. We hope to resolve these two in the near future."

I also raised the question of the blocked storm drain at the end of Olympia Gardens:

"With regard to Olympia Gdns. we are aware of the blocked road gulleys and have a job sheet in the system to replace the existing gully pots with new ones with rodding eyes as at present we are unable to access the pipework to jet clear the blockage."

Perhaps the most important message is how best to report problems in the future:

"Any specific concerns relating to individual gulleys are best dealt with from now on by residents calling the Highways freephone number 0808 100 8 9 10."

Greater Morpeth Development Trust

2008-10-16T16:00:00.004+01:00

GMDT's AGM is coming up - Nov 12th at Collingwood School. Nominations for 'general community director' are invited - and there'll be an election at the AGM.

This is one of two 'general community' directors who sit on the board alongside directors nominated by each of the 'theme' groups - heritage, arts, economy, environment, enterprise, youth etc (I put etc cos I'm not sure if I've missed one out and mortally offended someone) - and reps from the local authorities.

For more info on GMDT, see their website

Government reneges on promise to Morpeth

2008-10-15T16:12:00.001+01:00

Sorry - couldn't think of a more original headline.

I'm livid that the Government is backtracking on the Minister's (John Healey's) promise on Monday 8th Sept that Morpeth would receive 'all possible help' from the Government.

Now Government is saying that there won't be any emergency flood funding - we'll get 85% of money spent by the council (eventually) under the 'Bellwin' rules - but there'll be no extra money, and the 'Bellwin' period runs out within a couple of months.

The excuse given is that they've blown all their money supporting the banks - and there's none to spare to make a decent job of flood recovery, and maybe use the refurbishment process to make improvements, in energy efficiency, better design against future flooding, improved drainage etc - so-called 'resilience'.

Is it just me who thinks that investing in flood recovery is more important, and will probably have a longer lasting effect than throwing money at the gamblers who run the global economy?

Anyway - there's an 'adjournment debate' on the Morpeth flooding in Parliament on Monday. Let's see what those great champions of Morpeth - (in strict alphabetical order) Peter Atkinson, Sir Alan Beith and Denis Murphy - have to say in our support.

Blocked Drains

2008-10-07T08:06:00.000+01:00

Drains and gullies blocked by silt and sand brought through by the flood is one of the more frequent concerns of people are raising with me at the moment. Certainly seeing standing water in Staithes Lane is very unnerving...

So - I'm pleased to report that I'm told there'll be a grand gully clearing this week: the streets will be swept first - then on Thursday, massed ranks of gully clearing machines from all over Northumberland (well, Wansbeck at least) will descend on Morpeth and clear all the street drains out.

There should be notices going out beforehand to warn people to move cars etc to clear the streets.

All change must be resisted

2008-10-06T08:15:00.000+01:00

I had a blazing row with a Morpeth shopkeeper in the Market Place on Saturday - and I really ought to apologise to him.

We've switched the Morpeth Farmers' Market from the 1st Sunday in the month to the 1st Saturday in the month - and last Saturday was the first one. We switched because:

i) the Town Hall isn't available at least till Christmas - and one of the main reasons for having the market on a Sunday was because we had use of the Town Hall

ii) customers have been asking us why the market isn't on a Saturday since we started

iii) a survey in Gateway magazine in the spring showed a significant demand to switch to a Saturday

iv) we've been losing traders over the past 15 months - producers don't want to work on Sundays, or they've been attracted away to the Sunday Quayside Market. And - as far as I know - the nearest markets on the 1st Saturday are Barnard Castle and Edinburgh

So - we'd discussed switching at the Markets Partnership, with Chamber of Trade reps enthusiastic about the idea, recognising that a successful market will bring people into Morpeth - and it's better to do that when the shops are open!

We had hoped to tell everyone at the Sept Market - but that was cancelled - so it was a scramble to get the message out. My apologies to anyone who turned up on Sunday looking for the market!

Anyway - the gist of the shopkeeper's argument was that the market represented unfair competition for local butchers and greengrocers who depend heavily on Saturday trade. I still believe that a farmers' market once a month on a Saturday will bring more people into Morpeth and increase trade - and increase demand for local produce which local shopkeepers can supply the rest of the month.