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Stephen

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Posts posted by Stephen

  1. The terrible incident in Woolwich proves that nowhere is safe from these mindless acts of violence / terrorism. For those of you who think nothing like that could happen in Bedlington, our town has just remembered the victims of a multi murder 100 years ago and let's not forget the events that caused Rothbury to be put on the world's stage by the media a few years ago.

    Practicing Muslims forbid the use of alchohol and pork products. Those of them who own corner shops do not seem to object to stocking and selling us a case of beer, a bottle of wine / spirits , a tin of ham or a pack of bacon. It is also worth remembering, ASDA, TESCO, CO-OP, MORRISONS, among others, sell these products.

    Am I wrong in suggesting we boycot a shop which is run by someone who conveniently hides behind the banner of Islam when it suits them, then on the other hand does not think twice in supplying us with goods that their religion forbids them to have anthing to do with.? I dont think I am being unfair by suggesting we should avoid muslim owned shops in favour of supermarkets or our high street / corner shops owned by non Muslims. Not all Asian shop owners are Muslim, ( I must point out )

    I am not being racist, I just think it is wrong to be sold products by someone who regards those products as flith and poison in order to make money from us. Feelings are running high in the aftermath of what has just happened to that poor soldier in South east London and I would not condone the mass beating of all muslims because of who they are, after all we did not go round knocking 10 bells out of every Irishman every time a soldier was shot at the height of the troubles in Ireland.

    People are calling on the government ( ha ha ) to take a hard stance against terrorist and muslim activists who are in this country purely to make our lives a misery. In many cases we do not know who these terrorists are UNTIL, they have commited an act of terrorism.

    Why make it easy for them.

    Should we also boycott any Chemist selling condoms if the owner is a Catholic? I would rather that people wouldn't try to force their own religious views on their customers. Also I've legally bought and drunk alcohol in many Muslim countries.

  2. Actually Keith, probably the parish council. Bus shelters and their upkeep were one of the devolved services that went through over a year ago.

    Unless there is a 'special expenses' on your parish rates demand then its definitely the parish council. If they refused to take them on the county still charge for them but call it special expenses.

    Now is it just me or does that smack of double taxation coz as far as I am concerned we paid NCC to oversee bus shelters, and a lot more which could be coming the Parish and Town council's way! Play grounds, allotments, etc.

    Last bit of factual info so everyone can draw their own conclusion, whilst NCC took the Government 'Shilling' (£3M PA) and didn't raise their rates charge for the last 3 years there is no such restriction on parish precepts (rates). In fact the parish councils can put up their charge by as much as they like!

    So we have NCC getting £3M for not raising charges and at the same time they devolve some of their services to the Parish councils who have to out up their charge to cover their increased costs! Slight of hand or smoke and mirrors or what!

    Interestingly last autumn NCC sent the usual scare story around (they have done it twice before) about devolving a huge amount of services and the cost for the West Bedlington Town Council would have been more than the total they currently collect in parish rates. Someone must have remembered there was an election coming up coz that little wheeze was scrapped but the cat was out of the bag, some of us saw the figures! Our council then promised a no increase this year even though they have increased the rates EVERY year since their inception, really as far as I could see for no good reason! Even that back fired when an increase was foisted onto them.

    I am starting to limber up now if any of the trolls want to come on and really debate this stuff!

    Sounds to me like only one person is trolling :) Since I'm not standing in these elections or involved in anyone else's campaign I don't think it appropriate for me to debate with anyone. To any candidates reading this I wish you luck, especially if you get elected. The Town Council can make a difference, especially in the next four years now that it isn't being set up from scratch. My guess is that there will be no single party running it and all new councillors, regardless of party or independence, will have a role.

  3. According to the Land Registry, the site is owned by B W ELLIOTT LIMITED (Co. Regn. No. 7150325) - company director Tracey Elliott. The lender was David Mutch. So legally it isn't Barry Elliott and the lender wasn't RBS, which may be why it didn't show up in the auction?

  4. Keith L,

    I don't think I would class these people as evil, but just calling them bad would also be a mild statement! vandalism I believe stems from not being taught respect or pride which I think comes from being a productive member of the community, working, paying taxes, brining up a family etc instead of standing in line for a handout!

    if you pay tax then of course you have paid for the facilities being vandalised - I think that must make a difference to someone's attitude, though as you say basic respect for those who have paid for them should still be expected.

  5. Three options are open to NCC with council tax for the next three years: No change, Decrease or Increase above 2.5%, 1% increase equates to £1.6 million, note this year 2012/13 the government have offered funding to freeze council tax levels. That is what has been stated by the Executive Member for Corporate Resources Councillor Andrew Tebbutt, now i doubt NCC will have no change or a decrease, so whats left? But i completely agree with you Malcolm why pay twice? you don't go to a garage to fill up your car and say, "pump number 3," then, "that will be £20," and then get, "another £20 please," for your fuel.

    There was no change to the NCC council tax for 2012/13.

  6. Didn't know they did Adam? If they do its for extra cuts this year.........next year who knows!

    Stephen..................????

    We turned it down last year when NCC were offering 3 extra cuts for £12000 but accepted the reduced price offered for extra cuts this year. There was some discussion about this and I'll admit that I was sceptical about the need, but I've been proved wrong after all the rain we've had.

    I know people will complain about me saying this but Bedlington Station has a different council and they chose to freeze their council tax instead of paying more money to NCC for flower beds and extra grass cutting. So the grass isn't cut as often but the council tax in East Bedlington is lower.

  7. curly....... I think you have it in one!

    A review can consider a number of issues, including:

    • whether to create a new parish
    • whether to alter the boundary of an existing parish
    • whether to group a number of parishes together in a grouped parish council

    Local people can petition a principal council to undertake a community governance review. A principal council must undertake a review if the relevant conditions in relation to the petition are met.

    And most importantly the 3 parish councils now formed would have to want to reunite.........but everyones got there own powerbase and lets face it some parts of bedlington, others don't want to take on and some feel forgotton......no offence ment.

    The existing parish councils don't have to agree to it, if NCC is persuaded that there is enough public support then they can 'impose' it on the parishes. Also, all the parishes come up for re-election next year and if enough people were elected as a local party called 'United Bedlingtonshire' or something then they could ask the County themselves to do this, using their election as evidence of public support for the idea.

    You do need to persuade a few thousand people to support this though, whether that is by petition or by getting them to vote for the candidates. One question you probably need to answer early on is where the single office will be - Bedlington Community Centre, Bedlington Station Residents Association or Choppington Welfare (are those office costs just waste, or are they helping to keep community buildings open?)

    My personal view is that East and West Bedlington should be united, but growing up in West Sleekburn and Stakeford we always did feel even more of a forgotten area than Bedlington. Choppington Parish is a distinct community within Bedlingtonshire and if I still lived there and was given a vote on it, I think I'd vote to keep it separate.

  8. I believe that if a petition signed by 10% of electors within each parish is submitted to NCC asking for a Community Governance Review to merge the parishes, then the County have to consider it (and it is the County who have the power to set the boundaries)

  9. Grass Cutting is now the the parish/town council's responsibility so they are the ones to complain to about the quality of service, but i agree with you the quality of grass cutting is disgraceful and i will be raising it to the Town Council at their next meeting on the 21st june.

    No, grass cutting is still the responsibility of NCC but some town/parish councils do pay for up to 3 extra cuts per year above the NCC basic service. The area mentioned is in East Bedlington Parish, I don't know if they paid for extra cuts or if they decided not to?

  10. Cyril, these events are all taking place on 3rd June, and there are lots of outdoor activities planned e.g. fun fair, rides, races etc so I think they need the extra space. The Town Council have commissioned BVAL to put on weekly sport/fitness activities at the Community Centre and a 5 day per week programme in the school holidays. When the details are available I'll post them here. The Salvation Army are also putting on a free event for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, again more details later.

  11. I would be very interested in the date of that missive; I will give odds now it was after events had happened!

    15 March, it was definitely after the story in the Journal - I certainly wasn't trying to imply otherwise, the first line did apologise for what had already happened. If the rest of the letter had gone out in advance, especially the part about the measures being temporary, then it would have avoided a lot of distress.

  12. NCC sent this to the Town Council and Friends of Bedlington Cemetery.

    As you will be aware, we have a major health and safety issue with the memorials in Bedlington Cemetery and we apologise for any distress caused as a result of the measures taken to date.

    As an Authority, we have a duty to keep the public safe when they visit our cemeteries and routine safety testing of the memorials forms part of this duty. Very little testing has been carried out in recent years and we are in the process of visiting all of cemeteries to ensure that we are meeting our obligations.

    On visiting Bedlington Cemetery, we found a high number of the monuments failed the safety test and, as a temporary measure, these monuments were made safe by the use of wooden stakes and banding tape. I must stress that this is purely a temporary arrangement and we will be working with local stonemasons over the coming weeks to return the monuments to a safe condition.

    To expand slightly on some of the points raised:-

    1. Over 800no monuments in Bedlington Cemetery have been tested and found to be in an unsafe condition; this we feel is partly due to an on-going vandalism problem.

    2. As a matter of urgency we will be contacting local stonemasons to see how they can help by revisiting some of the monuments they have erected over the past five years and returning them to a safe state of repair.

    3. With older monuments, we will be engaging with a stonemasonry company who will return these monuments to a safe state of repair on our behalf. It is hoped that this company will be on site next week to start this process although you will be aware that it will be a number of weeks before all the monuments which have been identified as unsafe can be returned to an acceptable condition.

    Arthur did agree with you Malcolm, that this should have been better handled and suggested that a notice should have been displayed at the cemetery in advance, and WBTC did agree to pass on your complaint.

  13. They will get permission off the planning Inspectorate, need we be reminded of the last time they got involved which was with the Church Hall, they let that go thru even though the public did not want it.

    It would be a waste of public money for the Inspectorate to even consider this, when the developer withdrew their own planning application.

  14. I've been asked to publish the following news about the Community Centre open day on 17th March.

    Bedlington Community Centre will open its doors between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 17th March so that members of the community can see the work that has been going on so far, and meet with people who have shown an interest in providing classes and other activities in the centre. There will also be an opportunity to view the refurbishment plans. Please make the effort to attend.

    You will be able to talk to volunteers about our ideas for a Parent and Toddler Group. The Pre-School Alliance will have a display of craft materials for sale. We will welcome your thoughts on what you would like to see happening in your Centre.

    There will also be a mini craft fair and a stand offering home cooked produce. Other displays will include information about 'Doorstep Pictures' and 'Highlights' Rural Touring Scheme.

    Upstairs in the function room there will be demonstrations of Line Dancing, Chi Kung and other keep fit activities.

    We would like to take this opportunity to thank Northumbria Police for their generous donation of soft play mats and Tallantyre Bedlington for their generous donation of paint.

    • Like 1
  15. Also can you explain what possible relevance the political make up, administration, of a local council has nationally?

    You've been spared a more long winded reply by my browser crashing near the end of it!

    Very little, national parties only dominate local politics because they are increasingly the only ones who put up candidates, and not enough people vote for those independents who do stand. None of the local branches of the three main parties get huge donations from millionaires, we raise money between ourselves and band together to help each other get leaflets out. There is nothing stopping independents doing the same e.g. Fresh in Wansbeck or the longer lived South Tyneside Progressives.

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