Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Malcolm Robinson Bedlington West Ward. 18 m · With the furore generated about this new hotel idea and it seems I’m somehow involved and not paying heed to democracy, let’s lay out what really happened over the years. When Labour was originally in charge their idea was to build 60 odd houses in what was Tesco’s car park. Around 700 of us turned up at the library and told them in no uncertain terms that we wanted to see commercial development in the town centre not housing! That plan was hastily redrawn! We then had a consultation on the proposed town centre design and were given 4 options for the layout as well as the styles of buildings. Most of us picked the ‘wrong’ design and the scheme went forward with the designs that the great and good thought were best for us! We saw the Make a Noise demo which was supposed to give a kick up the backside and demonstrate local feelings yet still nothing happened. The Tories then came into power at NCC claiming Bedlington was very important to ‘us’. To be fair we did see £12-14M in one year’s budget for our Town Centre redevelopment but as they are annual budgets and no substantial scheme came forward that money never materialised! We finally saw a scheme come forward which had around 45,000sq ft of retail development, of which Aldi was just under 20,000sq ft and the linchpin for the whole development. Covid came along and all the potential retailers went underground with a cull on all their new developments. Aldi were persuaded to carry on with theirs. The Gov then announced funding to get schemes like the one for Bedlington back on track and we managed to secure that funding by matching it. This is what is being used to do the 4 shops and 6 apartments at the Market Place. We then saw potential funding in the Borderlands project albeit on a much reduced level (£3M) but still that could be seed funding to get the main development back on track. (Several community consultations later and we still see a leisure offer as being consistently the number one response. ) Another community consultation on what people wanted to see developed has resulted in over 35 potential projects which are to be wrapped up in a Bedlington Place Plan. We then see a hotel project being put forward not by NCC but by local councillors, of which I’m certainly not one of them. This scheme at Bedlington Station could wipe out all the Borderlands funding for the whole of Bedlington! That wasn’t why I fought to get Bedlington into the Borderlands funding and kept pushing it along! https://www.youtube.com/live/Q4zZGP1LXjI... With that out of the way I do believe we need to see Bedlington as a destination town and for that we need a USP. We do need the normal range of what anyone would expect in a Town the size of Bedlington but we also need a draw so we get footfall from other places too. That’s the opportunity I see in getting the marketplace development right. PS. Back in the annuls of time in the late 60’s just before Wansbeck District Council came into being, Bedlington Urban District Council had plans for a hotel and leisure centre in Bedlington Town Centre. Pity they didn’t see them through!

Poster from @Malcolm Robinson

Just checked the BBC2 listings and the programmes are aired on three evenins - Thursday at 19:00 - Sunday at 20:30 and Tuesday at 06:15.

@7RIrF Just one comment but that mentions one of the names in your list that I would assume you have info on. The comment from John Brown on the Bygone Bedlington Facebook group :-

Photo posted on the Bygone Bedlington Facebook group by MarknMargaret Johnson Some of the comments from the Facebook members :- Can anyone on this group identify anyone in the photo :-

@Canny lass - on the BBC site it only gives the dates for the first 4 of the 10 episodes on BBC2. They start this Thursday - episode 1 on the 2nd and episode 2 on the 3rd. Episode 3 & 4 on the 9th & 10th. This is a direct ling to the site :- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s1qv/episodes/guide

Cheers @Maggie/915 - I will download a copy and pass it on the John Doc Waldoc who is the Admin of the Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/142987372446009 = Old Photo's of Holywell & Seaton Delaval & Seghill & Hartley,Sluice,W/bay.

@7RIrF - as yet no further comments from the Barringto group. I'm assuming you have had a look at the 'Rigger' web documented, 'Bedlington soldiers who died in the great wat' that he created. When Rigger was doing his project another member @Maggie/915 who has been involved in various research projects about the Bedlington area kept some info onwho dreck was involved with and passed info to. This is an extract that Maggie/915 had and might have some contacts within it that you 'might' find helpful :- That is the only info I have.

Ok @7RIrF - I'll pass any comments/info etc I may get from the Barrington group.

Thanks for that @7RIrF - I will download those mages and pass them on and let you know of any recation. Are you a member of Facebook James?

@7RIrF posted your comment from above on the Barrington Facebook group and one member has replied :-

I like what your doing but I can't help you with any info or know of anyone who can. I can only recall one member of this group who lived in Barrington = @Alan dickson but the last time Alan visited this group was 23rd July 2014 . I know Alan is Admin of the Facebok group Barrington, Barnt' n memories and stuff!! = https://www.facebook.com/groups/958444760904321 and I am sure he would recognise some of the names in your list.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/10/18/canada-historic-2023-wildfire-season-end/

James - when i first discovered the NLS site I remeber it took me a while, and a lot of trial and error to work my way through the menus to get to the area = Bedlington I was looking for. To save me the hassle of trying to remeber how i finally got to the Bedlingtonshire area maps I 'bookmarked' the page I was at within my Google chrome search so now i always go to the same place and start from there if I am checking on anywhere else in the area. This is the Bookmark link I saved so you should be able to save it into your search engine :- https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=13.0&lat=55.13580&lon=-1.64090&layers=102&b=1&z=0&point=55.1326,-1.5691 Using this as a starting point your can see down the right of the screen the maps, with the years that are available, so you can select/click on one and zoom into the particular area you are after. Hope that helps Eggy