Mayor: Christmas Message 2014

I was asked - in my capacity as Mayor - to write a Christmas message to go in "Inside Morpeth" magazine(Dec 14 #31) which has just been published - and I thought I'd post it here too:

I wish Morpeth and all its residents a happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2015, and hope that the Christmas festivities give you the hope and energy you need to see you through the dark days of the rest of winter, but if not:

If you are stressed by a family Christmas or by money worries or lonely because you are spending the holidays alone for the first time, you aren’t the only one. The Samaritans – my mayoral charity – are at their busiest at this time of year providing someone to talk to 24/7. They deserve our support

If you aren’t really into a commercial Christmas, charities like Crisis and Wansbeck Food Bank can really use volunteers now and throughout the year. Why not get in touch? They deserve our support.

If the cost of Christmas is going to leave you skint with credit card bills looming you aren’t alone. The CAB debt advisors and the credit unions are going to be very busy and they deserve our support.

Are you did doing your Christmas shopping locally? Many retailers depend on the run-up to Christmas for 25% and more of their annual turnover. If we want to keep the independent shops that give the town so much of its special character, we need to support them. Shop local!

So maybe a few ideas for New Year’s Resolutions there… but above all, whatever 2015 has to offer, we need to work together, support each other and feel able to rely on each other - because it doesn’t look as though we are going to be able to rely on the Government or the County Council for much - whoever gets elected in May.

Mayor: Commemoration of the First World War

I was invited as Mayor to say a 'few words' to open the St James Flower Festival marking the outbreak of the First World War:

A hundred years ago this weekend – the European Powers, including Britain, were stumbling into the Great War – dragging the rest of the world with them. This was supposed to be the ‘War to end war’ - but it wasn’t – if anything, it was the first ‘modern war’.

Every community, every family in Britain – every community & family in Europe – was directly affected by the loss of a whole generation of young men.

The Morpeth War Memorial recognises 233 soldiers from this town who died in the Great War – but beyond these are:

• those who died later of injuries – physical and mental - sustained in the war
• those who did not die, but lived the torment of their wartime experiences for the rest of their lives
• the families who lost their sons and brothers
• the children who lost their fathers
• the young women left behind who lost the chance to raise a family

Most Morpethians will be able to put a name and memory from their own family tree to some or all of these.
 

Countries on all sides of the war now praise those who died for their courage and self-sacrifice – and quite rightly, but we should recognise that the sacrifice was not just made by those who died.

This is the centenary of the start of the Great War: but it continued for four years and three months - so I hope that this commemoration will not just be a one-off, but over the next few years, we’ll be remembering the events of that War – for example (not in any particular order):

• The Somme, First Ypres, Second Ypres, Paschendael, Gallipoli
• The first wholesale use of automatic weapons
• The first use of chemical warfare
• The first use of aircraft in war
• The first tanks
• and the Christmas Truce – which I hope we will be remembering in four months time.

So, let us remember, this weekend, the Great War, those who died in it and those who did not die but whose lives were shattered by it.

And – let us remember the atmosphere in the country and in Morpeth at the start of that war – a hundred years ago this month:

• the messages about duty and self-sacrifice coming from the government and in the press
• the social, community and family pressure on young men to volunteer wholesale
• and the total lack of awareness of the horrors that the war would unleash

Mayor: Woodhorn Matters

Was invited to open the Woodhorn Matters 21^st Anniversary Exhibition in Chantry Bagpipe Museum

I may be Morpeth’s first ‘Green’ Mayor but Woodhorn Matters and the generations of people who have been making proggy mats are the real recyclers – making useful and beautiful things out of scrap material and wool.

Woodhorn Matters was set up to help revive a craft which has been part of northern culture for centuries. Dating from times when people couldn’t afford to waste anything with thrift and recycling essential not just trendy virtues, proggy and hooky mats became oldfashioned and unpopular through the 1950’s and ’60’s and have only in the last couple of decades come back into style again.

Now modern designs and fabric colours mean that humble proggy mats can be superb works of art.

They prefer to use wool rather than cotton or synthetic fabrics – and they are always   The group started off based in Woodhorn Museum and although they now meet in Morpeth Methodist Church, they’ve kept the original name. They are always happy to welcome new members – and because they prefer to use wool rather than cotton or synthetic material – there’s always a demand for old fabric and yarn.

Mayor: Suffer the Children?

Each year, through Chernobyl’s Children Lifeline, children living within the continuing radioactive zone created by the Chernobyl nuclear accident come across to Northumberland for a few weeks to enjoy our clean air and safe food and so boost their immune systems for a couple of years.

Last year, Mayor Joan Tebbutt entertained the visiting children at the Curiously Wicked café, this year – they came along to the Mayor’s Parlour. And as I explained to them, the Mayor’s Parlour is the Mayor’s private room in the Town Hall and only special guests get invited there.

So – we had about a dozen children aged 9-10 years old along with their interpreter, their host families and Lilian Nelson who set up Chernobyl’s Children Lifeline. The children came from three remote rural villages in Belarus just over the border from Chernobyl – they’d never seen the sea before, they’d never seen mountains and even an aeroplane flying overhead was something to get excited about. I think Northumberland was something totally different!

They were also quite in awe of the mayor and all the civic regalia. Apparently civic authorities in Belarus can be quite forbidding and remote. It maybe something I need to work on.

These children are staying on till the end of June, but Chernobyl’s Children Lifeline is already starting to raise funds to bring another set of children across next year – but Lilian was telling me that what they really need are more host families willing to take in a couple of children. This year, apparently, they were so short of families in Morpeth that several of the children are staying with families in Wideopen.

Mayor: Heritage, History & Traditions

Fair Day weekend and my first busy weekend as mayor. Morpeth is clearly a special place, but what makes it so special?

Obviously there’s an awful lot of history – so much that there seems to be a special anniversary on every year. So, as well as being the 100^th anniversary of World War I, and the 30^th anniversary of Morpeth Town Council – it is also the 300^th anniversary of the original Town Hall, designed by Vanbrugh. The Town Hall anniversary was the focus of the Morpeth Antiquarian Society exhibition over the two days of the weekend: it was also featured at the Morpeth Gathering – and will be celebrated at the Picnic in the Park in July and the Heritage Open Days in September. The Antiquarian Society are guardians of the town’s history but have to keep their collections in storerooms at the back of Newbiggin Library. We really should have a proper town museum or heritage centre. Our history shapes us, as Bob Marley sang: “If you knew your history, then you’ll know where you are coming from”

The garden fete on Saturday (7^th) was a great showcase for the Millennium Green, which if you don’t know (shame on you!) is off Old Bakehouse Yard on the west side of Newgate St. It was set up in 2001 and has been expanded and developed almost continuously since winning several awards in the process – much to the credit of the hardworking committee. Although relatively recent, it is clearly part of Morpeth’s heritage of greenery, woodland and water in the centre of the town (inter silvas at flumina habitans?). Look out for ‘Music on the Green’ in August and ‘Carols on the Green’ in December – or just pop in there at any time in daylight hours for a spot of peace and quiet.

Fair Day may not be part of the town’s history or heritage yet – but it is definitely a town tradition and part of generations of childhood memories. Despite the absence of the parade, motorbikes and classic cars for a second year due to the flood works on the High Stanners (they’ll be back next year) – the Fair was a success again this year, at least as far as videos posted on Morpeth News TV and elsewhere suggest, with the rides being particularly popular. Of course the weather helped, including the downpour at 5pm which led to the quickest clearing up process on record.

The Chamber of Trade deserve tremendous credit for organising Fair Day year after year – and arguably Alderman John Beynon, the austere and dignified master of ceremonies at every Fair Day is shaping up well to succeed Alex Swailes as the Morpeth Gadgey.

And finally – here’s an idea: Fair Day is always on the 2^nd Sunday in June (what do you mean you hadn’t noticed?) so it will always fall in the week following the feast day (7^th June) of Morpeth’s very own saint - St Robert of Newminster – so why not rename it “St Robert’s Fair”?

Mayor: The Bells Ring Out!

So - as from 21st May, I am now Mayor of Morpeth. I'm supposed to be getting a "Mayor's Blog" on the Town Council website and I've started writing some pieces for it, but it hasn't materialised yet - so I'll post them here and get them on the "Mayor's Blog" later...

And I'll try to backdate the postings so they come out in the right timescale

The Bells Ring Out!

Morpeth Bellringers rang out the Mayor’s Peal on 31^st May – seven ringers completed the “London Surprise Major” with 5024 changes in 2hr 40min. Fortunately I had two professional mathematicians – Roger Dye and Lucy Manning – to explain how the peal worked through all the permutations of seven bells. I hadn’t realised that bellringing was such a curious mix of maths, music, recordkeeping, concentration and hard physical exercise – the bellringers were both jubilant and totally exhausted when they successfully finished the peal!

The fact that it was all to honour the new mayor really brought home to me the significance of the office. As a councillor, I’ve become used to people complaining about actual and perceived failings of the council and having to try to explain the reasons behind council decisions, But as mayor – and admittedly I’m only a couple of weeks in office – people are treating me with a level of respect and warmth which I can only explain by realising that the mayoralty is an embodiment of the town. People love and are loyal to Morpeth and their respect for the mayor is a reflection of that.

The bellringers are keen to recruit new members – both youngsters and older people – and from the interest showed on Fair Day when the Clock Tower was open to the public should mean they’ll soon be getting some.

Letter to Voters in the Scottish Referendum

[Oh dear - a long gap, and then the best I can manage is a straight lift from another blogger - but this from Paul Salvesen seemed worth duplicating....]

I have been asked by my Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, to write to you to say how important our historic link with Scotland is. As an obedient citizen, I must comply with his request and ask you to consider a number of points before casting your vote in the independence referendum on September 14^th.  Scotland has always been a dynamic and progressive force within the UK, producing not only some outstanding politicians (Keir Hardie, John Wheatley and, let’s be fair, Gordon Brown) but writers such as Burns, Scott and Stevenson, painters including ‘The Glasgow boys’ and any number of hugely talented engineers. As far as railways go, you gave us the Forth Bridge, the ‘Cardean’ class of locomotive, and the great locomotive builders of Springburn. And, let’s not forget Scotland’s greatest gift to the world, whisky.

So why leave? Staying within the UK will allow you to enjoy the continuing benefits of London government and its continued attachment to neo-liberal politics. Instead of being left undefended by a reckless nationalist government in Edinburgh, you will have a new generation of Trident submarines to keep you safe. On your occasional visits to London you will have an outstanding transport system to enjoy, as a result of the disproportionate investment going into the capital’s infrastructure. All subjects of the Empire will benefit from this, however infrequently you may chance to visit - and HS2 will allow you get to London far more quickly. The many tunnels will avoid any unpleasant views of derelict industry and decaying housing in the north of England, that may blight your view en route.

By voting for independence you will hasten the demise of ‘Great Britain’ as we know it. An independent Scotland would be free to go its own way and instigate the sort of policies which have resulted in places like Norway, Sweden and Denmark becoming bywords for profligacy, welfare spending and egalitarianism. Public spending has been diverted away from defence into building new railways and improving schools and hospitals. Everyone is forced to cycle. Is this the sort of world you want your children to grow up in? And think about the effect of Scottish independence on the rest of our United Kingdom. Wales will be next, wanting to go its own way ‘within Europe’. Here in the North of England, the 15 million subjects of the crown may get increasingly restless and want their own government. A scenario could open up of a ‘federal’ Britain with the power of London considerably reduced. Is this really what you want? If you prefer things to carry on pretty much as they are, please support our Prime Minister and vote 'No'.

Community Leadership

The Town Council prides itself on being democratically elected ‘community leaders’. In my last post, I challenged some of the assumptions about democratically elected – basically, if the choice of candidates is limited, those elected cannot really claim a strong mandate.

Similarly, I’d argue that ‘community leadership’ has to be earned – only vicars, priests and ministers automatically assume the mantle of community leaders upon appointment. There are many forms of ‘community leadership’ too – the roles of patriarch and gatekeeper are popular amongst ‘cooncillors’ of the old school across the North East.

But as far as I am concerned – the Town Council’s community leadership should be about listening to people, about encouraging and nurturing organisations – and giving credit where credit is due. Morpeth is blessed with a wide range of a community organisations, skilled volunteers and community activists. The Town Council Civic Awards are potentially a great way recognising the community life of Morpeth – but they need to be about the award recipients not about how great the Town Council is to present the awards.   

We should not be so insecure that we are forever pushing ourselves forward and making sure the town council’s role is recognised. If Morpeth is doing well, then due recognition will come to the Town Council naturally without our chasing after it. And for me – that is true ‘community leadership’.

Elections, Mandates and Community Leadership

So, as sort of expected, the yellow vote collapsed in North ward with only one out of three existing town councillors getting re-elected. However, since they took four seats in both Kirkhill and Stobhill wards – they have nine of the fifteen town council seats, and calculating that they took 51% of the total town council votes cast across the town, the yellows are claiming a significant popular mandate. I’m not so sure… 

In Kirkhill, they only had four relatively weak blue candidates and a red paper candidate opposing them. And in Stobhill, there were only six candidates for five seats – so four yellows were effectively elected unopposed and the blue paper candidate was elected rather than the fifth yellow. It is interesting to look at the proportion of town council votes not used…

Every voter had one county council and five town council votes: a total of 4669 county council votes were cast (about 40% turnout), implying a total of 23.345 town council votes available to those who actually voted. But very few voters used all five of their votes: in fact 8893 votes (38%) were not used. Breaking that down by division – in North ward, 27% of town council votes were unused; in Kirkhill, 32% of votes weren’t cast; and in Stobhill a massive 57% of town council votes were not used. Active voters were not voting for the town council candidates on offer – presumably because they didn’t like any of them. It is a huge vote for ‘none of the above’

Admittedly the yellows had 51% of the votes used, but they had twelve candidates – when you work it out on ‘votes per candidate’, they came third behind the Greens and Inds (two candidates each) and ahead of the reds (one candidate) and the blues (eight candidates). Not really that much of a mandate.

So overall – I reckon that politicians across the board let the voters down in offering a comprehensive choice of candidates and the Town Council as a whole has a lot to prove in terms its role as ‘community leaders’. But I’ll leave that for the next post.

Four more years?

Well! That was interesting - thanks to everyone who voted for me - and in fact thanks to everyone who voted at all. As they say - if you don't vote, you can't complain about the council (or government).

So - re-elected to the Town Council for another four years, which means I'll either get a civic funeral or reach 20 years as a town councillor. And Ron got elected too - so Morpeth now has two Green Town councillors!

And I came second in the County Council elections, missing out by 99 votes to David Bawn the Tory candidate. I'm not bitter - and I can't complain about eg Labour voters wasting their vote, since I railed strongly against tactical voting during the campaign. All I will say is that having me as a County Councillor would have been better for the local economy in an immediate sense. Half of David's councillor's allowance will go straight back to central government as tax - whereas if I'd been getting it, nearly all would have stayed (and been spent) in Northumberland.

Back to the Town Council then - I think democracy in Morpeth showed up well , with all Town Council seats contested - compared with, ooooh say Alnwick, where they didn't have enough candidates nominated and are looking for seven people to co-opt onto their 18 seat town council. That said, I am arguing strongly that the 9:6 majority of LDs on the Morpeth Town Council is not really earned since in Stobhill, there were only six candidates for five seats - so that four of the nine LDs effectively had a walkover. That isn't to say they wouldn't have won against more substantial opposition, but in North ward, two out of three sitting LD councillors lost their seats. 

So - in my role as informal convenor of the non-LD members on the Council, I'll be reminding the LDs not to behave as though they have a strong mandate and that they need to be inclusive.

Behind the Leaflet III – Jobs AND Profits

I’m running out of time now before the elections (Vote for me!) – so this’ll be the last post in this series spelling out the bullet points behind my election leaflet:

“Commit seriously to local procurement, supporting local business and jobs, and keeping what money it has in the county
“If NCC decides to outsource – contract to local businesses, keeping both jobs and profits in the county”

The ‘jobs and profits’ tag is a paraphrase of the New Economic Foundation ‘Local Multiplier 3’ (LM3) which they actually developed with Northumberland CC a while back. Basically it argues that money spent with local businesses rather than with national or international companies (eg local shops and supermarkets) – because the wages, procurement and profits of local businesses are three times more likely to stay in and be ‘recycled’ the local economy than (at least procurement and profits) spend by nationals and multinationals. Relatively speaking, the big companies effectively drain money out of the local economy. 

So – even on a tight budget, NCC has a lot of money to spend in its operational budgets – we’re not talking about job guarantee funds or anything here – we are just talking about the money NCC spends on its day to day functioning. The more of that money that is spent in the county – or at least in the region – with locally owned businesses, the better the local and regional economy will be. The variously Development Trusts across the county are potentially particularly good vehicles for local service delivery.

And – if NCC does continue down the route of commissioning, contracting and outsourcing services and functions rather than keeping them in house – it’d create and protect  ‘more and better jobs’ (to borrow a phrase from the North East Independent Economic Review) if it commissioned local businesses rather than national and multinational conglomerates to take on the work. Creating and supporting local businesses is the only way out of the ‘branch economy’ mentality which has dogged the North East for well over sixty years and led to many ill-conceived ‘inward investment’ schemes. 
And better still – since a lot of businesses taking on outsourced work employ the people that have been made redundant by the outsourcing process, because they are the ones with the expertise – they know the job – NCC should make advice on in setting up businesses – better still cooperatives or social enterprises - part of their well-honed redundancy package. 

Behind the Leaflet II – Putting People First

Second in this series spelling out a little more of the thinking behind some of the bullet points in my election leaflet 

“Put people first in social services – the system may be complicated and cut to the bone, but that’s not a reason to make things confusing or even more difficult for service users”

OK – Government funding is such that health care, adult care, family support, education, the adoption service, benefits etc etc is managed through different funding pots by different agencies with different structures operating over different areas. Much of the work of social workers, health care workers, police, benefits advisers goes into multi-agency liaison panels, case conferences and general coordination of activities and interventions. And when things go wrong – the media and the politicians generally blame the workforce for not co-ordinating their activities better.

But all this necessary mechanism is just that – machinery for operating the system and managing budgets and resources. The people in need, the people being helped by these services, shouldn’t have to learn the system to get help. They shouldn’t be passed from one support worker to another according to how funding streams divide up the work, even when liaison between those support workers is great and they can signpost people to one another. 

From the point of view of the vulnerable and confused people – and their frustrated relatives – the appropriate help should be available from one or two people who can build up a good relationship. They should never be told “I can’t help you with that – you’ll need to get in touch with…”

The government has argued for better coordination between agencies whilst cutting resources, fragmenting services and abolishing the structures they co-operated too. I’m suggesting something a bit different – more like a ‘personal shopper’ system.

Behind the Leaflet I – Localisation of Welfare Benefits

Of necessity my election leaflet has a number of fairly cryptic bullet points which refer to ‘hidden’ manifesto ideas behind them. In the run-up to the local elections on May 2nd (Vote for me!), I intend to use this blog to spell some of these out in more detail. So – 

“Manage the localisation of welfare benefits with carefully thought-through schemes that support claimants through a difficult transition.”

The present government is devolving a number of benefits to local authorities to deliver – at the same time changing their character and criteria and reducing the amount of money available. The Green Party are obviously campaigning on this at a national level – but at a local council level, all that can be done is to manage the transition well, creating the minimum of bureaucracy-caused hardship. As Chair of Northumberland Credit Union, sitting on the county Financial Wellbeing Partnership – I’m on the fringes of these matters already.

I’ve already blogged about the localisation of council tax benefits – mainly concentrating on the unforeseen impact on parish council precepts. The government has awarded a ‘discretionary fund’ amounting to about 90% of the money previously spent on council tax benefits, then set a number of criteria prescribing how this should be allocated. NCC has topped this up by upping the council tax on second homes, so is mostly able to meet claims. But because this changes the local council tax base, it has turned parish precepts into a regressive tax, with lower taxes in areas with lots of second homes and higher council tax where there are a lot of people getting council tax benefit. 

As regards the cuts to housing benefits linked to house occupancy, the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ – I’m told that there are about 3,500 households affected in the county, with an estimated £38,000 per week reduction in benefits. The Government has awarded NCC £415,000 for ‘discretionary payments’ – but that won’t go far… I gather that many housing benefits recipients have said that they will ‘absorb’ the reduction – but housing associations are preparing for a spike in arrears when they do their four-weekly assessments at the end of April.

However – the Northumberland Emergency Transition Support scheme is perhaps more interesting: it replaces the former Social Fund Crisis Grants with a system of interest-free loans, ASDA food vouchers, food parcels and – as a last resort – cash. Claimants can claim up to twice a year (as opposed to three times a year under the national scheme). The assessment has been outsourced to DAWN and Voices, and is very stringent, I gather in the first ten days of the scheme running (it started ion 2nd April), there were 324 applications and only 9 were granted awards.   

So – the Council is in for a tough time running a local benefits system prescribed fairly tightly and under-resourced by the government, and will see real hardship and poverty in the county if they get it wrong. Isn’t this something candidates should be aware of and talking about? 

Voting Positively...

Nice to get a mention in the LibDems leaflet - must mean I'm worrying them. Of course they've just added 'Greens' to Labour under their "can't win here" list - but that's just normal negative campaigning tactics.

OK - in 'safe seats' in parliamentary elections like Wansbeck, the argument "can't win here" may be valid - at least until we get PR for Westminster (though the LibDems have messed up prospects of that) - but in small local elections like Morpeth North, where maybe at total of 2-2500 votes will be cast - anyone can win (if they get enough votes - I reckon you could win with around 700 votes). 

And I'd have thought the argument "Vote LibDem to keep out the Tories" was a bit worn these days - though of course the parliamentary situation is totally different from the County Council.

So no! There's no need to vote tactically against a party - no need to settle for 'second best' - vote for the person you want to be your county councillor for the next four years. 

On the Doorstep II - Speed Limits, On-Street Parking and the School Run

Well - more feedback from canvassing:

Along Mitford Road, residents seem to be coming to terms with the floodworks in their gardens - many have recruited an enterprising agent to deal with the EA and the contractors - though there are reports of poor communication between the EA and contractors and instances of poor people skills shown by the workforce.

Aside from that - main issues seem to be the speed of traffic coming past the schools from the Low Ford bridge and car parking by parents collecting children from the Middle Schools. I remember working as the ward town councillor with former County Councillor Stuart McKellar about ten-twelve years back on the former issue - there needs to be a 20mph zone outside the schools (at the very least) and probably one of those light-up 30mph signs that they have on every other road into the town. The problem as I recall is that the curve of the road from the west (which makes the approach to the schools blind and therefore even more dangerous) means that there is not enough of a sightline for speed restriction signs to be visible enough, though apparently a better case could be made if a child was killed or injured on the road. At least that's what the Highways Engineers and police said at the time - maybe it is worth revisiting without the need for a sacrifice.

And - twice a day - despite car parking being available at the Rugby Club, the whole street is lined with cars picking up children. And because lots of school buses are coming through, most of the cars are parked up on the pavement, so that the children (and other pedestrians) have to step out into the road - into the traffic - both to get round the cars and also get into cars. It is a nightmare. Although the Middle Schools do attract children from way outside Morpeth, I'd guess that most of those come by school bus. So - if there were safe routes for children to walk or cycle to the schools, there'd be no need for this mayhem. Someone suggested opening up Carlisle Park and the river promenade along High Stanners for cyclists (maybe only during the school run periods?) - so that children had a mainly off-road route to the schools.

A Water Folly

The new water feature that replaced the Red Bull pub on the corner of Staithes Lane was tested for the first time this week. 

In keeping with the apparent intent the create a Versailles of Superstores or at least pose a local challenge to the Alnwick Gardens - the fountain is evidently capable of projecting a narrow jet of water some twenty feet into the air. The test was a half-power with merely a ten foot high jet and conditions were a bit windy - which isn't all that unusual on that corner, particularly since most of the surrounding buildings, trees, walls and hedges have been demolished and replaced with an expanse of tarmac.

So - I gather - the unfortunate workmen who were deputed to roleplay Morrisons' customers or simply passers by on the pavement were thoroughly soaked as the water sprayed over the steps, the ramps, the balustrades and halfway across the road (giving passing cars an unexpected patch of wet road on which to brake as they approach the pedestrian controlled lights). 

So - NCC Highways have decided that the water feature can only be turned on in near windless conditions. At least that means the rarity of the event will make it another visitor attraction for the town.

 But even that might not be the case: while out canvassing this evening, I just happened to meet someone who designs urban public realm water features and he told me that it was a well-established fact that even in still air, the spray from a fountain travelled horizontally as far as the fountain is high. A twenty foot fountain will generate spray over a twenty foot circle even in windless conditions - and that he would not have put such a feature in that location.

Lord Adonis agrees with me...

In my election leaflet (available through all good letter boxes in your area now), one of the things I argue that the county council should do is::

"Introduce a countywide ‘oyster-style’ card for bus, train and taxi travel"

ie an integrated smart card for public transport.

Meanwhile, Lord Adonis has been heading up the North East Independent Economic Review commissioned by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership - the Review recommendations are now published, and one of the main recommendations on transport is:

"A key priority, which needs to be agreed by mid-2013, is the joint commitment of the bus operators association and Nexus/the LA7 to introduce competitively-priced all-operator smartcard ticketing for the North East, as good as or better than London’s Oyster, to be available by autumn 2014."

ie an integrated smart card for buses across Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and Co Durham.

Great minds think alike!

On the doorstep… car parking, flooding and the paddling pool

I’ve barely started canvassing (well it’s cold out!) but a number of issues have already been raised with me, including:

• Car parking at the Registry Office in Cottingburn: aside from the workforce parking, it is used as free longstay car parking by the general public. There are no regulations for the County’s traffic wardens to enforce – and no car parking for people using the Registry Office. The official line is that all Registry Office appointments are now at the Town Hall so no visitor parking is needed. But that is evidently not the case in practice. In any event, what is NCC doing allowing unregulated free car parking with access from Cottingwood Lane?

• Flooding at Lancaster Park: the drainage on the central field has been engineered wrongly and the field and footpaths flood regularly threatening nearby houses. I raised this at MTC recently but for some reason the press quoted other councillors not me. The wider issue is that there are flooding hazards all over Morpeth that won’t be addressed by the EA town centre scheme – and many likely to be made worse by development in the future. I’m working to make sure all these hazards are featured in the Morpeth Neighbourhood Plan.

• Crafting Centre: Morpeth could do with a centre equipped for crafting – from woodturning to silversmithing to silkpainting – as well as selling local crafts like the Chantry or the new gallery up at Northgate. Such workshops could not only offer facilities for local people but they could combine with local B&Bs etc to offer weekend or weeklong ‘interest holidays’ for visitors.

• Carlisle Park Paddling Pool: It’s great the Town Council runs this and it is hugely popular during the summer, but it is open from the end of May to mid September. Apparently, this is a quirk of the insurance cover (which is substantial) – but it has been suggested to me that it’d be better to open at beginning of May and run through the early September.

So – not everyone is talking about the traffic lights, but don’t get me started on that…

Schroedinger's Cash

It seems there are remarkable similarities between banking and the famous thought experiment intended to demonstrate the Uncertainty Principle.

Savings are both held by the bank and used to make loans - and you can only be certain whether the money is there or not when you 'open the cash box' to withdraw it. 

Certainly that is the way Northumberland Credit Union works, the loans we make are from the capital we hold as members' savings - and it is a matter of fine judgement predicting the amount we can lend against likely demands for withdrawals - at present we have around 68% of savings out on loan, and we reckon that we could lend out maybe 85%. But our members repay weekly or monthly so the money comes back in steadily, and since people know that if they default, they are effectively stealing their neighbours' savings, we don't get that many bad debts.

On the other hand, banks have been tending to go for riskier loans because they get a higher rate of return (if and when they are repaid) and can lend out their 'capital' ie the money in their customers' current and deposit accounts several times over - on the assumption that the cash box will never be fully opened.

And of course - the government will fund the compensation scheme repaying customers' savings (up to £85k) for both banks and the credit union, if the cash box is opened, everyone suddenly wants their money back, loans aren't repaid and the bank (or credit union) goes bust. In other words, savers will get a bit of a tax rebate.

But now the government and the EU are asking the banks to 're-capitalise' - that is find extra money to cover the losses they've made when the high risk loans they've made defaulted. And there are really only two ways to get 'capital' in - one is to borrow more, which is just digging yourself deeper into a hole (so is really only an option for sovereign governments not banks) or to take in more deposits. But then, those deposits could in theory be withdrawn by both the new depositors and by the existing depositors whose money was lost when the original loans weren't repaid. In other words, the banks' capital is never really their own money.

This situation is quite different and should not be confused with illegal 'ponsi' schemes much loved of confidence tricksters, where money deposited by would be savers is used to pay high interest rates to pre-existing savers rather than investing it.

Of course - I'm not an economist so I may have this all totally wrong... 

For a ha'p'orth of telephone line...

Hurrah! After years of lobbying and cogitating - passenger lifts have been installed at Morpeth Rail Station! And they did a thorough job taking a full six months or more to complete the job. So now we have smart, functioning lifts waiting to be used - except that they are out of service because a telecoms company (it might be BT, I don't know) hasn't got around to installing the telephone line for the emergency phone. And of course, it wouldn't be safe to operate a passenger lift without and emergency phone - so passengers still have to lug their bags up and down the stairs, and the northbound platform remains inaccessible to wheelchair users etc.

And Hurrah! Live information boards have finally been installed on the station, again after several years of lobbying by SENRUG and others. So for the past three - four months, passengers have been clearly told where they are (Morpeth Station) and the time. Unfortunately, when a train appears or is imminent - the screen shows a fascinating but uninformative array of gobbledegook, possibly even unintelligible to an IT database specialist. Again - I am given to understand the problem is the final telecoms link-up hasn't been completed successfully.

All a bit of a shambles really...