The Leadership Team at Northumberland County Council

The latest sniping from the leader of the County Council has really gone beyond the pale.

After he publicly humiliated his council by pleading with a reporter for no more attacks on his plans for a single council he now blatantly lies about the two unitary option – it’s no wonder the public are turned off by him and his deputy.

Where are we now.
Well, in 2004, amongst those heady days of referenda, the two options were accepted after a year long investigation by the Boundary Committee.

BOTH options were stated to be viable and BOTH saved money – the only discussions were how much but as the Commission said of the Counties figures ‘savings such as these are rarely, if ever achieved’.

The Boundary Committee then passed it through the Commission and to the Government – all three agreed both options were viable.

Viable as opposed to acceptable. At the press conference in the Copthorne the Chair of the committee again expressed her concern over the lack of transparency and democracy in the single council option.

The chair provided us with the results of a 2004 MORI poll that clearly stated the public wanted the two unitary options.
This exercise was repeated again in the referendum and again the public by 15,000 majorities decided to go with the two unitary options.

The latest ICM poll again restates that position by 67% wanting the two unitaries compared with only a quarter for the single.

The counties attempt to muddy the waters with an ambiguous poll designed to show support backfired on them. The poll showed that the public was sick and tired of two tiered government and wanted to have only one.

Now the six districts have consulted widely and their members have had several opportunities to discuss their submission and indeed alter it!
The County Councillors have still not had the chance to debate it – the situation is intolerable.

After getting the wind up, the leadership have pinned their hopes on a brand new council that works on the same borders, from the same place, with the same councillors and the same leadership. You couldn’t make it up could you?

The districts are unanimous in their support for the two unitary options – across the political divide with all four MPs support.