Tory candidate for our ward

Speaking personally I was very pleased to see Gerry Price our potential Tory county council candidate's glossy flyer come through our door today. I might have liked to see something about public transport but otherwise it struck all the right notes: potholes and dog poo do matter. So does the new school, protecting our green environment and reviewing the Town Centre project. All those were in and for the last the word all viewpoints appeared. Cheers Gerry and Guy Opperman MP.

Bus enthusiasts of the world unite......................

Bus enthusiasts of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your gears. The universality of the pulling power of the Leyland Olympian was shown yesterday. A snowbound Stanhope drew people from Basingstoke and Hong Kong. Perhaps it was all a dream? No for as this bus (not an Olympian) we passed in Bishop Auckland suggests it was but a call to repentence in the face of sin and the universal strangeness of existence. (Blow up the back end). Many more pictures at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=462613347145759&set=a.147962981944132.39656.100001912940850&type=1&theater and surrounds.

Eilleen Burt as a Labour candidate in Prudhoe West Ward

                            (one of our challenges, the delightful but antiquated 1883 access to the A69)



Here is an open letter sent to Prudhoe Town Councillor Eilleen Burt and now County Council candidate for Labour in our ward

Dear Eilleen

Firstly may I congratulate you on announcing your candidacy for the county council Prudhoe West Ward where I live.

I try not to take sides but respect all mainstream viewpoints and debate with them.


You will probably know I help to voluntarily admin
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Take-Pride-in-Prudhoe-2012/244877205624467>

We welcome Prudhoe's politicians engaging in debate there. All we try to do as admins is to keep it polite.

I wonder if you have found <http://robertatforsythe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/prudhoe-election-year-vision.html> and other things I have written about Prudhoe there.

If you succeed in your campaign. I very much hope you will be able to keep Prudhoe in the limelight and to make it a 21st century town.

For my money that phrase 21st century is so important. The last year has revealed much across Northumberland about how Northumberland Estates operate. Surely not an approach the Labour party condones? Landlordism at its worst?

What will you offer the local community by way of engagement with its landowner to review the town centre development whilst it appears in hiatus to change it to something meeting broader appreciation?

I passionately think the sites needs development but it needs a 21st century project and the one on offer is from the 1980s. Who would design a new supermarket that does NOTHING to get public transport to the front door? One of many many deficiencies.

Other subjects I take an interest in include public transport and the landscape. Prudhoe has a wealth of surrounds and history. It is a glorious place to live and it can be better. A vision for green infrastructure is being drawn to the PCP's attention on the 16 April. Will you speak up for that?

Only in the last few weeks have I been shown a hidden colliery landscape of the 1870s still in existence in Prudhoe and on county land. This should be an asset. It is a remarkable survival.

People like Peter Nevin have done a lot for Prudhoe's public transport. Despite which changes in March will mean that the south and west of the town are very poorly served. How could Ferndene appear with no public transport?

Peter wants to see the interchange completed with more parking and decent waiting areas. He knows how it can be done. I support him. Will you?

I should say I am a member of the Tyne Valley Line Rail Users Group (only a fiver payable by Pay Pal), a board member of Tyne Valley Line Community Rail Partnership and on the PCP Transport Working Group.

I hope before the election Prudhoe debates its future. Will you be making arrangements to set up a public debate or hustings in The Spetchells?

I always welcome converse and debate either on line or in person. And should you knock on our door you can come prepared with answers to my questions.