Torchgate

"The problem with the railway company is that it does not embrace growth and indeed the DfT did not structure it to do so". That is RF's take on the whole Torchgate debacle (not yet utterly cured, just in truce mode). You can offer many angles on Torchgate and blame various elements. But the bottom line I think is that the Northern business in Northumbria is not driven by a burning desire and abilty to seek passenger growth. In turn that reflects the privatisation model we have tried to make work for 17+ years. It is a bad model.

If you would like much more information I have been Facebooking here .

Parenting

As someone who is drawn to struggle with faith in the divine, the logical and most consistent obstacle to belief is that of suffering. In logic this will produce all the obstacles anyone might want who is bent on not believing. God's existence cannot be " demonstrated" nor "justified" in logic in the face of pain although heaven knows people try. A long lasting attempt to do so is that of the Genesis account whereby a male dominated society managed to pin the blame on their female companions. The gall of that is breath-taking so let's be clear, Genesis is a great tale for those wedded to patriarchy. In any modern progressive society, it is exactly that, a tall story. One that even so reveals much about human nature and our duplicitious short-comings in creating stories with which to justify ourselves: " it was'nt me Guv".

The answer is even closer to home. Which of you, as adults, knowing full well the human condition, will say the logic of this situation demands that I must not visit it upon another being without their consent? The logic is clear, to create without consent, new beings destined to labour in pain and die is unreasonable. So why do we do it? Because our nature demands we do and that is the divine spark in us. God the Father behaved in just the same way when time dawned roundabout the Big Bang. And what made Him and us behave so? The mere sexual lust, a need for an old age insurance policy? To reduce humanity to this (does Dawkins do this?) is extra-ordinarily cynical. No, there is something bigger and more embracing of lust called Love.

Love is the hope that it can all be made worthwhile, Love is the joy of being with. A joy so intense that it will create the slave's desire to be with the Dominant and to accept their discipline. That is one intense picture. It is also the Love that enshrines the child, that inspires self-sacrifice, to labour and toil to provide for one's children. Love is the one key that can unlock faith in God and to understand Love you need not look any further than at the best of parenting. Which must include the idea of letting go.

The principle of letting go was built into the creative moment. Kenosis, self-emptying, putting aside the classic human created attributes of the divine. These are what religion creates, the vengeful, angry jealous father. The Old Testament God who will willingly embrace murder to achieve his ends and who still as modern Middle Eastern history shows is abroard on this planet.

Yet His Son showed His true Father's nature to us all 2000 years ago and we do not see the blindingly obvious. Creation without a father may appeal to those who see no need to believe but it is breath-takingly illogical in itself. Far far better in my opinion to believe that persons did press the buttons and that those persons accepted in themselves that they would become part of the process. A process that would need sacrifice to redeem sinful men, blood would be split. Blood to redeem is one of the most basic of human's forces. But that one sacrifice would be enough to vitiate all others and to spit in the face of all who kill in the name of God. God's own Son willingly undertook this task fully knowing what was afoot and knowing, though this age bereft of scientific knowledge could not know this, that the Cross does not just carry human sin. The Cross is also the most utter moment when God subjects Himself publicity to His own creative progress. It is the moment of His death, it is the death of religion too. What happened next in this unique story? What was it that made a Church spring to life? What is the mechanism that continues to inspire people to commit to Jesus Christ?

A pat on the back for New Year 2012

A totally unexpected read just now on our MP's blog.

I quote

"Local champions: for their effort for local causes without reward - Tom Martin, chair of Wylam Parish Council, East Tynedale Olympics and so much more, and the fascinating Robert Forsythe, who works tirelessly in Prudhoe - both should be Local County Councillors, whoever they stand for, given the amount of public work they do."

Thanks indeed.

Guy Opperman has imaginatively constructed an appealing list of people and organisations and concepts to thank and praise. My real favourite in his list was the humble Northumbrian tea shop cheese scone. For which you can look at Tea Rooms of East Tynedale.

The Courant explains why the Prudhoe Town Centre determination was cancelled

Just over two months after the Prudhoe Town Centre application was pulled the Courant front page and editorial today discuss what they believe brought things to a halt. Detailed and renewed objections from the Co-Op. Not the drains and sewers (Clochemerle) which have also taken our time this autumn. Courant phraseology embraces "failed process" and "beggars belief" and firmly finger wags at both the County Council and the Northumberland Estates. Like many others I am sure, I have no idea how this will end but I do know Prudhoe deserved the preparation of a really excellent scheme from its landlord. http://robertatforsythe.blogspot.com/2011/05/when-good-is-not-good-enough.html

Meantime I continue my crusade for an independent butchers in Prudhoe. I am perfectly willing to support the new development if it answers the needs and concerns of those who live here. So an update from last Wednesday. Letter from Northumberland Estates to RNF arrived today with regard to a butcher in Prudhoe's new town centre. "We would have no problem with an independent butcher in the Prudhoe scheme should one come forward". There remains the issue of the planning zone which says Non Food Retail but to me this is a major clarification. What is needed now is to find an interested butcher?

Information about the Prudhoe Town Centre

Two thoughts just now on Prudhoe's new centre. Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." . Had that been a guiding principle in the design of the proposed centre, much of the pain could have been avoided by the designers asking themselves would I wish to live in the neighbouring properties once this work was finished? To see the result of not doing so, explore this link http://committees.northumberland.gov.uk/aksnorthumberland/images/att9996.pdf

. And by playing with the 999x sequence up and down you can find all or a huge amount of correspondence in the public domain about the project. Very instructive. Thanks Clive Elsdon for some tuition here.

Is the Prudhoe Town Centre redevelopment abandoned and if so Why?

A month ago the Prudhoe Town Centre redevelopment scheme looked all set to receive its planning permission after years of twists and turns. About a day beforehand, the meeting was cancelled. Since then something of a catch all about legal advice and the applicant being required to submit more information has sufficed by way of explanation. I have asked councillors, the chairman of the Prudhoe Community Partnership who is also the vicar, for explanations. Nothing in any detail is forthcoming. The Hexham Courant has hardly been able to expand the knowledge base. This week its publishes two letters from opposing sides of the spectrum: Peter Gallagher and Tony Williamson. Sometimes people wonder why I don't get more involved in the actual political structures. Read those letters for an answer. It is mudslinging and misunderstanding on both sides and that is not something I wish to take part in. Nonetheless this inability to communicate between the various parties may go far in explaining why this process has become so frustrating over many years. The process goes back some years before the original application for the current scheme was submitted in 2007. Now in bullet point form, I intend to list out some of the reasons why I suspect if the current scheme is dead, that is so. Tony Williamson's letter (pro) seemed to suggest it is dead although on what evidence I do not know. Perhaps the results of the Sainsbury consultation this September were so negative as to disincentivise them?

• At the outset the scheme should have had a vision and a name. One that encapsulated the excitement of what was on offer. I have several times in this blog referred to The Hanging Gardens of Prudhoe. This was not a random choice and only incidentally was meant to allude to a fate for the protagonists. The Hanging Gardens concept is one of antiquity and refers to the hillside. The space for the development is the last open space left within Prudhoe's centre. It sits on one of Prudhoe's greatest assets: its hillside. The development owner is famed for the Alnwick Garden. It is basic common sense that the two be combined and that above everything else encompassing the shops and the houses, there would be a Garden experience of such notability that it made Prudhoe a destination. A multi storey car park or a Supermarket facade could have become an exercise in hydroponics. People with memories in Prudhoe realise that the Co-Op development and its car park destroyed a very pleasant park.
• As such the scheme needed to be 21st century in nature. I often asked those for the scheme to outline for me its 21st century elements. They never have because it is'nt. It is a scheme from the 1980s. And it never really took cognisance of its hillside location. The hillside became a problem not an asset. And that is how we ended up with Berlin Walls, sound barriers and massive blocks of development overlooking houses.
• An element of a 21st century scheme would have been efficient communication to sell the project. A regularly maintained website with an updated FAQ responsive to questions could have worked wonders. The site is surrounded by houses and the proposed development literally looks down on many. Pleasing the neighbours should always have been paramount to remove objections. IT could have helped this, instead the developers seemed to stir up a hornet's nest amongst their intended neighbours.
• The information provision was always poor. Dumping huge arrays of files in the library and calling that consultation was anything but. Again a website could have had a 3d walkthrough, which, had the plan had inherent excitement, could have convinced the doubters. It simply did not seem that Northumberland Estates ever wanted to enthuse the community. It looked as if they took them for granted. It certainly did when as this blog shows the Estate has spent months claiming on its own website to have planning permission for the project when it had nothing of the sort. A public consulation inviting responses took place in August/September of this year and not a word about the results has yet been forthcoming.
• Four elements of detail (at least) excited consistent adverse comment (other commentators may suggest more). The big three for me were the multi storey car park, the restrictive covenants on the shops and the new junction on station bank. Each of these three it seemed to me was unwelcome and unworkable. Probably the one highest on my agenda and those I spoke to, were the restrictive covenants. It looked like swopping one supermarket monopoly for another. The knowledge that at the end of all the upheaval, a whole genre of shops would be excluded like a butchers, wholefood (Holland and Barratt), a Thorntons, a fishmonger was amazing. Just what sort of town centre was this going to be for the largest town in Tynedale?
• The fourth element really became evident this summer and perhaps it was this that pulled the meeting on the 19th October? The situation with the drains and the sewers. I have heard so many incompatible versions of this. One argument says that the development was actually going to solve the problem because it was to have a separate drainage system to the river. If so that was not made clear in Fairhurst's summary handed out in October 2010. Another argument says that the Estate maintained there was no springwater on the site when clearly there is. What appears to have driven the point home was the event of 6th August when it became manifestly clear that Prudhoe's current drainage system was not working. The simple point to me is that Prudhoe operates with a 600' hydraulic head and that unless development is exactingly married to that fact, some dramatic problems will arise.
• It is evident that the matter of leadership and trust comes into this. Whether in respect of the springwater or their claim to already have planning permission, the Estate lost the community's confidence. The Duke never once came the 3o miles to engage with the population. The whole affair of the Judicial Review articulated this. The proposal was rejected once by a judge and although it could be argued this was on a technicality, commentators like the Hexham Courant certainly interpreted this as a rebuff to the Estate's plan which had already then attracted thousands of objectors. I certainly thought that when the plans were represented at a consultation in St Mary's Parish Hall in October 2010, one would see a radically changed scheme taking account of the many concerns which by then were well known. I remember being amazed by what I saw and I remember the inescapable mood of those in that room. They were angry. More than anything else, this was the moment I decided to start quietly taking soundings amongst people as I met them. Gradually over several months, I became astonished at what I learnt. Very successful business people were explaining to me exactly why the proposed scheme would not work. Other people were expressing amazement that successful businesses like the existing snooker hall were going to be sacrificed with no arrangements for their replacement. I was very surprised to discover that this did not seem to concern the Prudhoe Community Partnership.
• A very sad consequence of all of this as the letters in the Courant have consistently shown is that the landowner's scheme has entirely divided the community. It is not difficult to find heated arguments developing over the affair. Neighbour can quite literally fall out with neighbour. Since the landowner in this instance is not some absent commercial entity but the feudal landlord, I judge that to be somewhat scandalous.
• As Tony Williamson's letter says, the land will be developed. It cannot be left. If indeed the Northumberland Estates/Sainsbury scheme is dead, how might I suggest going forward? The asset of the land and its view is so valuable to the community that the Prudhoe Community Partnership should raise funds to buy the land and find a new development partner. One who would really work with this community to develop a scheme which would enthuse the community. Perhaps the result will not be a Sainsbury? It might be a Morrisons or an Aldi. I don't mind. I never objected to a new supermarket. The Co-Op as I repeatedly say to myself when forced into it, has not made any friends by its pricing or stocking policy (Consett offers a vastly wider array of supermarkets and other food outlets all competitively priced). So by all means lets have a new supermarket, some more housing, shops that allow for a butchers, but in all that let us make sure that the development treats the hillside in such an exciting manner that it will become the positive talk for 50 miles around.

Prudhoe's Drainage

I went to the Prudhoe Civic and Community Forum meeting last night about the flooding. The most forceful presence came from a newly appointed West Area Highways manager Richard Hayes. It seems he is very ready to understand that Prudhoe has deep seated drainage problems that unless they are addressed will continue to cause a lot of distress to affected properties.

What I now say is a little bit of reading in: but I conclude his advice would likely to be no development planning permission until a wider study into Prudhoe's geology and drainage is concluded. And that one should not be surprised if the solution is an interceptor drain of some size running along the spring line. That is roughly from the west end of the bypass, along the back of Prudhoe Castle School, the bottom of the Kepwell, between Broomhouse Lane and the new development to the area of the Cockshaw Dene where it would discharge into natural drainage. This scheme would intercept surface and land water discharges.

Once it was in place, the capacity would be there to proceed with the town development.

The objectors were going on about granite! I had to interject. There is no granite anywhere near Prudhoe. I had the geology map with me to prove it. Apparently as one told me later, Fairhurst's had suggested this. If so this shows just how out of touch and hopeless the Fairhurst's input is. The geology of Prudhoe whilst complex is perfectly clear. The rocks are coal measures: coal, limestone, sandstones, shales, fireclays. Most are porous but the clays are not and will play a role in springlines. On top of the rocks there is boulder clay and sands and gravels. Plenty of the latter along the hillside clearly shown on the map. Where they meet clay, you get springs and where the underlying rock outcrops the same also happens.

It seems to me that previous developers have been allowed to get away with murder - especially as it now appears along Castle Road. It is very important that Northumberland Estates are not allowed to repeat this. They have had ample opportunity to do their work properly. They seem to have failed to do this. The objectors say that NE deny there are any springs on the development site. They have photographic evidence to prove otherwise.

To my mind the NE planning application should not be taken further until the drainage study is concluded and implemented. There is every reason a planning committee could want to say this to the applicant. There is no way that the applicant could object as they have manifestly failed to undertake the studies they should have done.

The event of 6th August was evidently very distressing and it has been followed up with smaller scale repeats since then including October 18th on Station Bank. However if these unfortunate events have injected some realism into the development plans in Prudhoe, something will have moved forward.