Ovingham Bridge and an electric railway

I was obviously mulling over Colin Tapping, the Hexham Courant (see https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=805252949586887&id=244877205624467) and Ovingham Bridge in my sleep. I awoke with this perfectly formed. So Mr Tapping acknowledges Prudhoe is larger than Hexham but his best advice is learn to live without Ovingham Bridge. Many of you have (his evidence?). In this expression of fraternal concern, there is this point to be made. Next time Hexham bridge falls, Mr Tapping will not be in the least bit put out if we suggest that Hexham learns to live without it. After all, they have the bypass bridge just to the west and Corbridge to the east. No difference at all to Prudhoe, Bywell and Wylam. Hexham could happily and without agitation do without Hexham bridge. This line of thought is clearly so preposterous that it leaves you wondering why has Mr Tapping written as he has? To cynically ensure his letter columns fill for weeks?

Mr Tapping's views however tap into something else deeply worrying about the north east in the 21st century. Our region seems entirely unable to pull together. When Prudhoe and Hexham can argue amongst themselves, when Ashington can stuff Morpeth, when Prudhoe's own are unable to agree without hesitation that a new road to the A69 is essential, when Sunderland and Newcastle cannot work together (instance Sunderland museums being pulled from the joint service), when people cannot agree who should chair the LEP, etc, etc, the North West and Yorkshire run circles around the North East. Middlesbrough and Tees Valley don't even want to be part of the North East. The reason they run circles around us is because they have learnt to come together and share. Greater Manchester (as in Tyne and Wear) has effectively been reconstituted and each council (large and small just like the EU) takes it in turns to chair. Is Nick Forbes in Newcastle willing to come up with that?

Problems both in Prudhoe and in the region may seem worringly complex and intractable. However I think they come down to simple roots. Will you trust others and will you share? If you won't, look forward to a lot more of the same and the best folk packing bags. On the horizon is another instance. Mr Tapping threw into the mix the electrification of the Tyne Valley line as a reason for Prudhoe not getting a new connection to the A69. I have news for him, according to Network Rail electrifying our railway is on a par with the Barton on Humber branch. Something not remotely on the radar. However doubtless he could retort "well at least the coming Arriva rail franchise, promises us new trains for the Pacers to go". News there as well, if you know which meetings and briefings to go to , which newsgroups to look at, it is now ABSOLUTELY CLEAR Arriva are not bringing new trains to the North East. The many new trains they are buying are going to Yorkshire and Lancashire. What you will see passing through Prudhoe station is something called a Class 158. A nice train in itself but here is the rub, already 26 years old and as I will attach a photo below, a type of train Tyne Valley communters were used to riding in the early 1990s. Until we can get our act together, this is what we are worth, other people's cast offs. Even so this will be a 90mph train running on a 65mph railway so the real challenge is as Mr Tapping suggests the infrastructure, but there is so much to do to it before wiring becomes good sense.

The winter of 1990/91 at Prudhoe and a Class 158 four car rake handles the commuter traffic. This is the new train Arriva will deliver to us in a year or so.

Prudhoe's Parking Woes do have a Solution.

The Hexham Courant on Friday 12th June 2015 ran two stories on opposite pages. Allendale adopts its Neighbourhood Development Plan. Prudhoe has no current project to create one. The second story quoting several Prudhoe Councillors developed the parking challenges which are clearly the subject of some energised discussion in the town. Attention was given to the challenges at Highfield School. This has prompted me to write an open letter to the Mayor which I will clip in below. It must be obvious to everyone that with the depth of feeling being reported that doing NOTHING about Prudhoe's parking issues is not sustainable. But so much of this comes back to the need for Prudhoe to develop its own plan and for subjects like Transport which used to be a topic for a Prudhoe Community Partnership working group to be given more attention. The letter follows:

Dear Eileen
I am writing to you in your role as the Mayor of Prudhoe to offer some thoughts on your comments published in the Hexham Courant on Friday June 12th about parking in Prudhoe. I will publish this letter on Facebook as Taking Pride in Prudhoe and I will do the same with any reply.

You and other councillors are quite right to be concerned about car parking throughout Prudhoe and especially with schools. The subject could be one that a properly convened Transport Sub Committee of the Town Council could address. It is also one that should be the subject of a Neighbourhood Development Plan. Incidentally on the opposite page in the same Courant a story hails the adoption of Allendale’s one. Will Prudhoe Town Council (bearing in mind the advice of ALL candidates at the General Election Hustings) be moving to create one soon?

With regard to the specific school parking issues, I can think of some solutions.

At Highfield. Two existing public car parks are quite close. The one adjacent to Fair View and the one at Highfields Play Park. It would be possible to yellow line the roads outside the schools and insist no-one drops children or waits to pick them up adjacent to the school.

That is a solution although it will not be completely welcomed. There is another solution. The entire road layout at Highfields is poor. It is my understanding that the County owns the land on the inside of the bend opposite the school entrance? Without changing any existing demarcated boundaries, I would think a relatively minor road improvement scheme could re-arrange the road layout and create a new pick up and drop off point or lane, on the school side of the road. The road would be improved and the school gain some room for parents.

The same problem exists at Castle School. Here in my opinion, the solution which will also address the Eltingham Court access issue is to make parts of Castle Road (perhaps west of the postbox, to be considered in detail) a one way road with access onto the bypass. This would give the room to mark up outside Castle School a proper set down/pick up area. Safety might require a roundabout at Hammerite. Then get on and do that.

Prudhoe is in the midst of expansion which will see the population grow in thousands. These problems are not going to go away, they are only going to increase. Unless schemes of investment are campaigned for and monies found, the situations that have led to the outbursts recorded in the Courant will keep continuing. A similar situation affects the need for a new Tyne Bridge and a road north to Horsley Interchange and another improved route on existing public roads south to the Derwent Valley at Ebchester (out via Moor Road). Unless Prudhoe addresses its own strategic needs and insists they go on the agenda of the County Council, you can anticipate the community tied in knots as illustrated in the Courant and with 400+ more houses at the Hospital site, the need to tackle these planning issues is absolutely pressing.

Yours sincerely

Robert Forsythe

The election is a looming and I would like to know what Labour offers Prudhoe

An open letter sent directly to my county councillor

Dear Eileen

You are my county councillor. About 70 days hence is the election. I googled “Councillor Eileen Burt” and this is the result. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Councillor+Eileen+Burt&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=oerqVPuCIpf3aoP_gbAJ#q=%22Councillor+Eileen+Burt%22 . Going forward the Labour party has the opportunity to persuade folk to vote. I am interested in knowing your vision of what Prudhoe might expect to gain from a Labour party win and if this was repeated, what policies there are say over a 12 year period to change the town. Specifically will the Labour party be supporting the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan as other communities in Tynedale now have? What is the Labour party policy towards the electrification of the Tyne Valley Railway line and will this be the means to remove the Pacer trains?  As a local councillor what further improvements are visualised at our railway station and with our road network? I believe the expansion of Prudhoe calls for a new B road from Ebchester in the Derwent Valley to the Horsley interchange on the A69 with a new bridge crossing of the Tyne starting from the east end of Princess Way. This will not happen quickly but unless it features in policy it will never happen. The railway station this year missed out on better waiting shelter replacements (instead like for like). Just as the Northern refranchise cannot be another stand still franchise, it would have been far more effective if the Labour party had campaigned for the real improvements needed locally. In the event it was left to people like Peter Nevin and myself and Network Rail have run rings around us. The lack of a Town Council Transport Working Group shows this up (and quite humanly there are real limits to what I can do voluntarily).  Many more issues are down there, the expansion of car parking (although I believe this is in hand from the county?). The better shelters for an expanding town are a necessity, so is a new footbridge. Proper integration with bus services and fares is another.

I would welcome both a new town centre and the redevelopment of Prudhoe hospital. But in each instance I want to know how electing a Labour government will ensure these become “excellent” projects, not will do. By this I mean for instance the thought that is given into community structures and employment opportunities at the hospital site and how some of the buildings there can be reused. To simply flatten and build nigh on 500 homes with no new transport infrastructure and employment provision to me stacks up problems. At the Town Centre I have long argued that the site demands the best solution, a Hanging Gardens of Prudhoe development with car parking hidden in the hillside. A result that meant the site’s many neighbours were wowed and not antagonised. Much of this is about planning. I am aware of many pressures in regard to the Green Belt. Prudhoe is within the Land of Oak and Iron heritage landscape project. The reason people will want to live in Prudhoe in part is because of its high quality landscape surround. How will electing a Labour government ensure that Prudhoe’s woodlands remain a gem? And how will Prudhoe benefit from the Land of Oak and Iron?

Over a whole range of issues, to my experience including transport spend, arts spend, heritage lottery spend the comparison per head between the North East Region and London is grossly disproportionate. If the Labour party form the next government I want to form an idea as to how a change in that policy will change Prudhoe for the better.

For my interests, these are the sorts of matters that I think need debate and I will be very keen that you locally as a leading Labour politician set out the stall. In that spirit I regard this as an open letter and any reply should be in a similar vein.

Yours Sincerely

Robert Forsythe

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I am grateful for a reply to this letter received from Liam Carr, prospective Parliamentary Candidate of the Labour party in the Hexham Constituency.

Dear Robert,

Your raises a few issues, I will address each theme.

Rail Services.

Privatisation was a disaster for the railways. The whole franchising system has been a failure and passengers are paying more for a worse service, the Pacer trains are going but they will be replaced by cast off underground trains from London that may not be suited the Northumberland weather.

The next Labour government will allow the public sector to compete with private companies for rail franchises when they expire, this will result in public sector running sections of our rail network as soon as possible, in the same sort of way as East Coast did. 

We aren't saying we want to go back to some sort of 1980s British Rail, but we have to acknowledge that privatisation was a mistake and its one that we must rectify.

The next Labour Government will be different from the one elected in 1997, it is OK to say that some things like Health, Education and Transport, are too important to be left to market forces.

With profits coming back to the treasury, this will allow investment in the Tyne Valley line.

Roads and other infrastructure.

Labour will devolve power away from Whitehall, so instead of having to beg for real investment in the and ending up with a feasibility study, decisions will be made closer to home.

Labour has a strong track record of devolving power.  We passed the Scotland Act and the Government of Wales Act and we are now committed to an English Devolution Act, which will reverse the centralisation which has occurred under successive governments in the recent (and not so recent) past.

We will transfer £30 billion of funding over five years, passing on power and resource not only for transport, which you mention, but also skills, employment support, housing and business support.

What difference will a Labour Government make in Prudhoe?

I have listened to many residents in Prudhoe who have been hit by the bedroom tax, this is an unfair tax particularly so in Prudhoe, where there are very few one bedroom properties to move into. Labour will repeal the bedroom tax.

We will also reverse the privatisation of our NHS by repealing the Heath and Social care act, the effects of which are being felt locally services at Hexham hospital are under threat. I want to be your next MP so I can defend our NHS.

There is still some concern about Education in our High school, Much of the discussion we hear is about structures; politicians on all sides have been guilty of arguing about if schools should be free schools, high schools, supported by the LEA or be an academy. However, when listening to concerns from parents, I hear that they are less concerned about structures  - most simply want a great local school, staffed by committed, well-qualified teachers, which provides good outcomes for all young people. If elected I will refocus the debate away from structures and back on what matters most; the students.

In this election we have a choice to make, about the kind of society we want to live in. I believe in a fair  society with a recovery that benefits the working people and not just the very wealthy and an economy that works for all and not just a few at the top.

I hope this reply is helpful, if you have any other policy queries please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Liam Carr

Liam (like Guy Opperman) has a blog which is at http://liamrcarr.blogspot.co.uk/  

Prudhoe Hospital redevelopment planning application

My blog over the years has chronicled the poor quality of planning in Prudhoe (although I will remark that this year past has shown a marked effort to address one of the regular concerns in respect of drainage). After a long time in gestation, the Prudhoe Hospital planning application from the developer Gentoo and the owner The Homes and Communities Agency (remember the c word) is now made. It is here.

Paul Revill the previous Baptist minister of Stocksfield and himself a Prudhoe resident asked me "What do think Robert?". And remarked that flatting Prudhoe Hall might be a lost opportunity. This is what I said on Facebook.

"At one level Prudhoe Hall is the least of this. I do value Prudhoe Hall and also the Walled Garden (for which the plan if it happens is sensible, some sheltered homes outside to generate revenue for a publicly accessible garden operation). BUT what is needed here is a community, there are many excellent buildings here (like the pavilion) and some of the blocks which could be retained, adapted and re-used, to create along with many new houses variety and opportunity with continuity. The developer simply does not have the vision, the knowledge, the drive or the desire to do any more than knock down and build lots of houses with apparently no thought about where people work and how they get there? How does this impact on Blaydon roundabout? Why is it not matched to new road links across the Tyne to the A69 and south to the Derwent Valley (hardly very difficult that)? What is being provided as a social hub for the self employed with public Wifi (notably something Prudhoe's newest public building does not have)? Will there be a pub or a church? Many people, senior leaders, have said Prudhoe must not repeat Castlefields. In what respect does this development differ? Correlate what the developer proposes to http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/prudhoe-historic-characterisation/prudhoehistoriccharacterisation.pdf . However after many years I have realised that Prudhoe's own ability with but two county councillors to cease being done unto and to take control of itself is very limited. The HCA could have offered the whole site to Prudhoe through the Community Partnership and the Town Council and said "now determine, your own destiny"."

On transport provision worm your way into this. It includes the offer of a minibus service for the development. How long will that last? Think 111. It is not a link to Newcastle or anywhere else. The "positive" step of offering such for 392+12+80 (Humbles Wood) so 484 homes tells me a lot. That anticipating people do anything other than drive hardly figures. It is a palliative sop.

 

One of the buildings slated for demolition. Why not flatted?

Prudhoe Community High School

Last autumn Prudhoe Community High School failed an Ofsted and was placed in Special Measures. You can read the Ofsted report here. Also subsequent correspondence. In particular the report of 14th January 2014 which appears to have precipated Dr Iain Shaw's departure as Head from 31st January 2014.

I have shown some reluctance to make comment. For reasons which bear little relationship to this crisis and reflect a decision we wanted our daughter to make, our child is at Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham. We are not parents, I am not a politician, I may be a commentator but I am not a schools expert although I do slot a PGCE into my CV and my wife has read very many Ofsted reports professionally. She was taught a mantra "prepare for the next Ofsted, the day after the last report arrives".

Over recent days I can honestly say people have taken me aside in the street to air their concerns, so I do feel a need to make some comment. The biggest problem as I see it is the multi-faceted nature of the challenge.

I would identify six issues
The Ofsted
The New Building and Academy
The County Council
Middle Schools
The Fuse
Communications & Governance

The Ofsted: the school has badly failed an Ofsted and whatever one thinks of the process, it is what is there, it is in many respects a tick box formula and the content of both the Ofsted and the 14th January letter cannot be ignored - the tenor of the 14th January letter is that this has happened.

The New Building and Academy. A large area of the challenge is that a new school is desperately needed. Neither of the two major parties have exactly served Prudhoe well over this although the current MP has tried very hard. In the pipeline there is money for a new school but is that imperilled by the current crisis? No imperillment says Councillor Anne Dale.  It has been said often including by the Chair of Governors in the Journal that the usual outcome to Special Measures is a change to an academy or closure. It must be borne in mind that this is not a large secondary school. Closure does not really seem realistic. The nearest secondary Charles Thorpe in Ryton is in  a different authority. Ponteland and Hexham are not straightforward to reach. An academy which became a new school? Open hands? Who would do that? Emmanuel from Gateshead? Is the town ready for a religious foundation? I am a Christian but I would not want my child taught Creationism as anything other than a myth. That has been an issue in the past there.

The prospect of a new school also interacts with the county service which as part of the set of inspections of last autumn was judged badly by Ofsted and then the question arises:  how do Middle Schools fit into all this change? How do you plan to build a new school without knowing the future of Middle Schools? Whether they stay or not directly impacts on what you build into a new High School. Unless you want a load of portakabin classrooms springing up around the new school. I predict that the fate of the local Middle Schools and any new secondary school in Prudhoe is intimately linked.

At the Prudhoe School itself there are two specific areas that cross my radar. The highly innovative Fuse Centre which should be a pride and joy turned out to have a very specific negative role in the Ofsted report. Funnily enough the Fuse is where a sense of unease started several years ago. In turn these stories fuel a debate about how the Hexham Courant reports Prudhoe which neatly links to............

Communications:  It does damage to read  at http://www.pchs.org.uk/?p=3552
"Ofsted Inspectors will be visiting school on Tuesday 22 October 2013, and Wednesday 23 October 2013.
Their report will be published on our Ofsted page when complete". And this is not updated as of 10th February and there is no live link to the Ofsted report. Reflect: completely new people may be thinking of moving into the new housing estates in Prudhoe and they will expect accurate information.

Whatever the rights and wrongs and outcomes of the situation, I will say the following and hold it as pure common sense. We are in the 21st century, people expect websites and facebooks to be accurate and informed from public institutions and we expect open-ness. If action plans are published on a school website there is no need for the Journal or the Courant to be an interface. For my money as a matter of urgency the school website needs to come clean about the Ofsted situation. It also needs to publish a clear and accurate list of governors. I could not find that today. And in the case of the chair of governors, a list of all similar public offices previously held.

(Some reading this will wish to note this parallel story in Cumbria).

UPDATE FRIDAY 14th FEB 2014

Last Monday Deborah Reeman from Morpeth King Edward VI (open Leadership Letter PDF) school arrived as a new headteacher for Prudhoe CHS. Over Thurday /Friday this week a combination of Messrs Gove/Opperman (our MP) announced that the school would be rebuilt. The exact phrase of "within two years" appeared in the Hexham Courant. Other coverage is in The Journal and Guy Opperman's own blog. What strikes me as the important matter of what year's the rebuild is for (and thus how Middle Schools are affected) has not been stated.

UPDATE SATURDAY 15th FEB 2014

Two key local politicians make it clear the new school build is like for like and no changes in the Prudhoe School pyramid for Middle Schools follow.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 2nd JULY 2014.

The school's woes continue and the entire governing body have resigned en masse. OFSTED remain dis-satisfied.  http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/governors-resign-after-prudhoe-community-7361384
The chair of governors Eileen Burt has no comment to make.  The latest Section 8 report (May) which precipitated  this is available here http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/122351 .