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?

Sainbury's have walked from Prudhoe

On the 1st of August 2012 I blogged about the degree of silence that followed the 20th June 2012 granting of planning permission by Northumberland County Council to Northumberland Estates for a new town centre in Prudhoe. News has come through this week that Sainsbury has walked from the Prudhoe project. Doubtless more will need to be said once it becomes clear how terminal this blow is.