I hope you will find my website interesting and informative.
Soon after my election in May 2007 several major issues of concern for families in Ulgham Ward arose. I am pleased to report that so far this year many of these issues have been resolved - at least for the time being! You may recall :-
- Ulgham Ward was included in an Area of Less Constraint for future opencast coal working in Northumberland County Council's Minerals and Waste Development Framework (MWDF) Core Strategy document. However, as a result of two meetings with the appointed Inspector, the County Council has decided to withdraw the document from the public examination scheduled to start on at Hepscott Park on 26 February 2008. For more information see MY NEWS.
- Opencast coal operators named four potential sites in Ulgham Ward which were included in the County's MWDF Site Specific Allocation consultation document namely The Cockles, the Butterwell Disposal Point, Houndalee and Highthorn. This document has also been withdrawn. Given the recent Secretary of State approval for opencasting at Shotton, nr. Stannington by Banks, the yet undetermined application by UK Coal for opencasting at Potland Burn, nr. Ashington and the recently announced intention of Banks to submit an application for coal extraction on the Blagdon Estate near Brenkley, it will hopefully be some time before any of the four named sites in Ulgham ward come forward as a planning application. By then I hope we will have a new strategy in place which takes into account the views of residents, that treats communities equally and gives them greater degree of protection from the impact of opencast coal working than was offered by the previous Core Strategy document.
- The Government decided to overturn the majority public view and create a single Unitary Council, New Northumberland, for the future local government of the County from 1 April 2009. ELECTIONS will be held on 1 MAY 2008. 67 Unitary councillors will be elected to replace existing County councillors. District and Borough Councillors, myself included, get the sack on 31 March 2009.
- The Northumberland Strategic Partnership consulted during last year on the boundaries of three Characteristic Areas which will be set up within the new Unitary Council to deliver local services. The initial document suggested Ulgham Ward should be included in a South East Northumberland characteristic area. A subsequent document suggested West Northumberland. The three Parish Councils in Ulgham Ward, Morpeth Town Council and neighbouring Parish Councils (with the exception of Ellington & Linton and Lynemouth) wanted to be in North Northumberland! On 6 Feb the County Council respected the wishes of those Parish Councils and decided that Ulgham Ward would be in North Northumberland and the boundaries would be as shown on the map included in DAVID'S DOCUMENTS. Much credit must go to all the Parish Councils that lobbied so strongly for this to happen and also to those that listened!
Go to David's Documents to access responses and more information on the above subjects.
