These comments from The Conservative Leader are not designed to be helpful, they are designed to be political and it is a shame that they do this on such an important matter that has very little to do with politics, but has a lot to do with planning for the future of our children and their children so they have landscape that meets their needs and aspirations.

The situation is that an All Party task group undertook work on the compilation of a draft plan that would go out for consultation to everyone and allow them an opportunity to make comment, opinions and observations. The principles were agreed by the Task Group, who had members from all parties involved, that we should do the consultation in an open and honest way so that there were no preconditions or hidden agenda items. We have deliberately included a high number of housing development sites, with the knowledge that the consultation will bring about changes. It also acknowledges that we are seeking mitigation plans to include neighbouring Authorities that could greatly reduce the numbers of houses required as a result of the current Government’s National Planning Policy Framework increasing the numbers. We have collated all the existing work including the Area Action Plans, which has been undertaken over the last 18 months, much of which was managed by the previous Cabinet. I believe that the document should be seen as a consultation document and not as a political document. The legislation commits Local Authorities to engage with residents, businesses, visitors and neighbours. The Task Group have met with Northumberland County Council, The North East Chamber of Commerce, Northumbria Water and the Northern Gas Utilities. All of which praised the Council for engaging them at such an early stage of the process, and they have agreed to continue working together throughout the consultation and final drafting of the Local Plan. As for the comments from the Conservative Group ? I would like to point out that the Labour Mayor has not played a part in the formulation of the consultation drafting and neither has the Cabinet, it has been done by members from all the political groups and is therefore a joint report that was presented to council last Thursday. The report will go to the Cabinet meeting in October now that Council approved it, and hopefully then it will go out to the wider audience to hear what they want to say. The Conservative Leader and her colleagues who opposed the plan going out for public engagement only represent one sixth of the Council Elected Members. They now have subsequently reverted to scare stories and accusations that bear no resemblance to what is included within the Draft or for what the Consultation is required to do by Legislation. They refer to numbers as though it was already agreed and the report clearly explains that the numbers currently reflect what the Government has told Local Authorities what the expectations are for them. We have worked hard already to reduce the numbers from the Government Target of just under 18,000 to get it down to between 12,000 and 10,500 homes. We indicate that we are working hard to reduce those numbers even further by working more closely with our neighbouring Authorities and there is a confidence that we will bring the numbers down. So in simple terms we have included land that has been designated as potential development land throughout the life of the current Unitary Development Plane that was agreed around 2003. But we do not expect to have to use all that land if we work in a positive way moving forward. These comments from The Conservative Leader are not designed to be helpful, they are designed to be political and it is a shame that they do this on such an important matter that has very little to do with politics, but has a lot to do with planning for the future of our children and their children so they have landscape that meets their needs and aspirations.

Members of North Tyneside Labour Party successfully completed the “Memory Walk” of 10 Km to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society. The members were Joanne Cassidy and Councillors Linda Darke, John Harrison and Jim Allan. They walked alongside over 600 people who had entered the walk to raise vital funds for an important issues that affects so many people in a cruel and enduring period of time.

Members of North Tyneside Labour Party successfully completed the “Memory Walk” of 10 Km to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society. The members were Joanne Cassidy and Councillors Linda Darke, John Harrison and Jim Allan. They walked alongside over 600 people who had entered the walk to raise vital funds for an important issues that affects so many people in a cruel and enduring period of time. All four have had a link to people who have had suffered with the disease and wanted to help raise public awareness and support to help find a cure for an illness that can be emotionally draining on the family and friends of their loved ones enduring the disease. They hope to raise over £400 between them. Rob Stewart, media officer for the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The turn-out has been really overwhelming, it just shows how much passion there is amongst people in the North East to tackle the stigma that’s attached to dementia and to raise funds so that one day we might find a cure for the disease.”