Northumberland Labour launches its manifesto hexham-courant.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hexham-courant.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
NORTHUMBERLAND is in the top 20 places in the country most at risk of ‘hollowed-out high streets’, according to new analysis by Labour. The party’s research is based on those parts of the country which have the highest proportion of hospitality, tourism, retail and leisure businesses which are currently closed. Across England, 11.7 per cent of all businesses fall into these categories, but in Northumberland, this figure stands at 14 per cent. Coun. Susan Dungworth, the leader of the Labour opposition on Northumberland County Council, said: “Hospitality, tourism, retail and leisure businesses have been some of the hardest hit during the pandemic and are facing a cash crisis. Closed from trading yet facing shrinking government support, with cash grants worth just a fraction of the amount made available during the first lockdown, they are experiencing dwindling cash reserves, burdened with debt, and fast approaching a dead end in multiple government support schemes.�
Northumberland County Council has set its budget for 2021/22.
Members approved the 2021-22 budget and medium-term financial plan at the full council meeting and it features savings of £8.2million, a capital spending programme totalling £291million next year, and a rent increase of 1.5 per cent for council tenants.
The proposals were passed by 37 votes to none, with 21 abstentions by Labour.
Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “I’m very proud of this budget. This budget is about involving the public, protecting the public and making sure that out public get the best deal they can.
“Above all, it’s about supporting our staff, investing in our county from border to border, and, as this Covid virus moves on and our lives become more steady and certain, being more confident in the future for all our people.”
THE chief executive’s disciplinary process – and the subsequent leak – sparked a series of questions at the latest full Northumberland County Council meeting. However, in the main, it resulted in very few answers from the administration, who outlined that there are still live issues and that it should have remained confidential in the first place. The authority’s chief executive Daljit Lally was suspended in early August 2020, at the same time as she sent an email to all county councillors about ‘serious whistle-blowing concerns’. This made public a major rift with the Conservative leadership, which resulted in a vote of no confidence in the then leader, Coun. Peter Jackson. Mrs Lally returned to her post in October.
Young people who don t have a job to blame for Covid-19 spread, insists Northumberland councillor chroniclelive.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chroniclelive.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.