Newcastle’s new council leader wants to “redefine the brand” of the city and plans to take inspiration from Manchester’s worker bee emblem.
Labour chief Nick Kemp has revealed that one of his missions now that he has taken charge at the civic centre is to “recapture” a sense of Geordie pride. The Byker councillor was formally installed as Nick Forbes’ successor in the city council hotseat in late May, after a turbulent few months that saw the long-serving leader deselected in his ward.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about his top priorities now that he is in the local authority’s top office, Coun Kemp said he wanted to “redefine the brand of Newcastle ” and was keen to find a unifying symbol for the city in the way that the bee came to symbolise Manchester’s industrial heritage and become a sign of unity in the wake of the 2017 terrorist attack.
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The new Labour council leader added: “I think we have gone a bit quiet. The civic pride and city pride here is absolutely huge and one of our big assets, I think there is something to be done to recapture that.
“It is a conversation I would like to have with people and part of our economic vision as a council needs to be about the identity of Newcastle. Manchester has done incredibly well with the worker bee symbol and that is a real source of pride there. Everyone in Newcastle always says how proud they are to be from here and I think finding a way to capture that would be great.”
Now two weeks into his new post, Coun Kemp said he had been met with an “information overload” and a “perfect storm” for local government – with £335m of council budget cuts over the last decade, the aftermath of a pandemic, and the cost of living crisis to cope with. The new administration has promised a “complete reset and refresh” of council services, pledging to shift focus away from the city centre and make it easier for residents to contact the council.
Coun Kemp has already pledged to rethink the council’s vision for a pedestrianised Grey Street and to pave over Old Eldon Square. He has also announced a review of Your Homes Newcastle to make sure the city’s social housing provider is still “fit for purpose”, as well as Urban Green Newcastle and the NewcastleGateshead Initiative.
He told the LDRS that the “first thing that is an absolute priority” is to develop a new economic strategy for the city – including plans to revitalise struggling high streets like Shields Road in Byker.
Coun Kemp said: “We need to understand properly what the economic drivers of our city are because enabling economic activity drives people’s potential. And I mean economic activity in every form, not just inward investment in the city.
“If you go to the district centres like Shields Road, how do we transform it back into the vital district heart that it used to be, that resonated with local people, for what they wanted to buy, and employed local people? The reset for me, and for the cabinet, means that every decision we take in the future needs to be valued against the impact on local residents. It is about putting people first.”
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