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By ROB PARSONS - July 15 2022
It's a town where we now know that more than four out of every ten children are living in poverty and a place in need of local leadership to turn things around.
But the council running local services in Middlesbrough has been condemned for its 'political dysfunction' and 'toxic culture' after a damning report which said urgent action was needed to address its significant weaknesses.
In a review published yesterday Ernst and Young said the authority made an unlawful appointment as well as wrongful payments to a publicity company, while relationships in the council have deteriorated so severely that external help is needed to fix the situation,
As Local Democracy Reporter Emily Craigie writes, the auditors have not called for government intervention but have not ruled out further action which could lead to independent commissioners taking over some council functions. They are currently in place after failings at Liverpool council, while Northumberland is being watched closely.
Independent Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston, who leads the council, welcomed third-party involvement and described a toxic culture with too many “selfish and lazy” councillors. Labour has called on the mayor to resign.
In a separate report by chief executive Tony Parkinson, he refused to sign off the annual governance statement for 2020/21 until the risks identified are acknowledged and addressed fully.
This relates to the “sheer size and scale of cultural change required” and a belief that since April 2021 relationships between elected members and officers have deteriorated further.
In an email he said: “In our opinion, the political dysfunctionality that exists in this authority is too deep-seated to enable this within a reasonable timeframe. We, therefore, have no confidence that noticeable improvement will be made and consider the use of further powers to be almost certain – it is a case of when not if.”
The report revealed the council made an unlawful appointment who ended up being in place for more than a year despite officials being unable to explain the exact nature of the services provided
The local authority is entitled to fund a mayoral assistant but the post has been vacant since September 2019. Between October 2019 and November 2020, the council paid £32,000 for an external advisor through a local publicity company to work directly with Mr Preston.
According to the new report: “There is a pervasive lack of trust within the council between officers and elected members, and between elected members, which is having a significant impact on the governance of the council and was a contributing factor to the respective roles and responsibilities of officers and members not being adhered to.”
Extra £20m in taxpayer cash pumped into publicly-owned airport
The possibility of Doncaster Sheffield Airport closing due to a lack of passengers was greeted with dismay this week in South Yorkshire, where the facility owned by the Peel Group is seen as a key part of economic development plans for the region.
But further north, the taxpayer-owned Teesside Airport remains firmly in the red in the year to this March amid high investment costs and the ongoing impact of the pandemic on international travel.
And as Local Democracy Reporter Alex Metcalfe writes, a further £20m of taxpayer cash is to be ploughed into the base as further losses of almost £12m were revealed.
A new financial report states: "The airport had scaled up to accommodate the new flight schedule...agreed with airlines. However because of the extended period of the pandemic and continued complications with foreign travel, elements of the new flight schedule were suspended. The loss for the year is ultimately attributable to the under-achievement of revenue and increased scale-up costs."
The financial blow comes as an investment plan set for sign off at next week’s Tees Valley Combined Authority aims to pump another £20m into the site to cover losses, help create new jobs and aid bringing in new flights.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen - who bought the airport from Peel after being elected - said Covid “wasn’t part of anyone’s business plan” - but still believed the site’s future was bright.
Three Tory hopefuls now backing 'Northern Agenda' pledges
With the Tory leadership race down to five and a potentially pivotal weekend of TV debates coming up, have the North or levelling up started to move up the agenda of those hoping to be the next Prime Minister?
Things might be slowly moving in the right direction as three of the contenders backed the 'Northern Agenda' pledges set out by Lancashire MP and Northern Research Group chair Jake Berry.
After Tom Tugendhat and Liz Truss signed up to the four proposals, including a Minister for the North and new vocational education institutions in the region, ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak also weighed in last night.
He tweeted: "Great to work with @JakeBerry on bringing more jobs and growth to the North. Pleased to sign up to the NRG’s pledges and commit to the Northern Agenda."
Meanwhile, Liz Truss’s comments that children she went to school with in Leeds were let down by low expectations and poor educational standards have been branded “shameful” by political leaders in the city.
The Foreign Secretary made the references to her comprehensive state schooling in Leeds as she launched her leadership campaign yesterday.
Ms Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, said: “Many of the children I was at school with were let down by low expectations, poor educational standards and a lack of opportunity. Too much talent went to waste.”
Ms Truss went to Roundhay School in the 1980s and 1990s. The school has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted since 2013.
Labour councillor and Leeds City Council leader James Lewis said on Twitter: “Like Liz Truss, I went to Leeds Council schools in the Thatcher and Major years and the truth is it was Conservative government underfunding of schools for 18 years that really let kids down.”
Families turning their fridge-freezers off to save vital pennies
Desperate families in the North East are being forced to go without fridge-freezers and are showering in sports centres as bills continue to soar, reports our Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue.
Anna Turley, chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, told how food banks in the region were being "overwhelmed" by the level of demand.
Her comments come just days after newly published statistics revealed the North East was the only region to see an increase in child poverty in the last year, with Newcastle and Gateshead seeing the biggest rises of any parts of the UK since 2014.
Ms Turley, speaking on this week's episode of The Northern Agenda podcast, warned that "with the rising cost of living, it's only going to get worse". "The trajectory is really bad and we're not seeing anything being discussed or debated that's actually going to help tackle this", she said.
The former Labour Redcar MP hit out at the Tory leadership hopefuls, asking why conversations were focused on "trans rights and the Rwanda policy" while there are "parents unable to put food on the table".
She said: "We've had families come to us asking, 'is it okay to put your fridge and your freezer on for an hour a day?', because they can't afford to keep it on."
Elsewhere on the podcast we speak to Rob McIntosh of Network Rail, one of the officials behind the multi-billion pound upgrade of the Transpennine Route between Manchester, Leeds and York. There'll be a full write-up in Monday's newsletter.
Listen to this week's episode here:
Is gritty five-part documentary a good deal for Bradford?
All publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes. But in Bradford, council bosses this week defended its decision to take part in a gritty BBC documentary series about the district.
Bradford On Duty is a five-part BBC series that shows the day to day lives of front line workers, from health visitors to police. Labour-run Bradford Council was heavily involved in the show – episodes feature council staff dealing with issues like homelessness and addiction, and leader Susan Hinchcliffe and chief executive Kersten England have featured in each episode.
The series has received praise for shining a light on the many problems facing society in Bradford and across the country, as Local Democracy Reporter Chris Young writes. But there were concerns over how Bradford is portrayed in the show and council bosses said they “would have liked to see more of the positive filming” that was carried out.
The four of the five episodes to air so far have featured police raiding cannabis farms in former mill buildings, a shocking view of the chaos encountered by police on Bonfire Night and even a claim that cats are being lured into a derelict Manningham building and eaten by rough sleepers.
At a meeting, one opposition councillor asked if involvement in the show had been a good idea. Ms England replied: “What is seen on TV is typical of every city in the UK, Bradford is no different. We are one of the biggest cities in the UK, bigger than Newcastle, Bristol and Liverpool. Inevitably therefore good and bad things happen here."
North braces itself for 'exceptional' heat
Phew what a scorcher! Is the kind of thing your Northern Agenda author would be writing if he was a 1980s tabloid newspaper editor. But suffice to say it's going to be incredibly hot early next week, with temperatures rising into the mid-30s and above in parts of our region.
Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse has said the Government is preparing for a “surge” in demand on the NHS and other services due to the expected heatwave.
On the railways, operator Avanti West Coast warned passengers who wish to use its services stopping at a number of stations in the North West to plan ahead due to the impact of the heat on rail lines.
The hot weather – particularly direct sunlight – could cause track temperatures to reach up to 50C. In such conditions, rails can bend, flex and, in some cases, buckle from the heat.
And farmers who are starting to harvest crops such as barley have raised concerns both about yields and crop and combine harvester fires in the tinder-dry conditions.
Yorkshire farmer Richard Bramley, chairman of the National Farmers’ Union’s environment forum, warned: “We’ve not adapted our water management to the changing climate, we’re way behind."
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Northern Stories
Sheffield’s Race Equality Commission has launched its long-awaited report setting out actions every organisation needs to take to tackle racism in the city. The 140-page report has been two years in the making and over that time the Commission considered more than 150 pieces of evidence and more than 400,000 words of transcripts from hearings, focus groups and interviews. Chair Professor Kevin Hylton appointed 24 commissioners to represent the diversity and wealth experiences in the city. Read the full report here.
New fulfilment centres in Wakefield and Knowsley are among the 4,000 jobs being created by online giant Amazon this year. The company said today its recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce to 75,000, having created 40,000 new jobs in the past three years. Amazon said it had invested £1 billion across the UK and was set to be one of the 10 largest private sector employers in the country.
A York school which is among the oldest in the world has accused the council of threatening the success it has enjoyed over 1,400 years by failing to give it the space to expand. William Woolley, chair of governors at St Peter’s School, said City of York Council’s draft Local Plan risked “seriously constraining the school’s ability to facilitate sustainable growth”. York’s Local Plan sets out how the city will grow over the next 20 years. The blueprint, which is currently being examined by inspectors, outlines where and what housing and employment developments will be built and what land is classed as green belt.
Calls by opposition councillors for a government-led public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham were defeated at another fiery town hall meeting last night. The Failsworth Independent Group had tabled a motion at full council which asked the chief executive to write to the Home Secretary and Local Government Minister requesting a ‘fully independent and broad ranging’ public inquiry ‘as soon as is practically possible’. But the ruling Labour group tabled an amendment to the motion which removed the section about a public inquiry.
A section of canal tow-path beneath a 230-year-old bridge is at risk of collapse as it is supported by corroded iron beams. The Canal and River Trust says the path at the Grade II listed Anderton bridge, also known as Weaver’s bridge, on the Leeds & Liverpool canal near Blackrod in Greater Manchester, faces ‘inevitable failure’ and such an event could ‘damage to the bridge or injure canal users’. In a planning application submitted to Bolton Council, the trust set out the case for renewing the path.
The voters of Camperdown elected Labour’s Peter Gerard Earley as one of their ward representatives for North Tyneside Council in last night’s by-election. The by-election was triggered after the ward’s previous councillor, Jim Allan, had to stand down after his health issues prevented him from attending council meetings. Cllr Earley returns to the council after having been deselected as a Benton councillor ahead of May’s local election. The Labour Party’s candidate received 873 votes, down 84 from the latest local elections.
