Whilst I have never been a supporter of Town /Parish Councils particularly within a two tier council structure, the establishment of a single Unitary Council for the whole of Northumberland means that a relatively small number of local services would be better delivered by locally based Town/Parish Councils.

I was, however, absolutely astonished to hear that one of the proposals for Ashington was two Town Councils, one for the east and another for the west of Ashington, which would split the town in half.

The rationale for this perverse proposal was two-fold, the first being that there were already two "Local Area Partnerships" (LAPs) for east and west Ashington, the second was that a single council for the town would make it the biggest in Northumberland.

With regard to the first reason I would suggest that the LAP boundaries may have been okay for a small voluntary group of people to discuss community-based initiatives, but such boundaries are neither relevant nor appropriate for a more formal Town Council.

The second reason regarding the size of the council is even more spurious. Doesn't Wansbeck Council realise that "one" of the Town/Parish Councils has to be the biggest as indeed one of them has to be the smallest, so what! If it's not Ashington it will be somewhere else.

I know that many of your readers may be cynical about what they see as "politics" and probably think all politicians, even local ones, are all the same and why should they bother to get involved. It is, however, important that people make their voices heard otherwise the community in which they live could be split in two, creating an artificial divide between two parts of a single community.

Of course boundaries have to be drawn somewhere and they're not always neat and tidy, but such boundaries should reflect and define a community, not divide it.

I would therefore urge your readers, particularly those who are residents of Ashington, and proud to be so, to write to Bob Stephenson, the Chief Executive of Wansbeck District Council, informing him that they do not want to see Ashington split in two and that any local Town Council should acknowledge and reflect the unique characteristics of a proud and single community. Do not allow Milburn Road to become a metaphorical Berlin wall.

JOHN McCORMACK
Broomlee, Ashington.
Ashington.

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