Once again, Ashington and Newbiggin forward thinking of the future became a well thought out strategy.

They achieved what they had yearned for and must have worked damned hard for it.

All paid for like you point out, and definitely not from local subscriptions.

No need when a list of benefactors await to allocate the necessary money in the shape of government grants, Lottery funding, Sports Council, European and private finance.

Now that is quite a list to wheel and deal with.

Then, Mr Douglas, you go on to explain why Bedlingtonshire as a whole was devoid and starved of much needed facilities – simply because the shire must have never been included in any negotiations to prosper like our organised neighbours.

Now can you explain why their councillors were able to negotiate and fight for such specific schemes with successful results.

Were our councillors sitting in the back row when all these consultations were taking place?

Their silence must have been deafening when all this was being debated for the entitlement of all Wansbeck communities.

No good backward thinking, the chance has gone.

Nevertheless, after all this, Mr Douglas points out in earnest to a disjointed future for all of us.

For some reason or another Bedlingtonshire is to become a divided community without a centralised operational centre, a situation that should have been monitored thoroughly and scrutinised very closely.

Yet again Ashington and Newbiggin had the gumption to have a single parish covering their entire territory.

Not Bedlington, we have to have three parish boundaries using parish pump politics to outmanoeuvre one another for anything on offer. Outlandish to say the least.

Where again were our councillors? Definitely not out and about explaining the consequences of the challenges ahead.

Now, thousands of their residents have had the power of their vote removed.

All a complete shambles – done and dusted not through a referendum but by a doorstep petition.

Thanks to a few Tesco shoppers adding to support from a bypassing public our future has been decided for us.

Not by a majority but by democracy on the hoof.

Now that must deserve a statue in the park.

G W MCPHERSON
Northumberland Avenue
Bedlington


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