The Tories’ 13 years in power have seen bus services across the country suffer. In Northumberland alone it has been calculated that over 3 million miles of bus journeys have been lost since 2016 in a sustained decline. In a betrayal of the government’s ‘levelling up promises’ almost one in ten of Britain’s rural bus … Read More
Bywell
Angie backs calls for water safety debate
Blaydon MP Liz Twist and Prudhoe North County Councillor Angie Scott have called for a debate on water safety in the House of Commons. Last year saw the tragic death of 13 year old Robert Hattersley from Crawcrook, who drowned in the River Tyne at Ovingham. His bereaved parents have launched a campaign to raise … Read More
Guy Opperman voted to allow sewage in the Tyne
In October 2021, Guy Opperman and most of his Conservative colleagues voted against an amendment to the environment bill that would have placed a legal duty on water companies not to pump waste into rivers. Not all his colleagues agreed. 22 Conservatives had the strength of character to vote for the amendment. The Environment Agency … Read More
Tories fail police and victims of crime
Your Conservative MP Guy Opperman claims to be tough on crime and anti-social behaviour. The truth is that over the Tories’ thirteen years of failure Northumbria Police has taken the biggest financial hit of all the police forces in England and Wales. Our local police forces have been starved of funds and resources to the … Read More
Boundary review consultation
The Local Government and Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) are undertaking a review of the number of councillors, electoral divisions and division names for Northumberland County Council. You can explore the proposals for the new divisions on the LGBCE website. There are changes proposed for a number of areas in Hexham Constituency. The public consultation … Read More
Pothole Peril
Northumberland has the third highest number of potholes of any county in the country. Over 51,000 potholes were recorded in the year 2021/22 according to reported recently in the Northumberland Gazette. Potholes are caused by damage and erosion to road surfaces by heavy traffic, inclement weather and also by sub-standard repairs caused when utilities and … Read More
Opperman votes to block Sewage Discharge Bill
This evening the Conservative Hexham MP Guy Opperman has voted to support the PM’s amendment to Labour’s Jim McMahon’s (Shadow Secretary for the Environment) Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill. This Bill would have cracked down on the polluting water companies flooding our rivers and beaches with sewage but has been rendered toothless by Tory actions. … Read More
Labour will scrap zero hours contracts
Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party has pledged to scrap zero-hours contracts if the party wins the next General Election. According to Statista there are over a million workers in the UK on zero-hours contracts. This is a fourfold increase since 2010 when the Conservatives came to power and includes 47,000 workers in … Read More
Sewage in our Rivers
Research by the Top of the Poops shows that our rivers were polluted with sewage on 431,850 separate occasions in 2021. These sewage discharges into the rivers we love lasted a staggering 3.2 million hours! The Hexham Constituency saw 2864 discharges into our rivers. These lasted 22,670 hours with 95 different locations polluted by water … Read More
13 unlucky years of Conservative government
The country is in a mess after 13 years of Conservative Government. It’s difficult to point to anything that is working better now than in 2010. Help us to do something about it. It’s time for a change in Hexham Constituency. Hexham deserves better than Guy Opperman and a failed Conservative government. Join us to … Read More
Reduced Hours at Prudhoe Recycling Centre
Newly elected Labour Prudhoe Town Councillor Paddy O’Kelly has launched a petition to keep Prudhoe Recycling Centre open seven days a week. Northumberland County Council has decided, without local consultation, that the Recycling Centre should only be open Friday to Monday. This is to save money, caused at least in part by a decline in … Read More
Labour will negotiate a better deal for farmers
Speaking to the NFU today the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, promised to negotiate a better deal for farmers and farming communities. “It’s been obvious for a long time that the Tories have given up on farmers,” Keir told the conference. “Labour’s approach to trade will be very different – I … Read More
General Election Campaign Launched
Our General Election campaign to elect a Labour MP in the Hexham Constituency has been launched and is reported on this week in the Hexham Courant. Our Chair John Hanley said: “We (Labour) are getting a very encouraging reception on the doorstep. Many people are very depressed about the current state of politics … Read More
Film Night
Film Night at Wylam Institute 20th Jan Felipe Bustos Sierra’s inspirational documentary charts the incredible true story of the Scots who managed to ground half of Chile’s Air Force, from the other side of the world, in the longest single act of solidarity against Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. Bustos Sierra – himself the Scotland-based son of … Read More