Your medical record is about to be sold.

I’ve been looking at some old videos. In particular a video of a full council meeting here in March 2016. It was fascinating. I watched Councillor Massey propose the budget for the next year. He announced that the Council Tax bill of, for example, £1376 for Band D, non-parish
would remain the same. But he also said that George Osborne‘s new Levy which was ring fenced for
adult care would be added to the bill. That amount was £27 for Band D taking the bill to £1403.
Then, when the police and the fire service added their precepts the total bill was £1685. At that
meeting, in response to this budget, Councillor Lanigan told us she could not vote for it. She said it
might look like pennies, but it wasn’t pennies to some residents. She said people are struggling – she
had spoken to a great many people in the borough and they had said please don’t do it Mary. She
said our 2% increase on adult care and no increase on council tax itself was unacceptable. At the
same meeting Councillor Kay told us it was the whole bill that mattered to people not what it
consisted of and that we were only using the adult care levy to balance our budget. Let us compare
that with today when the same cllr Lanagan, now Leader of the Council, brings us a budget in which
last years Band D rate of £1494 has £32 in CT increase added to it, then £128 added to it under the
precept for adult care and then with the fire and police precept the total bill is over £2000. For band
D. What an awful milestone that is for this council, that band D has now gone over £2000. That is her
choice and presumably she finds herself acceptable.
To my great regret I had to spent my four years as a Cabinet member making cuts in services
because of Tory austerity. Those were the dark days of austerity when George Osborne told us if we
accepted his massive cuts he would promise us that they wouldn’t be worse. There is a word for
that – that is blackmail. And he broke the promise anyway because that’s the kind of guy he is. But
what kind of leadership do we have in the council now? You told us £1600 was not acceptable but
now over £2000 is acceptable for Band D. And yet you make no acknowledgement that you have
changed your mind.
We are now told again and again by government that austerity is over. If that is true why do you still
need to raise council tax? If it is not true why should I support you in making our hard pressed
residents pay for a pandemic they didn’t cause when they were already made to pay for the financial
crash that they didn’t cause, so that the millionaires in the Westminster cabinet can avoid taxing
their mates. They are still the same residents and they still can’t afford it. You will say that we have
council tax relief- well that covers the very poorest but it doesn’t go anywhere near covering the
working poor. And most poor families now are in work and we have nurses using food banks. They
won’t get it.
Also we hear from the local MPs you are expecting some extra money in the chancellor’s budget as
well as the extension in the extra £20 in universal credit that labour has been pressing for. It should
be permanent really, and also that there will be help for the self-employed. And so I’m going to
make a choice. Despite all the Tory lies we’ve had I’m going to choose to believe that that will
happen. I might be naive for doing so but I’d rather be naive than a bitter old politician. In fact I need
to believe it. I need to believe it because I know precisely what further austerity will do to our
communities. It will cause social chaos. It will in increase crime. It will produce a health bill that the
NHS cannot possibly meet. It will increase suicide and it will produce Victorian levels of poverty
Victorian and the return of Victorian problems like malnutrition and diseases such as rickets. I would
like to think I need to think that the government are at least humane enough not to let that happen.
And I won’t support this further impoverishment of our residents and their families in terms of a
much higher bill together with a lower level of service than 5 years ago. Please don’t do it Mary.

In a recent planning meeting where a children’s home was approved, the Mayor Cllr Billy Wells got up and accused the council’s officers of double dealing because he didn’t like the decision. So I questioned his behaviour in Full Council. The Mayor didn’t like my supplementary question, so tried to shut me up half way through. I might have still got to the end if Saltburn Tory Cllr Philip Thomson hadn’t stood up and shouted over me to help him. I don’t think either of them like democracy very much.

Here is the question I tried to ask:

“I recognise that councillors sometimes express their frustrations in meetings without any particular consequences. It happens.

Sometimes perhaps there are better ways of doing it.

For example, I think it would be better if this one hadn’t happened in front of a pupil on work experience observing the planning meeting.

The decision of the Regulatory committee was to allow a change of use of a building to create a children’s home. And following such a decision if a mayor – any mayor in any council – gets up in the meeting in front of the press and members of the public and accuses officers in the Council he represents of having a hidden agenda, in this case an agenda concerning the plan to create a school for children with SEMH issues on that same road, and when that mayor also claims that children will not be safe in that location, then any council would have a problem.

What this Council, together with the officers whose integrity has been challenged and the wider public need to know is whether you Cllr Davies, having looked into the matter, agree with either of those claims, because if you do then, especially with the second point concerning the safety of children on Corporation Road, I presume you will already have asked for an investigation.”

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REDCAR & CLEVELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL

GROWTH, ENTERPRISE AND ENVIRONMENT HIGHWAYS SERVICES

NOTIFICATION OF ROADWORKS
ROADWORKS NOTIFIED TO THE DEPARTMENT
FOR WEEK ENDING SUNDAY 16th June 2019
DOCKSIDE ROAD / SMITHS DOCK ROAD SOUTH BANK
Major works will be in operation on 2nd February, 2019 for up to 6 months for service diversions and construction of new roundabout. Works to be carried out by Hall Construction Services Ltd (Enquiries: 01740650500 or 07970 497873)

TRUNK ROAD REDCAR (Steel House Roundabout to Kirkleatham Lane)
Intermittent temporary lane closures will be in operation on the 23rd April, 2019 for 6 weeks for new gas main. Works to be carried out by Northern Gas Networks (Enquiries 07880008107)

SALTBURN LANE SKELTON
Two-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 28th May, 2019 for up to 2 weeks to lay new gas main and service. Works to be carried out by Northern Gas Networks (In case of signals failure: 07772793168)

SWANS CORNER ROUNDABOUT
Intermittent off peak lane closureS will be in operation from 10th June, 2019 for up to 4 days to survey the drainage system. The affected roads are Middlesbrough Road, Nunthorpe, Guisborough Road Nunthorpe, Ormesby Bank, Ormesby and Nunthorpe Bypass. Works to be carried out by Kwikflow (Enquiries: 07827892320)

A174 WEST ROAD LOFTUS
Two-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 10th June, 2019 for up to 1 week for drainage and bank stabilisation works. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)

A174 LAZENBY BY PASS (Greystone to Redcar Lane Roundabout)
Temporary fast and slow lane closures will be in operation from 8th June, 2019 for 2 days for principle road maintenance. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (Enquiries: 01642 774774)

RECTORY LANE/FOUNTAIN STREET/BOW STREET, GUISBOROUGH
Multi-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 9th June, 2019 for up to 3 days to clear blockages in BT duct. Works to be carried out by BT (In case of signals failure: 01257 235300)

A66 Westgate Roundabout to Cargo Fleet Roundabout
Temporary slow lane closures will be in operation from 15th June, 2019 for 1 day for principle road maintenance. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (Enquiries: 01642 774774)

ENFIELD CHASE, GUISBOROUGGH
Multi-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 13th June, 2019 for up to 2 days for resurfacing works at entrance of development. Works to be carried out by Lumsden and Carroll (In case of signals failure: 01914923296)

WINDSOR ROAD, SALTBURN
Two-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 17th June, 2019 for up to 2 weeks for construction of Zebra Crossing. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)

GRETA ROAD, SKELTON
A temporary road closure will be in operation from 7th June, 2019 for up to 5 days to resurface carriageway. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)
OAK ROAD, BROTTON
A temporary road closure will be in operation from 13th June, 2019 for 1 day to resurface carriageway. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)

DALE STREET BACK STREET, NEW MARKE
A temporary road closure will be in operation from 13th June, 2019 for 2 days to resurface carriageway. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)

CRATHORNE PARK, NORMANBY
A temporary road closure will be in operation from 14th June, 2019 for 4 days to resurface carriageway. Works to be carried out by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (In case of signals failure: 01642 774774)

LONGBECK LANE, NEW MARSKE
Multi-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 10th June, 2019 for 1 day to clean the sewer & undertake CCTV works. Works to be carried out by Northumbrian Water (In case of signals failure: 07894905556)

BOOSBECK ROAD BACK STREET, SKELTON GREEN
An emergency temporary road closure will be in operation from 7th June, 2019 for up to 5 days to renew customer connections. Works to be carried out by Northumbrian Water (Enquiries: 0191 3410026)

REDCAR ROAD, MARSKE
Two-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 4th June, 2019 for up to 5 weeks to lay new gas main and service. Works to be carried out by Northern Gas Networks (In case of signals failure: 01914923296)

WEST STREET/FLATTS LANE, NORMANBY
Two-way temporary traffic signals will be in operation from 11th June, 2019 for up to 1 week to excavate to install electricity mains cable in the carriageway. Works to be carried out by Northern Gas Networks (In case of signals failure: 07870856323)
NOTE: The information supplied is provisional and may be subject to change.
Should you require any further information on the above roadworks please contact David Slater on (01287) 612579 during office hours. Outside of office hours, please contact 01642 774774.
Michael Greene
Assistant Director, Neighbourhood and Customer Services

I was very nicely surprised to catch a train from Saltburn to my meeting in Redcar this morning and find it was a proper train, not a rattling old pacer. According to the train guard, we will be keeping it and getting more of them.  These new ones, or at least new to us, are 158 trains, and the ancient pacer trains are 142s.  She said the 142s are due to be phased out by the end of the year.  I do hope so – when I got to Redcar I didn’t feel like getting off, but the delights of Licencing awaited me so thought I better had.  Roll on the 158s!

https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/about-the-council/consultations/Pages/Current-Consultations.aspx