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By ROB PARSONS - July 19 2022
If (like your Northern Agenda author) you're feeling a bit groggy this lunchtime due to lack of sleep, you won't be surprised to know that last night was the warmest ever recorded by the Met Office . In Emley Moor, near Huddersfield, temperatures dipped only as low as 25.9C, compared with the previous minimum of 23.9C in 1990.
And with day two of the heatwave set to see the mercury rise up to 40C and even past it in parts of our region, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps conceded the UK’s transport network cannot cope with the extreme heat.
In the North East , Metro operators Nexus revealed that overhead wires had sagged due to the high temperatures yesterday, meaning services were suspended between South Gosforth and Tynemouth. In Greater Manchester services on Bury Metrolink were suspended due to the heatwave and roads in Stockport turned to sticky black goo.
Asked this morning if the transport system can cope with the weather, senior Tory Mr Shapps said: “The simple answer at the moment is no." He urged people to “apply common sense” if they were planning to go out.
And he told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve seen a considerable amount of travel disruption, we’re probably going to see the hottest day ever in the UK recorded today and infrastructure, much of it built in Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature – and it will be many years before we can replace infrastructure with the kind of infrastructure that could, because the temperatures are so extreme.”
Anyone heading out with young children would be well-advised to avoid playgrounds, as BBC pictures show the temperature on a children’s slide in Manchester reaching almost 72C or 161F in the sun, while the surface paving under nearby swings reaches 56.6C or almost 134F.
In Middlesbrough , transport organised by the council to get children with special educational needs and disabilities to school was cancelled in the heat. And bin workers in the East Riding of Yorkshire started work an hour early as one claimed they were not being supported.
Out in the rural parts of the region, experts are worried about the possibility of major wildfires tearing through the countryside. Ben McCarthy of the National Trust pointed to a fire on Marsden Moor in West Yorkshire in 2019, "when we surveyed the site after the flames had been extinguished, we saw lots of burnt-out reptiles and amphibians, burnt-out nests.”
And Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney called for more awareness raising about barbecues and fires on moorland being illegal. He told the Commons yesterday : "It is an absolute tinderbox up there at the moment."
River tragedy brings back traumatic memories for councillor
Northumberland councillor Angie Scott had more reason than most to be horrified after a 13-year-old boy died after getting into difficulties on the River Tyne at Prudhoe.
Teenager Robert Hattersley, from Crawcrook, died following an incident in the river near Prudhoe and Ovingham at around 4.15pm on Sunday.
And Cllr Scott, who represents Prudhoe North, says more needs to be done to educate the public about its dangers - revealing that she herself had to be pulled from the same part of the Tyne when she was 14, writes Local Democracy Reporter James Robinson .
She said: "It is heartbreaking. When I was younger I was in the river close to the Ovingham Bridge with some friends. We were going down the rapids and I just got swept away. I was a really good swimmer, but I just couldn't get out. I just had to shout and shout and one of my friends was able to get me out."
'Leah's Law' could make selling drugs to children a new offence
The family of 15-year-old Leah Heyes saw their world fall apart in May 2019 when she died after taking the Class A drug MDMA with a group of friends in a car park in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
The drugs were supplied by Connor Kirkwood, then 17, from Dishforth, and handed to her by another boy, Mitchell Southern, who were later jailed. Now three years on, Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake will this afternoon propose a new law which would make selling drugs to under-16s a different offence, carrying a longer jail term.
Mr Hollinrake told this newsletter: "We have a special duty to protect children and to ensure those who bring them harm, feel the full force of the law.
"The Supply of Drugs to Children Under 16 (Aggravated Offence) Bill, or ‘Leah’s Law’ , intends to change the law to make clear that any person under the age of 16 cannot consent to taking illegal substances. This will have a two-pronged effect in keeping young people safe but also acting as a deterrent to those who callously target children."
Mr Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, will introduce it in the Commons as a Ten Minute Rule bill, which allows a backbench MP to make his or her case for a new bill before members decide if it should be introduced. Leah's mother Kerry Roberts told the BBC she was "so grateful" the bill is being heard in Parliament.
'No-one has never lied': Red wall MP defends departing Boris Johnson
She was one of the final Northern Tory MPs to desert Boris Johnson, declaring hours before the PM announced he was to quit that his "refusal to accept the reality of the situation is damaging our party and our country".
But last night in the Commons Miriam Cates launched a stout defence of the man whose successful 2019 General Election campaign helped her win her Penistone and Stocksbridge seat in South Yorkshire.
As the House debated a confidence motion in the Prime Minister’s Government , Ms Cates said Boris Johnson was brought down by a “coalition of the media, the opposition and sadly some within our party”.
She said: “(Boris Johnson) has the ability to inspire, to uplift and to connect with those who feel like the British establishment does not represent them, their community, or their values.
“So as we on these benches are engaged in the process of choosing our next leader, let us consider this: no one is without fault, no one is without a past, no one who has the skills, experience and charisma to lead our great nation will never make a mistake, no one has never lied.”
Earlier, Labour's Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, described the Government as a “vampire government”, effectively dead but “still continuing to suck the lifeblood for my constituents”.
Labour promises licensing system to keep 'spirit' of rural and coastal towns
A month ago the Government said it was looking into the impact of short-term and holiday lets in England’s tourist hotspots, with areas like the Lake District and rural Northumberland at risk of becoming 'ghost towns' as families are forced out .
And in a speech yesterday in Darlington , Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy promised that if Labour reached power it would bring in a licensing system for holiday lets to preserve the “spirit” of coastal and rural communities.
The Wigan MP said Labour’s licensing scheme would allow areas to “to reap the rewards of thriving tourism”, while guarding against “ghost towns” when people’s holiday breaks draw to a close.
“With a stronger licensing system, communities will be able to reap the rewards of thriving tourism but end the scourge of communities becoming ghost towns when holidays end and people are priced out of their own neighbourhoods just for homes to stand empty for months,” she said.
“By trusting the community, working with the community, we can find the right balance to bring growth and jobs and income, but protect the spirit and the fabric of a community that matter so much.”
Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford recently announced plans to introduce a statutory licensing scheme for all visitor accommodation, including short-term holiday lets, to help raise standards across the tourism industry.
Chief at troubled Liverpool council quits after four years
He's been under intense pressure in recent months after revelations surfaced about a catalogue of council mistakes that could add an extra £16 million onto the city's electricity bill.
And yesterday the chief executive of Liverpool City Council, Tony Reeves, dramatically resigned from his position after four years in post as the council's most senior officer. He was appointed in July 2018 having previously worked in the Cunard administration as a consultant.
The energy contract debacle was followed by the resignation of Mr Reeves' deputy and finance director Mel Creighton. She was a key ally of his and the pair were seen by many as a partnership in trying to turn things around at the troubled Labour-run authority.
And as Liam Thorp reports for the Liverpool Echo , the relationship between the council's top officer and the team of government commissioners, installed to oversee key departments at the council a year ago, has become increasingly fractious.
Those commissioners are due to submit their second report into their findings at the council imminently and are expected to be given further powers that would likely have seriously undermined Mr Reeves' position.
He said yesterday: “The people of Liverpool deserve a council that delivers great services. That is a difficult and complex journey but it has begun and those with the honour of leading the next chapter have a great opportunity to make some long-lasting improvements."
Shapps defends cut-price option for Manchester's HS2 station
As the Northern Agenda reported yesterday , the budget for the Transpennine Route Upgrade between Manchester and York via Leeds is being scaled up massively.
And today Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed the project will be worth up to £11.5bn when it is done in the next 15 years, up from £2.9bn in the days of his predecessor Chris Grayling. The project will slash journey times and fully electrify lines, cutting carbon emissions by up to 87,000 tons per year, as Local Democracy Reporter Joseph Timan writes .
But it comes after the high speed Northern Powerhouse Rail route was scaled back last year as the government committed to spending more on existing lines instead.
Local leaders are still calling for more railway investment in the North, including an underground high-speed rail train station at Manchester Piccadilly . They claim the current plans for trains to travel on concrete viaducts across East Manchester would rob the region's economy of £333m a year by 2050.
Mr Shapps conceded the extra cash for the upgrades - at least £6.1bn - could be spent on the underground HS2 station, estimated to cost less. However, he argued upgrading existing lines would be a better use of money.
For his part Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham accused the Conservatives of breaking promises, including for a new line to Leeds, and asked why the North is being forced to make choices.
'Scandal’ of adviser role for accused ex-police chief
Home Secretary Priti Patel was yesterday accused of staying “silent” over the “scandal” of a former Northern chief constable “raking” in public money as a policing adviser while facing gross misconduct proceedings.
Mike Veale , who led a controversial inquiry into sex abuse claims against the late prime minister Sir Edward Heath when he was in charge of Wiltshire Police, is accused of breaching “standards of professional behaviour” during his time with Cleveland Police , which covers Teesside.
He stepped down as the force’s chief constable in 2019. But Parliament heard yesterday he is living “the life of Riley on £100,000 a year” as an adviser to Leicestershire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Rupert Matthews, as Nick Lester reports for Press Association .
The Government was tackled at Westminster over the starting date of the misconduct hearing against Mr Veale, which was announced by the PCC for Cleveland last August.
Labour peer Lord Bach, a former PCC for Leicestershire, said: “The Home Secretary is never short of advising on the right and wrong. Why is she and the Home Office so silent on this scandal?”
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Northern Stories
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Sixth form students in North Shields donned their parents’ clothes to protest over “ridiculously expensive” bus fares . Pupils at St Thomas More Catholic Sixth Form have pleaded with bosses at Arriva to bring in cheaper ticket prices for 16 to 19-year-olds. While other bus companies Go North East and Stagecoach, as well as the Tyne and Wear Metro, set a flat £1.20 single ticket rate for 16 to 19s, sixth formers at St Thomas More have to pay a full adult price to take the Arriva-run 308, 306, and 53 routes to and from school.
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Yorkshire Water has been fined £1.6 million for failings that led to sewage being discharged into a beck in Bradford city centre. Handing down the fine, a judge was highly critical of the company, saying it didn’t treat the problem with “the gravity it deserved” and was “reckless” in the fact that it took almost two years to fix a problem with a sewage tank. He also pointed out the company’s lengthy criminal record for similar incidents. The company had appeared at Leeds Magistrates' Court to plead guilty to several charges brought by the Environment Agency.
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Former councillor Harpreet Uppal has been selected to fight the Huddersfield seat for Labour at the next general election. She will replace veteran MP Barry Sheerman, who is standing down. Ms Uppal, 39, who came top out of four shortlisted candidates, said she was "proud and humbled" to have got the vote, and that it would be "the honour of my life" to represent her home town. Ms Uppal led the field at a selection meeting on Saturday. Lawyer Hugh Goulbourne came second.
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A Gateshead leisure centre has announced it will close for eight weeks , leaving children in the local area without a pool for the whole summer holidays. Gateshead Council said the decision was "not taken lightly" and blamed staffing issues for the closure of Heworth Leisure Centre. Go Gateshead, the facility provider, said: “We will also use the closure as an opportunity to carry out essential repairs and maintenance.” An online petition has been started to object to the closure and is currently live on Gateshead council’s website.
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Some council staff in Newcastle have warned that morale is at “rock bottom” and accused decision-makers of putting up a “wall of secrecy”. Leaked responses to a Newcastle City Council employee survey also brand the local authority a “sinking ship” and raise concerns about the number of senior figures who have exited over recent months. The comments were made as part of a Local Government Association review of the council’s performance, which has been requested by the civic centre’s new leadership. But other respondents said the council is generally a “supportive and caring employer”.
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Plans to increase Kirklees councillors' pay by almost a third have been branded "outrageous" by a leading Liberal Democrat peer who says the huge pay hike cannot be justified when people are struggling with the cost of living crisis. Baroness Kath Pinnock, who is also a long-serving member of Kirklees Council representing Cleckheaton, argued against a recommendation that the basic allowance for 69 councillors in the borough should go up by almost a third to £18,000 over the next three years.
