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BY ROB PARSONS - JUNE 29TH 2022
A little test of Northern Agenda readers' observational skills before we crack on with the serious business of today's newsletter. Can you work out what's missing from this BBC weather map and why it's enraged a councillor in one part of the North? Full details in Northern Stories at the bottom of this email...
Census shows North's towns and cities moving further apart
Some 24 million of us around the country filled in the questionnaires last spring - and yesterday the results of the census were revealed in all their nerdy, technicolour glory.
The figures offer a fascinating insight into how the North's population is changing and the challenges those changes might bring to the region's political leaders as our towns and cities go in very different directions.
While the population of England and Wales increased by 6.3% to 59.6 million in the last decade, the North's grew much less quickly with the North East's increasing just 1.9% in the same period.
But a number of areas saw their populations increase markedly, such as Salford, the home of MediaCity, but perhaps more surprisingly Selby in North Yorkshire and Chorley in Lancashire.
But in many parts of the region the picture was quite different. There are only a dozen areas outside London where population actually fell in the last ten years and more than half of those are in the North.
The trend was most pronounced in more rural parts of the region, with Copeland and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and Richmondshire in North Yorkshire seeing the biggest drops.
Richmondshire, the patch of Chancellor Rishi Sunak, has also experienced the highest percentage growth in the share of over-65s in the last 10 years, as Helen Pidd reports for the Guardian .
With close to one in four people in Richmondshire now of pension age, local councillors are worried about the impact on adult social care budgets and the vibrancy of local communities. Contrast this with Salford, which has the second largest percentage increase in people aged under 35 behind Tower Hamlets in London.
Dr Patrick English, a political pollster with YouGov, told this newsletter that population growth in the North "has been slower in general than the national average, but particularly in more rural areas".
Observing a big population rise in the commuter belt around London , he describes "a relentless drain of young people from towns and rural areas into cities and suburbs around the country".
In Gateshead council service director Anneliese Hutchinson said her patch had "a large urban population, but also a substantial rural population in the west of the borough". She added: “It’s disappointing that our population has reduced, even by a small amount, and we will look closely at the reasons for this and what we can do to address it.”
Gove: Liverpool's 'weak leadership' undermines cause of devolution
Town hall leaders the length and breadth of the country descended on Harrogate yesterday for day one of the Local Government Association annual conference, with senior Tory Michael Gove the star speaking attraction.
The Levelling Up Secretary used his speech to announce that councils can expect a funding settlement covering the next two financial years and will face greater scrutiny from a new Office for Local Government.
And while he extolled the virtues of giving local leaders powers currently held in Westminster, he warned that failures like those at Labour-run Liverpool council risked setting back the cause. Commissioners were sent in to Liverpool last year and pressure is mounting after further problems emerged.
Describing 'weak leadership' at the authority, Mr Gove said: "The cause of greater devolution and decentralisation, the reinvigoration of our democracy is set back when there are conspicuous and glaring failures of leadership in some councils."
It's a subject the Cabinet Minister will likely raise with local leaders, as he told the audience he'd be in Liverpool tomorrow with metro mayor Steve Rotheram and in West Yorkshire next month with its mayor Tracy Brabin (something he promised at the Convention of the North back in February).
Mr Gove also yesterday praised Tees Valley Tory mayor Ben Houchen for "presiding over his region’s rebirth as a high-tech, high-skill global powerhouse" but more surprisingly Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham, who "has demonstrated what strong local leadership can do".
This morning it was the turn of Mr Gove's Labour counterpart Lisa Nandy , who told the same audience in Harrogate there is “a perfect storm looming on the horizon” that will become “a new crisis” for vital public services, key workers and councils unless the government gets a grip on rising cost pressures.
The Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said “the country doesn’t need a Grant Shapps tribute act”, in reference to the Transport Secretary's refusal to get involved in rail strike talks.
And she urged Mr Gove to hold urgent talks to ensure under-pressure councils can maintain crucial services while also supporting “the staff who are the beating heart that sustains them”.
Labour hopes Wakefield win will be start of rebuilding its 'red wall'
The recent Wakefield by-election - to replace a former Tory MP who resigned in disgrace as a convicted sex offender - presented Labour with a perfect opportunity to win back a seat in the North.
But according to the party's analysis the Tories could lose up to 45 'red wall' seats if the swing which saw Simon Lightwood elected is repeated nationally. A 12.7% swing could put places like Dewsbury, Rother Valley, Bishop Auckland and Bury North all in play, as Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue reports .
Labour claimed the analysis shows Boris Johnson's dominance of the ‘red wall’, where many seats turned blue for the first time in 2019, is "beginning to the end." Sheffield MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said Labour were now "firmly on the path to Number 10".
Morley and Outwood MP Andrea Jenkyns, who won her seat from former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls, dismissed the notion however, saying: "If you look at the history of by-elections, in the last 40 years the swing usually goes 17.5% to opposition parties."
Ms Jenkyns said the fact Labour's swing was only 12.5% shows "there should be questions within their own party" about performance.
Train drivers 'face sprinting 200 metres for HS2 service to leave on time'
Train drivers might want to start work on cardio training if they plan to board an HS2 train from Manchester in years to come. Rail experts say drivers will have to 'sprint' the 200m length of a train in order to leave the station on time if services are forced into a cut-price surface turnback HS2 hub at Manchester Piccadilly .
As Charlotte Cox reports for the Manchester Evening News , the Government’s plan for an above-ground terminus next to the existing station, with no platforms running through, means trains will have to turn around to depart.
This might work for HS2 services between London, the Midlands and Manchester. But when east-west links between Manchester and other northern cities including Leeds are added to the timetable, industry experts say the proposed ‘short-sighted’ design means time and space will be so tight that drivers will have to ‘dash’ the equivalent of half an Olympic track to get passengers away on time.
It’s one of a number of issues identified, by leaders across the North and industry experts more widely, with building a surface terminus as opposed to an underground through station at Piccadilly.
Town hall chief 'considered quitting' over Star Hobson's death
She's faced calls to quit after the death of 16-month-old Star Hobson in Keighley at the hands of her mother’s partner. And yesterday the chief executive of Bradford Council , Kersten England, said she considered resigning over the authority's failings in the case , as Sebastian McCormick writes for YorkshireLive.
Giving evidence to the Education Committee on the murders of Star and murdered Solihull six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Ms England apologised "unreservedly" for the Labour-run council missing key signs that could have saved Star.
Asked by MPs why she had not considered resigning, she said: “I have thought of resigning, I have considered my position frequently. I have reflected on all of the actions I took and things that could or could not have been done.”
She also said she took responsibility for the oversights of Bradford Children’s Services as they happened on her “watch”. “I am deeply sorry for the fact that this happened but taking responsibility is also about staying in your position and taking responsibility for putting it right,” she added.
Earlier in the hearing Annie Hudson, chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, noted an over-reliance on agency social workers and that in one instance an agency social worker for Star Hobson left with one week’s notice which had “very problematic consequences”.
And it emerged yesterday that in Trafford, Greater Manchester , the cost of hiring agency staff to cover vacancies left by “burnt out” adult and child social workers has risen by a staggering 43.5% to nearly £6.2million.
Teesside Airport 'unlikely to host another airshow after debacle'
Gridlock caused by the area's first airshow in five years brought misery to hundreds of drivers around Teesside Airport earlier this month - with some forced to go home and others abandoning their cars altogether.
Passengers attending scheduled trips out the airport also missed their flights due to the tailbacks. Now a five-page investigation into the Teesside Airshow debacle has been released by airport director Phil Forster into what officials believe went wrong, writes Local Democracy Reporter Alex Metcalfe .
It stated: “Teesside Airport is very unlikely to host another airshow on its site in the future without significant reassurance and comfort from key public sector stakeholders, and any future event manager, that all issues raised within this report would be addressed.
“Teesside Airport’s plans to increase passenger numbers and make the airport more sustainable in the long term are key to its future. We cannot host any further events outside our core activities which could negatively impact on our service to our customers.”
Mr Forster’s report revealed how traffic management contractor Hatton Traffic Management Ltd had just five staff working at the event to manage the 20,000 visitors planning on attending. There were no arrangements for the police to attend the air show despite the numbers on the ground.
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Northern Stories
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Images have shown the inside of Liverpool 's newest theatre ahead of its grand opening in July . The ground-breaking new venue, Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, is home to the only 17th-century style, timber-built "Cockpit" theatre outside London, able to seat 450 spectators. Built entirely during the pandemic with public funds and donations, the new venue is anticipated to attract over 140,000 visitors a year. Shakespeare North Playhouse will open its doors to the public with free festivities from July 15-17, forming a key part of Knowsley’s Borough of Culture celebrations.
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A Leeds councillor has taken aim at TV weather broadcasts for leaving the city off the UK map. Conservative Neil Buckley said it was like “Leeds doesn’t exist” during daily weather bulletins. Cllr Buckley, who represents the city’s Alwoodley ward, made the comments during a public discussion about Leeds’ Year of Culture, which is scheduled for 2023. He suggested Leeds’ absence from weather forecasts may undermine efforts to improve its image - though it doesn't seem to have done Manchester any harm as it's also missing.
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A Teesside mental health trust is to be prosecuted over its failure to protect a teenage patient who died in its care. Christie Harnett was just 17 when she took her own life at the former West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough in 2019, which was run by Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). The Care Quality Commission said that TEWV 'failed to provide safe care and treatment' which exposed Christie to a 'significant risk of avoidable harm.' The trust said it has fully cooperated with the investigation.
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A proposed new coal mine in Cumbria is “absolutely indefensible”, Climate Change Committee chairman Lord Deben has said as he launched its annual report on the UK’s progress in tackling greenhouse gases. A decision on whether or not to grant planning permission for the new mine near Whitehaven to source coal for steel production is expected by mid-July following a planning inquiry in 2021. Environmentalists have warned that demand for coking coal for steel is declining, the coal from the Cumbrian mine would largely not be used in the UK steel industry and it would not replace imported Russian coal.
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The University of Hull is set to sign a formal twinning agreement with a counterpart campus in war-torn Ukraine. The link-up with Mariupol State University aims to develop long-term plans to co-operate in student projects, teaching best-practice, and innovative research. Immediate joint work will focus on assisting staff to resume teaching their students at a new base in Kyiv. The university has relocated to Ukraine's capital city after moving nearly 500 miles from Mariupol, which has been the focus of heavy fighting since the start of the war.
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New train services between Newcastle and Northumberland are on track to start next year after the highly-anticipated plans overcame another crucial hurdle . Construction is due to get underway this summer to restore passenger services to the Northumberland Line , following a critical seal of approval from the government. Six new stations will be built and 18 miles of track upgraded under the proposals to run a half-hourly service between Newcastle and Ashington from December 2023.
