contacts       site map       write for us the black cat column Of Limited Use HTH recently ran a write-up on the possibility of the Government's new Green Bank being located within the Tees Valley and the efforts being made by Tees Valley Unlimited to locate the new facility in Darlington which happens to have the lowest unemployment rate in the Tees Valley. The proposed Green Bank will have a budget of £2b and bring with it hundreds of new, well paid and relatively secure new jobs. The gripe was that Hartlepool, the town with the highest unemployment rate in the Tees Valley, was not even being considered by Tees Valley Unlimited as a possible location. When it was established, Tees Valley Unlimited absorbed the role of Tees Valley Regeneration which had championed several large scale regeneration projects. These were: Middlehaven, Middlesbrough; North Shore, Stockton; Central Park, Darlington; Durham Tees Valley Airport; Tees Valley Public Art; the Tees Valley Metro and Victoria Harbour, Hartlepool. One of the first things that Tees Valley Unlimited did was to unceremoniously dump the plans for Hartlepool's Victoria Harbour along with the plans for the infamous footbridge which had been intended to be Hartlepool's manifestation of Tees Valley Public Art. The spin given at the time was that a rethink had taken place and it had been decided to concentrate instead on developing the port area as the UK centre for wind turbine production. This idea had possibilities given that there are plans to establish a number of off-shore wind farms in the North Sea consisting of thousands of individual wind turbines all requiring technical infrastructure. Perhaps this was indeed an opportunity to go some way towards rebuilding the town's economic base on the foundations of real manufacturing and engineering jobs - the thing we do best. However, several other areas in the UK, especially on the east coast, had similar ideas. From Blyth to Ramsgate, with Tyneside, Sunderland and Grimsby in between, it seemed that everyone had a plan to become the UK hub of wind turbine production. If Hartlepool was to be in the running at all then the local authority and investment agencies would need to pull their finger out and adopt a proactive approach. Sadly, it's already beginning to look like that is where this story ends. A £400m investment plan has been put forward to build a huge wind turbine facility at Immingham on Humberside. The investment will bring with it 27,000 new manufacturing jobs covering turbine production as well as a major logistics centre and business park. The particular significance of this investment is that the company involved is Hartlepool based Able UK, the 'Ghost Ship' Company, So I am left to wonder how it could possibly be that a publicly funded, regeneration Quango, Tees Valley Unlimited, cancels a major regeneration project (Victoria Harbour) in order to concentrate on creating a major wind turbine production facility in Hartlepool while at the same time , barely 3 miles to the south, a Hartlepool company is looking for a place to invest £400m and to create 27,000 new jobs and comes to the conclusion that Humberside is its best option. What does that say about the effectiveness of Tees Valley Unlimited? Perhaps it says, as I suspect, that like in the case of the Green Bank, Tees Valley Unlimited interest in job creation fades markedly once it reaches the Wolviston A689 interchange or perhaps it's just a case of Humberside gets the jobs; Hartlepool gets the Asbestos Subservient Wright Plays Lapdog to Cunningham If you haven’t yet managed to catch the parliamentary debate on the hospital fiasco then I urge you to take advantage of the video provided below. Although local MP Iain Wright has made much of his demand for a debate to take place, watching him in action during the debate gives a great insight into how this whole mess came about in the first place. The debate was, in fact, led by Alex Cunningham, the MP for Stockton North. Mr Cunningham was only elected as MP at the recent General Election following the de-selection of Labour’s Frank Cook. Unlike Cunningham, Wright has been in the middle of the whole sorry hospital saga since it began so it was perhaps surprising to see him playing the role of lapdog to the newly elected MP. The willingness of Wright, the local PCT, the hospital management and the local authority to adopt a subservient role to their Stockton counterparts over the hospital issue goes a long way to explaining its outcome. Some would say that this subservient role can now be seen as the chief reason the future of Hartlepool Hospital is now in doubt. The half-hearted opposition shown as services were transferred to North Tees, even before it was even certain the new hospital would go ahead, has now severely undermined the case for retaining Hartlepool Hospital. Wright’s involvement in the parliamentary debate itself was limited to asking the Minister a single question on whether or not clinical issues had been taken into account when the decision to scrap the new hospital was made; the question was brushed aside by the Minister with a wave of his hand. The rest of the 30 minute debate was shared between Cunningham and the Minister with occasional interruption by some of the few MPs present. It was a lack-lustre performance by both local labour M.P.s. The arguments they put forward for reversing the decision seemed to have little substance and at times appeared almost grasping. The Health Minister, Simon Burns, on the other hand , had come armed to the hilt with figures which showed the new hospital to be unfunded, unaffordable and expensive to run - more expensive than the option of retaining both of the present hospitals. In fact, he questioned the need to replace either North Tees or Hartlepool Hospital at all which he suggested were relatively modern hospitals with a fairly minor backlog of required maintenance.. Trouble in Paradise One of the unsaid bi-products of the local Government set up in Hartlepool is the ease and frequency with which councillors and their family members or friends manage to get themselves appointed to positions within the local voluntary and supported sector. Now you have to bare in mind that the term ‘voluntary’ sector can be a little misleading. Many of these organisations may well rely on volunteers for their activities but they can also involve a fairly substantial contingent of paid administrative positions. Securing one of these positions is generally dependent on the views of a governing committee or board many of which are generously sprinkled with Councillors and party members. It’s an unhealthy arrangement which promotes not only patronage but a large degree of mutual back-scratching which over the years has generated a number of useful income supplements to both Councillors, family members and friends. The basic allowances paid to Councillors in Hartlepool is relatively low compared to other authorities. However, there are many extra allowances for those lucky enough to secure the Chairs of the various committees, cabinet positions or positions on the local Police and Fire Authorities. The background as to how these positions are secured is one of the more unsavoury aspects of local politics. The local Labour Group plays the lead role in these activities as it does council involvement in publicly funded external organisations such as those in the ‘voluntary’ sector. In these harsh economic times, council funding for such organisations is under severe pressure which has the potential to cause problems not only for the organisations themselves but to the incomes of some Councillors and their patronages. No surprise then that talk of cuts in funding to such organisations is currently being severely resisted but we shouldn’t assume that this is always for the best of reasons.   A Good Time To Bury Bad News? Someone on the HTH Forum rather astutely pointed out that the oncoming Tall Ships Event coincides with the end of the self-imposed, six week period the North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital Trust has given itself to find funding for the ill-fated new hospital at Wynyard. The suggestion that ‘this maybe a good time to bury bad news’ no doubt had its roots in the e- mailings of a former political researcher for the Labour Party but I would be wary of dismissing the possibility out-of-hand. The Hospital Trust, like many public bodies these days, puts much weight on Public Relations. I remember well for internal e-mail sent to all staff warning of any future contact with the media. Public Relations is all about controlling not only what information is released but when it is released and there is no doubt that a town distracted by its biggest event for years may indeed be the window of opportunity ‘to bury bad news.