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As a long-time music anorak, yesterday the familiar words of Mick Jagger were playing in my head as I left the Coachman Hotel after the Co-op nomination meeting, as they often do at such times. The meeting had just voted, out of a field of two, to nominate the excellent Dan Whittle, which means, under… Continue reading You can’t always get what you want

One member has raised with me the new licencing system for landlords currently being trialled in Sedgefield, article in the Echo here, and it’s certainly conceivable that it could also be applicable within Darlington itself (and, indeed, any part of the country which has issues with either the quality of any of its rented accomodation… Continue reading Members’ concerns #6 – Letting licences

Had a chat with a member the other night who made an interesting point: that a relative had to go to Bishop Auckland, Darlington and Durham for three different parts of the treatment for the same condition. Another made the point that in residential care, it was seemingly impossible to find places – even private… Continue reading Members’ concerns #5 – NHS: specialisation versus convenience

This is another issue that I know is close to some members’ hearts. I know that the new renationalisation of the London-Edinburgh line (which as you all know passes through Darlington, home of the railways) is of the operating company and not the track, but isn’t the second renationalisation in not-so-many years giving weight to… Continue reading Members’ concerns #4 – The People’s Rail?

I’ve just written to the Echo on the following subject, published here with the usual comments: “I was struck by a mixture of concern and outrage to read in your newspaper this morning about the proposed effective scrapping of OneNorthEast if the Tories were to achieve power next year. Concern, because it would be typical… Continue reading OneNorthEast closure

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders…. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company…and are tyrants over their teachers.” This was not a quote from a concerned Darlington parent from today, but from Socrates in… Continue reading Discipline in schools

I’ve just spoken to a young member of the CLP – in his early twenties, I’d guess – who made the point about the need, in his opinion, to improve facilities for young people in Darlington. Firstly, whether it is a concern shared by most of the members remains to be seen, but it’s been… Continue reading Members’ concerns #3 – Facilities for young people and anti-social behaviour (not necessarily related)

It seems that although the UK and Scandinavia are doing well to try and cover poorer countries’ contribution to the anti climate change program, the Germans are reluctant to pay up. Full story here. Come on! We need to be united across Europe and stop squabbling ahead of Copenhagen. If we’re not as Europeans, and… Continue reading Climate change: Angela, put your hand in your pocket

A couple of different members have said to me, what can we do about Darlington town centre traffic, which can be horrendous, without affecting our ability to attract shoppers and, by extension, major retail chains to the town? It’s a tricky one, which I hesitate to plunge into because I am sure that my colleagues… Continue reading Members’ concerns #2 – Town centre traffic

A number of members have mentioned the local economy as their no.1 concern, and have asked me about how I’d help in bringing money and jobs to Darlington, were I to be selected as candidate. Well, firstly I got my masters in economics and I work an adviser to small business, so it’s a subject… Continue reading Members’ concerns #1 – stimulating the local economy