A week is a long time in politics, and it is now over four months since the Conservatives took control of Northumberland County Council.
The dramatic election night in May saw the Conservatives win 33 seats, and the former Labour administration- who were widely regarded as Ashington obsessed, profligate, out of touch and high-handed- reduced to 24 seats.
Since then I have been working closely with the new leadership at NCC to tackle some of the key issues in our communities here in Tynedale and Ponteland.
We are working together on a number of key challenges such as; stopping the move of County Hall to Ashington at vast public cost; putting in place a new housing plan to replace Labour's discredited green belt housing plans; working to improve coordination between the Job Centre, the County Council and West Tynedale Food Bank- all of which I visited last month- to ensure support for those that need it; and finding a workable plan to bring back overnight A&E cover to Hexham Hospital, to name just a few.
There are many big challenges facing our communities, but I believe that by working together with the new leadership at NCC we can deliver some real positive results for our area.
