Monday 7 July 2014

New Ridley: Decision on False Premises?

Recently I posted some thoughts on the council's complete reversal in its thinking when it chose to approve the planning application for the development at New Ridley. One of the reasons for the decision that I picked up was that the county is concerned that 80% of planning decisions are overturned on appeal. However, a quick look at the Planning Inspectorate's own figures (see page 77) reveals almost the exact opposite to be true: for the Northumberland County Council planning authority in 2013-14 68% of appeals were dismissed.

Was the decision made on a misunderstanding of the facts?

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Northumberland's Teenager Tax: Post-16 transport and rural disadvantage

So, there is something of a storm brewing at the moment over the Northumberland County Council's (NCC) decision to axe free travel to post-16 students from this September. This comes in just at the time that the law is changing to make it compulsory for children to stay on at school until the age of 18.