Sold Out for A Song

[testing times]

Nothing of any good has ever come from having closer links to Teesside; we should have learned that lesson from the days of Cleveland County.

Even without this combined authority nonsense, we have seen the loss of our hospital, coroner service, courts and a Police station open 24/7. Who knows what else has been lost that we don't know and it will only accelerate if we continue down this route. Everything will be centred around the A66 corridor with Hartlepool left as a spectator haemorrhaging yet more jobs to Teesside City.

[Inspector Knacker]

We all know the consequences,  we all know how it's going to pan out. Yet, the boys who make the noise plough relentlessly toward the iceberg.
The Titanic wasn't unsinkable and neither is Hartlepool. They are presiding over this communities dismemberment and appear blissfully unaware of the consequences,  like tap dancers in a minefield,  the bang will eventually come and the warning signs were clear.

[Inspector Knacker]

I understand there's a propsal to run  a joint service from Sunderland via Newcastle to London and a service from Middlesbrough to London by the the new owners of the East Coast line franchise and where does that leave Grand Central....?
Doubtless we'd be told to travel to Middlesbrough for a much better service, funny how when we lose some service we're always assured it's so much better, despite the fact it obviously isn't.
Just a thought, but if it did happen how would you get from the boro to Hartlepool..... the trains like the buses finish embarassingly early.

[Inspector Knacker]

Trouble is, you're up against the " My granda voted for them , my Dad voted for them and I vote for them" mindset...... if some  them stood unopposed minus the safety net of the party they'd come a poor second.

[fred c]

I sat through 90 minutes of blah blah from The Mob Members on Thursday & the overiding impression from them was......

We don't know how this amalgamation is going to work.... who can vote on various matters...... does the elected Mayor have the final say on things.....we will need to have discussions on the New Authorites Constitution......who gets what of the £15 million every year......

They have all of those quiries, all of the uncertainties of how the whole sheebang is going to work.....

And still the LabTor Mob are going to vote for it to go through.

[Inspector Knacker]

We don't know how this amalgamation is going to work... nowt new there then. who can vote on various matters......the word farce comes to mind does the elected Mayor have the final say on things.....we won't ...!we will need to have discussions on the New Authorites Constitution.....er no, you'll be  told what to do..who gets what of the £15 million every year......simple answer to this one, you get nowt, it's bound for smoggie central


And still the LabTor Mob are going to vote for it to go through.

[marky]

I get the impression that CAB is totally out of his depth here and is just getting swept along with the current without even the wit to defend Hartlepool's corner.

Who the hell signs up for something when they don't even know how it will work? They should have stopped someone in the street and asked them because everyone in Hartlepool knows exactly how it will work with everything focussed on the central Middlesbrough hub. CAB has been mesmerised by the prospect of an extra £3m (which the town won't even get to see) and by the prospect of getting a seat at the big boys table complete with an additional allowance for himself.

[DRiddle]

Agree with a lot of that. We're going into this (seemingly) blind to the facts. I have a lot of concerns about how this will pan out. Also, with regard to the much heralded £450 million, 15 million a year over 30 years, do we even know whether that takes into account inflation? This is a 30 year deal. £15 million a year across 5 authorities is (at best £3 million each). We know the chances are it'll be divided per head rather than split even 5 ways. How much is £3 million quid going to be worth a 5 years time? 10 years time 25 years time?

Just look at a inflation calculator and see how much £10,000 would have bought you 30 years ago. £3 million a year will be worth a lot less very quickly in reals terms.

Even if the money IS adjusted accordingly with inflation I still think we'll lose even more key services like remaining elements of our health services, eduction, such as perhaps a college going to the wall, transport services etc. it's got disaster written all over it.

Personally I'd rather stay out of the deal and save the £3 million by not funding OFCA, MRA, cafés in graveyards etc.

[fred c]

I get the impression that CAB is totally out of his depth here and is just getting swept along with the current without even the wit to defend Hartlepool's corner.

Who the hell signs up for something when they don't even know how it will work? They should have stopped someone in the street and asked them because everyone in Hartlepool knows exactly how it will work with everything focussed on the central Middlesbrough hub. CAB has been mesmerised by the prospect of an extra £3m (which the town won't even get to see) and by the prospect of getting a seat at the big boys table complete with an additional allowance for himself.

He will also receive a Crusty The Clown Hat...... the top & bottom of it is, they are prepared to sign up to a no get out deal, before the the detailed operational systems for the new authority are in place.

It's a bit like saying you are going to the Moon, & not having a Spaceship..... absolute madness by Calamity & his crew.

[Inspector Knacker]

Has the dear leader been living in a bubble not to realise that the original Cleveland municipally shafted Hartlepool. I can't see it's offspring being anymore beneficial to our town and fear we are entering the wilderness years under its rule.
£3 million a year is peanuts, our much heralded useless interchange cost more and look what we got for our money, a car park and three deserted bus shelters. Touble is we probably won't see a penny of it.... aside from the odd pointless novelty project  to keep up appearances.
I love to use Tumbleweed Junction as an example.... millions for a few bus stops that nobody wanted and then bus subsidies removed so that there were no buses to use . Odd that.

[Inspector Knacker]

Does anyone know why the Grand Central goes through Stockton station but doesn't stop? Surely this would give 'Teesside' its direct link?

It certainly would, but it would cut any reason to run a service from Middlesbrough and we can't have that now can we.
I find it ironic how when we have to travel through there for a service it's classed as an 'improved' service.... try it with our Teesside 'cousins' to travel through to Hartlepool for a service and dummies are spat out big time. Ironic.

[mk1]

Teessiders have a 2 trains an hour direct service to a mainline station (Darlington)and 1 an hour to York. That's 3 trains per hour. In the last timetable adjustment the Hartlepool connection to York (via Thornaby) had a slight change or running times. Now if you want to connect to the York train you travel from Hartlepool to Thornaby and arrive 4 minutes after the train has left and face a 55 minute wait for the next one. They used to connect but that all changed. Our car-mileage allowance guzzling councillors did absolutely nothing about it. They never raised a single voice of complaint. Given the times I have seen the SCABs travelling 1st Class on the GC to London  or Mad Dog on her regular jaunts back to New Street to see her abandoned family the Councils free GC pass  must get a hammering! 
They run the trains for the people of Teesside and if Hartlepool misses out then so be it.

[Alnwickist]

      Just on a legal point the statutory time period of notice of this could be discussed is flawed. QC advice is anything that HBC agree is not valid.

Basically illegal. Proper procedure has not been followed.

[for fawkes sake]

I would think that you would need to be a little more specific than that if you wanted to make an issue of it.

[Alnwickist]

  In hand.