Tees Valley City deal through to next round

[SRMoore]

Cities Minister Greg Clark has confirmed that the Tees Valley's city deal bid will now go through to the next stage.

The next stage will work towards determining which powers can be transferred to a local level, in order to determine the detail before a final decision can be made.

[steveL]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21495688

[Vincent]

How very selective of our resident Tory - Nick Clegg made the statement

[SRMoore]

Don't worry yourself too much Vincent, it isn't all a conspiracy. I simply copied the statement given by ITV News.

But hey, if you want Nick Clegg to be the poster boy of the new Cleveland County Farce then you can by all means have your wish.

[Vincent]

Not worried at all Steve just making sure that crdeit is given where credit is due

[SRMoore]

Shane. I hope you'll forgive me for being somewhat sceptical where this topic. As I said earlier, if you want Clegg to take credit for Hartlepool being dragged under the control of Middlesbrough Town Hall, then I'm more than happy to let him take it.

[Vincent]

Shane - thats a bit of a jump, if being part of Tees Valley means employment and investment, bring it on

Odd innit when one person gets a slap on the back (Greg Clark) and the other (Nick Clegg) gets blamed for dragging Hartlepool down, typical political bollocks - Shane

[SRMoore]

Pray do tell me where I gave Greg Clark a slap on the back? I've always been quite sceptical of this city region bid.

Why do we need to be part of a city region that is located in a fictional valley by the river Tees to have jobs created and investment pumped in to the town?
Seems to me that someone down in Westminster doesn't quite grasp the meaning of localism.

Devolving powers and budgets to local authorities and then telling them they'll have to be part of a bigger group to get it is like giving you a lolly with one hand and punching you in the face with the other.

[DRiddle]

like giving you a lolly with one hand and punching you in the face with the other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs3gxpUonSw

Shane, please pay attention to this clip, specifically around the 58 seconds - 1 minute or so mark..... 

[steveL]

Historically, Geographically and even Geologically, Hartlepool is NOT part of the Tees Valley and the demise of Cleveland County should have meant that never again would it be politically part of it either. We've been here before and we know how the story ends. This is just the latest move to centralise everything on the Middlesbrough/Stockton partnership.

So we can now look forward to more centralisation of services and for the non-Hartlepool linked Tees Metro to re-surface as a priority. Ray Mallon is on record as saying that he wasn't bothered if Hartlepool was included in the Tees Valley area or not because either way, his own Middlesbrough would be at the centre of things.

If anything this is worse. Instead of a disconnected but at least democratically elected County Council, we are now largely in the hands of the overpaid staff of an unelected Quango resulting in yet more public money sloshing around the 19th holes of selected golf clubs.

[SRMoore]

like giving you a lolly with one hand and punching you in the face with the other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs3gxpUonSw

Shane, please pay attention to this clip, specifically around the 58 seconds - 1 minute or so mark..... 

Ha ha ha!

[Inspector Knacker]

Shane - thats a bit of a jump, if being part of Tees Valley means employment and investment, bring it on

That's what they said about Cleveland in 1974 ...... and we went to the back of the queue and stayed there and the town stagnated.

[whatabouthisthen]

I wonder what amount will actually arrive in H'pool and what does, how much will become attached to sticky fingers!?

Have got anyone clever enough to make the bid(s)?

[mk1]

We can see the results  in the Hospital saga.

Concentrate everything in the central hub and  phase out the spokes.
Pretty soon there is nothing but the hub.
It would help if our spineless councillor  were not so servile  (5000 quid? That will do nicely!) and fighting like ferrets in a sack for a paid position from the slashers..............

[Inspector Knacker]

The only thing they want us for is to bulk up the numbers population wise. Ten years down the line you'll be traveling through to the  centre' for nearly everything. They'll build there metro and we' ll be left out on a limb and as is proved with these projects, the new businesses cluster around them, ....... and the headless chickens pursue psrish pump politics, while the big world around them moves on.