Blyth Town Council - no meetings until September

Just a reminder that there are no scheduled meetings at Blyth Town Council until September ...

Blue Plaques in Blyth

The number of Blue Plaques in Blyth is increasing …

Currently I know of several, including the "Warwickshire Regiment" plaque at the beach, plaques at St Cuthbert's church, Newsham Station house, Keel Row, Bath Terrace and others

So far Blyth Town Council has failed to publish on their website a complete list , or publish a printed "trail map" of the plaques, so the public can only find them when they trip over them ( not literally of course)

I will try to identify as many as possible and publish a list and  photos for anyone interested.

Finally, the scheme here in Blyth gives me a sense of personal pride. I introduced the report to council and with the help of "friendly" councillors of all sides of the chamber we got them introduced.

However I recently found that one Labour councillor is trying to claim the credit … in a since deleted Facebook post. But the truth is, of course, that I started the idea and then with help by the then town clerk , a friendly Labour councillor and officers of the council the council adopted and implemented the idea .

Blyth Town Council - Meetings for July and August

There is only one meeting at BTC  scheduled for the next two months

Thursday 12th July  -- Full Council 

The meeting will be at Arms Evertyne House, starting at 6:30

I imagine that it will be preceded by a Public Question time , but this is to be confirmed

Blyth Town Council - June 2018 meetings

With the reorganisation of the committee structure at BTC there are only two meetings scheduled for June

Tuesday 12th June    Community Development 

Thursday 21st June   Governance 

Both are scheduled to start at 6:30 pm at Arms Evertyne House

As of today ( 5/6/18 ) no agendas are available, but it will be interesting to see how the new structure is working out

Home Ales

I lived in Nottingham in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

At the time there were two breweries in Nottingham ( Home Ales and Shipstones) and one in nearby Kimberley ( Hardy Hanson’s ) . All produced decent ales ( although Shippos didn’t travel well ) but ceased to brew due to takeovers etc. 

On Monday I discovered that Home Ales name has been re-used , and that their beers are being brewed in a small way. 

They are not exactly the same, but their Robin Hood Pale Ale , pulled by a hand pump , was absolutely delicious !

New Mayor for Blyth

At last week's meeting of Blyth Town Council Councillor Adrian Cartie was elected Mayor of Blyth

Congratulations Adrian !

Reorganisation of Blyth Town Council Committees

Blyth Town Council have reorganised the committee structure. To quote from the BTC website :-

"Blyth Town Council are introducing new Governance arrangements which will take effect from May 10 2018. In addition to Full Council, there will be three main Committees, these will be the Community Development, Environment Committee and Governance. The responsibilities of these Committees are as follows:

 Community Development: Community Grants and Events

Environment Committee: Allotments, Environmental Services and Planning

Governance: Finance, Policy Working Group, Staffing and Complaints."

I don't know the reasoning behind this reorganisation, but a cynic would point out that fewer meetings means less work for councillors. This should be a good thing, but each meeting is going to be much busier with the mixture of work involved.

However, councillors do the job on a voluntary basis, and so reducing the workload for "backbench" councillors is a good thing. 

I do hope that this isn't another step down the road of introducing the cabinet system that a few of the active Labour councillors favour ...this is a Parish Council after all !!