Splitting the region

I was in London last week and I wasn't closely following the news back home. It meant there was a pile of Journals waiting for me to read but I only got to look at them tonight. I noticed the story about the North of Tyne bid for a devolution settlement separate from the south of Tyne authorities. Such a move would be a wrecking ball slamming into the North East. We already have to live with the region being split in two following the decision of the Tees Valley not to throw in its lot with the rest of the North East and to create its own combined authority and elected mayor. What we are now facing is a truncated North East about to be torn down the middle by the war that has been going on in the Labour party.

A separate devolution settlement for the North of Tyne will weaken the overall effectiveness of governance in the region as a whole. It will make matters such as planning and especially transport far more difficult to coordinate. We need to have a devolution settlement for the whole of the NECA area. I fear now however that Gateshead is in danger of being left behind (the same fears can be applied to South Tyneside, Sunderland and Co Durham.) Labour need to get their act together or they will end up being the co-authors with the Conservatives of the North East's fragmentation.

The Journals have been torn up by me so that I can use them for bedding for my goats. The irony is that the region is being torn up as well. Quite what the Conservatives and Labour will deposit on the North East is still awaited.