The future of Sunniside Church

 

In January I was told by members of the congregation that Sunniside Methodist Church would be closing in March. The numbers in the congregation had fallen to 11, most of whom are elderly. The chapel and hall were too much for them to cope with and the running costs are huge. There had been valiant attempts to keep the hall and chapel in operation but sadly they were defeated. The closure leaves Sunniside with a large building which needs a future.

As ward councillors, Marilynn Ord, Jonathan Mohammed and myself are keep to explore options for the future of the chapel. It sits in a very prominent location in the village and we are concerned that if no future use is found for the hall that it could become derelict.

The Methodist Church South Tyne and Wear circuit, ultimately responsible for the building, asked me to chair a meeting of residents and interested parties at the church to see if there was any interest in taking on the building. The meeting went ahead last week and was attended by 38 residents, plus members of the circuit.

It was a useful meeting and there is a possibility of a community group being set up to take on the building though the repairs to the roof that are needed means the group would need to raise a sum over £50K and possibly approaching £100k. I suggested that the group should be given a chance to get up and running but that there would have to be a specific deadline to take on the building. This is out of fairness to the Methodist organsation as they are currently having to pay huge insurance and energy bills on the building.

For the 3 of us as ward councillors, our priorities are to retain the chapel building but it has to have a use. The building is one of the oldest in Sunniside and therefore it is part of our local heritage and history. So hopefully we can have some positive news about Sunniside Church in the near future.

More photos from Saturday's Northern Pride in Newcastle

 

Northern Pride

 

Yesterday Newcastle hosted Northern Pride and the parade to celebrate diversity started off at Newcastle Civic Centre and ended there as well. I was pleased to see a good turnout from Gateshead Lib Dems. Alas, once the parade through the streets of the city was over, I had to return home - lots to do on the farm.

Poo delay as everything crashes

As I am now officially old, I get offered lots of tests by the NHS. When I arrived at the GP surgery this morning clutching my poo sample in a plastic container, I was told by the receptionist that no samples could be received because of the computer outage. No tests can be carried out. So my sample was deposited into the clinical waste bin and I was given a new kit. Bring a fresh sample next week I was told.

It seems as though we have become dangerously dependent on a small number of providers. When it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong and causes chaos. If there is ever another world war, this is what it will look like. IT collapses and everything grinds to a halt. 

Our next Focus

 

The election may be over but we have picked up so many issues recently in Whickham South and Sunniside that we decided to produce an extra edition of Focus. I printed it on Thursday and we started delivery straight away. The lead story (which dictates the timing of this Focus) is the public meeting I am chairing on Thursday about the future of Sunniside Methodist Church. We therefore have until Wednesday to get all 1900 copies delivered.

Back to the 40s

 

The next meeting of Sunniside History Society will be on Wednesday 7th August at 7pm in Sunniside Club. We will be looking at Britain in the 1940s. So bring your ration book and your national identity card and enjoy an evening exploring the history of the era of Atlee and Churchill, shortages and conscription. All welcome.

Looks fantastic

 

Oli and Joe's Italian Restaurant took over the former Rising Sun pub in Sunniside, a stone's throw from my house, some years ago. They have recently gone through a refurbishment and the building is looking fantastic. Well done to all concerned. I have a particular fondness for Oli and Joe's in Sunniside. It was where I proposed to David two years ago!

The blame game

One of the most frequently made claims by Labour in Gateshead Council chamber is that anything that has gone wrong is the fault of the Liberal Democrats. Labour have been in control of Gateshead for 50 years. Indeed, no other party has ever run the authority. Labour base their claim on the Lib Dems being in the coalition government from 2010-15. The coalition ended 9 years ago but "Blame the Lib Dems" is the mantra by which Labour operates.

Given the years of local government austerity that Labour are likely to impose on Gateshead, I can conjure up images of Labour Councillors continuing to claim that the Lib Dems are to blame. The allegation will be along the lines of "Labour have looked at the government accounts and there's no money left. Let's blame the Lib Dems who left office 9 years ago!"

I'm not a betting person but I could be tempted to put a bet on Labour in Gateshead blaming the Lib Dems for Labour austerity at a council meeting in the near future.

Name the lane

 

A new development in Streetgate, one of the villages in my ward in Gateshead, needed to be named and so last year officers from Highways at the Civic Centre got in touch with myself, Cllr Jonathan Mohammed and Cllr Marilynn Ord to ask for suggestions. We were not impressed by the developer's suggestion "Hornbeam Avenue". We felt this meant nothing to residents.

Instead we proposed a number of alternatives based on the history of Streetgate. Opposite the development is Sorella Sorella restaurant. The building started life in the Victorian period as the "Rose, Shamrock and Thistle" and continued to be called by the same name until the 1990s when it was renamed the "Rose". One of the names for the new development we suggested was "Shamrock Avenue". This was the name that was finaly agreed (though Avenue was dropped in favour of "Lane". The street sign is now in place.

Waiting for Jeremy Hunt

The last constituency result sailed into view this evening when Lib Dem Angus MacDonald took Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire from the SNP. The general election delivered a Lib Dem parliamentary party of 72. My expectation of 40-50 seats for the Lib Dems was way off the mark. My excuse is that we got such a beating in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections that we dared not to believe positive news from opinion polls.

My hopes for the Lib Dems in this election were:

• a significant increase in the number of Lib Dem MPs;
• recovering the position of the 3rd party in the House of Commons (I refused to entertain the suggestions that the Lib Dems could become the official opposition on the simple grounds that it was a fantasy in this election though the future could be different);
• we achieve a creditable result in Gateshead Central and Whickham (compared to most other contests in the North East, it was creditable).

I went to the count for Gateshead Central and Whickham at the Gateshead International Stadium. It was quite a relaxed affair and unusually it finished by 1am, instead of the usual 3-4am. It meant I could be home in time to watch most of the results coming in. I made the mistake of deciding to stay up for the declaration of Jeremy Hunt's result. It wasn't until 5am and it was daylight outside when it arrived and it was one of the few disappointments of the night - he survived (just). Off to bed at that point for a 2 hour kip and then I was up again to feed the livestock.