Photos from Whickham Remembrance Parade

 

After a short delay, here are the photos of the Whickham Remembrance Day parade. Cllr Peter Maughan (to my right in the photo above), myself and Cllr Susan Craig laid the wreaths on behalf of residents across the three Whickham wards. In total, 52 wreaths were laid at the Whickham war memorial. You can view the full set of photos of the parade and service on this link.

Saltwell action day

 

Gateshead Lib Dems held an action day in Saltwell ward yesterday. It was a "mopping up operation" to deliver the remaining bundles of Focuses. Most of the ward had already been delivered earlier this month but by the end of the action day, I'm pleased to say that no bundles were left. Job done.

North East Lib Dem regional conference

 

North East Lib Dem regional conference was held at Spenneymoor Town Hall in Co Durham today. There was a good turnout from Gateshead (see the photos in this post). It was a good conference. The training session on dealing with small parties such as the Greens and Reform was particularly useful. I was able to talk about the Green's campaign in the Bridges ward by-election in Gateshead in which the Greens' vote halved and they fell into 3rd place. It was the Greens' only target in Gateshead. Not any more!

Sunniside switch on

I attended the meeting of the Sunniside Hub Group last night. On the agenda was the Christmas lights switch-on. This will be taking place at 5pm on 30th November. Sadly I will not be able to make it as I have another event in my diary at the same time. It means there will be no goats cunningly disguised as reindeer at the event. The Christmas tree meanwhile will be erected in the garden of Sunniside chapel. Hopefully it will be a successful event.

Whickham lights switch on

 

Gateshead Food Partnership Meeting

 

I was pleased to be able to attend the first meeting of the Gateshead Food partnership last Friday. I wasn't sure whether I was there as councillor, farmer, voluntary sector or all 3. I had raised the idea of Gateshead having a conference to bring together food producers, suppliers and voluntary organisations involved with distributing food with the Council Leader Martin Gannon before the pandemic. Better late than never! Speeches in the morning focused mainly on food poverty. In the afternoon it was more about the practicalities. Hopefully, the meeting will bear fruit (sorry about the pun) by leading to action to address food poverty and food waste while boosting health.

Monumental look at History Society

We had a very interesting meeting of Sunniside History Society last night. We played a video, produced by the North East Remembrance Monuments Project, about their work to record all war memorials in the region. We also had a presentation about the crash in February 1942 of a Canadian military aircraft near Marley Hill.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 4th December. There will be a Christmas buffet and a 1960s quiz (which I am yet to write!)

Newcastle Labour meltdown as comrades go independent

Newcastle Labour group have not been having a good time of it recently. Having seen the resignation of their leader a few weeks ago, the authority has now experienced the resignation of 6 Labour councillors who will now sit as independents. To add to the confusion, there is already an independent group on the council called the Newcastle Independents. If you think that is confusing, there are 5 other independents. Whatever the varieties of independent, the bloody nose for Labour comes with the loss of their majority on the council. Labour now have 39 councillors with 39 on the opposition benches (including 22 Lib Dems). While a change in political control is not expected (in the short run), this is all dreadfully embarrassing for Labour in the regional capital. Alas, across the River Tyne here in Gateshead, we have, so far, only experienced one defection from Labour to the independents since the general election. Only 5 more to go for Gateshead to catch up.