Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Are Labour asleep in Dunston Hill and Whickham East

It is very nice of the Labour Party in Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward to set aside a fair chunk of their main leaflet in the local elections in Gateshead to respond to the Lib Dems in the ward. It has been clear from the start of this campaign that we, rather than Labour, have set the agenda in the ward and Labour have been forced to respond.

One of the key issues is the plan for nearly 600 executive houses to be built at the top of Dunston Hill. Despite the Lib Dems having led the battle against these plans, and the Labour run council coming up with the plans in the first place, the Labour leaflet circulated this morning tried to make out that Labour were opposed to the house-building plans and that they were the fault of the Lib Dems! Perhaps Labour's campaign slogan should be "Vote Labour because we are opposed to Labour policies"!

Alas for Labour, they have included a monumental error in their leaflet that well and truly shows that they are completely out of touch with what's actually happening. Their leaflet claims, "A planning application is expected to be submitted this summer for the development of homes on land south of Whickham Highway close to Lobley Hill." The reality of the situation is that the planning application was submitted last year and resubmitted earlier this year. This is a live planning application and I am staggered that the Labour Party in the ward are completely unaware of this as this is the biggest planning issue to hit the area in decades.

Dunston deserves better.

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