WHO's NEXT TO JUMP SHIP ????

Remember they were not deselected, this is a brand new council, they did not make it because there were some very good labour councilors in Blyth Valley, and some very good members of the party who wished to serve on the new council.


Male Labour councillors fall foul of drive to recruit women
Mar 31 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal
FOUR senior Labour county councillors in Northumberland are to stand as independent candidates in the looming unitary elections after falling foul of the party’s national drive to get more women into the corridors of power.
Bill Ashbridge, David Montgomery, Ivan Hayes and Paul Kelly are quitting Labour to contest the May 1 poll as independents after seeing nominations for their county council seats handed over to female candidates.
In a move which will potentially split the Labour vote in their four wards, they will stand against the official Labour candidates in the battle for seats on the county’s new all-purpose super council, which will take over in April next year.
The four councillors’ decision to go independent follows months of bitter internal Labour feuding over who gets the nominations to contest the elections for the 67 seats on the new authority. Coun Hayes has represented the Cramlington West ward for 15 years and is currently a member of the powerful Labour executive at County Hall in Morpeth. Coun Montgomery has represented the Hartley ward for seven years and chairs the county council’s Blyth Valley area committee.
Coun Ashbridge, from Bedlington East, has been a county councillor for more than 25 years and is a former chairman of the social services committee. Coun Kelly, the former Labour group whip at County Hall, represents the Bywell ward in Tynedale and chairs the council’s planning committee.
Couns Hayes, Montgomery and Kelly have seen their seats allocated as women-only shortlists for May’s elections, while Coun Ashbridge failed to be re-selected by the party and saw his seat go to female candidate Val Tyler.
The furore over Labour’s drive to get more women into politics recently saw the entire constituency party in Easington, County Durham, suspended over its refusal to toe the line. The “positive discrimination” move has also caused ructions in Northumberland.
Yesterday Coun Montgomery said: “I am resigning from the Labour Party after 22 years and standing as an independent because I am opposed to women-only shortlists in principle, as I believe Labour should be a party of equal opportunity. To deny anyone the opportunity to become a Labour councillor because of their sex is wrong.
“Those who are in favour of women-only lists would be the first to complain if there were male-only lists. This form of discrimination has no place in the 21st century and should clearly have no place in a modern political party. The idea of getting more women councillors is laudable but we also need younger councillors.”
Coun Hayes said: “If I was beaten in a fair ballot that would be OK but I have not even been allowed to throw my hat into the ring. I have been a party member for 20 years and this is not a decision I have taken lightly. I feel the Labour Party has turned its back on us.”
Coun Ashbridge said after 27 years’ service on the county council it had been embarrassing to be snubbed by the party.
And Coun Kelly, who has been a county councillor for 11 years, said: “The policy of bringing more women into politics is laudable but the tool being used here is crude and self-defeating. It means that good sitting councillors are being replaced by women who could very well lose the seat because they are not local, might not have the experience and because the policy offends a great many Labour supporters, including women.”
Current and former county council leaders Peter Hillman and Bill Brooks have also missed out on selection by the party for May’s elections but have said they will not be standing as independent candidates.

HE SHOWS HIS TRUE COLOURS ????? Paul Kelly leaves the party

Labour stalwart flies the independent flag
Published on 28/03/2008
Coun. Paul Kelly
THE bizarre Labour Party hokey-cokey in the run-up to the Northumberland unitary authority elections took another twist this week.For after being in, out, and then in, out again, county councillor Paul Kelly has shaken it all about by deciding to stand as an independent on May 1. Retired schoolteacher Coun. Kelly has represented the Bywell ward on the county council for 11 years, and is currently chairman of the county planning committee.However, Coun. Kelly was told earlier this year by the regional Labour party his seat was one of three in Tynedale which would have a women only shortlist.Then, when the party failed to find a local woman to contest the seat, he was told he was back in again.But this week, it emerged he was out again, with the Labour party having decided to parachute in a woman candidate from outside the district.A fed-up Coun. Kelly said this week: “I have been loyal to the Labour party throughout my political career, but loyalty works both ways.“I also have to be loyal to the people of Bywell, who have loyally supported me for the last three county elections.“I could not possibly stand for any other party, so I have decided to stand under the Independent flag, and the people can decide.”Coun Kelly stressed he was a firm believer in equality for women.However, he questioned the wisdom of bringing in an unknown non-local candidate for a seat where there is a traditionally strong Liberal Democrat vote.A split Labour vote could let in the Liberal Democrat, Tynedale councillor Nick Appleby.Elsewhere, the Labour Party is still playing its cards close to its chest, and has yet to formally confirm who will be fighting the 13 seats in Tynedale on its behalf.It is known that Coun. Tony Reid will fight one of the two Prudhoe seats, as the only survivor of the ruling executive in the present county council.However, much speculation remains about the other Prudhoe seat, currently held on the county council by Coun. Glenn Simpson.The name of long serving Prudhoe district councillor Bill Garrett remains in the frame, as does that of his wife and fellow councillor Lorna, but both have declined to comment .One man who will be facing the electorate is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Hexham Andrew Duffield, who is hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of one of the party’s most prominent figures.Mr Duffield has been selected as an 11th hour candidate to fight the Corbridge seat.It was winning the Corbridge seat on the infant Tynedale Council in 1973 that catapulted Alan Beith into the national spotlight more than 35 years ago.Mr Duffield has been brought in to replace original choice Rob Macfarlane, who is getting married in May.Nominations for the seats formally opened on Monday, but the full list of runners and riders will not be known until nominations close next Friday.

Whos next well lets look at the officers who supported this ??

Dave Black you missed one CC Lyn Camsell

March 26 2008

Labour leaders can’t make starting gate
by Dave Black, The Journal
MORE than half of the ruling Labour group on Northumberland County Council are set to be missing when elections for the county’s new unitary super council are held in May.
The scale of the changes afoot under the switch to an all-purpose single authority next year is shown by the fact that up to 20 members of the current 35-strong Labour administration at County Hall are set to miss out.
They will be replaced at the elections by sitting Labour district councillors or new party candidates after a fraught selection process, which has seen some of them fail to be chosen by their local branches or lose out to controversial all-women shortlists.
The shake-up starts at the top and of the current eight-strong Labour executive at County Hall, only deputy leader Tony Reid has survived from the process of selecting candidates for the May poll.
County council leader Peter Hillman and Wansbeck councillor John Smith have failed to be selected, former leader Bill Brooks and Cramlington councillor Ivan Hayes have seen their seats earmarked for women candidates while Couns Jim Wright, Mick Scullion and Dorothy Luke have decided not to stand for election.
Other senior Labour councillors who have stood down or failed to win selection include former leader Michael Davey, former social services chairman Bill Ashbridge, former deputy leader John Whiteman and former planning chairman David Nicholson.
The mass exodus has prompted claims that the new unitary council – due to take over in April 2009 – will lack experience in running county council services such as education, social services and highways.
There have also been murmurings of a deliberate campaign to oust Labour county councillors who supported the single unitary option rather than the two separate all-purpose councils promoted by the six districts.
One Labour insider said: “There is no doubt there has been a campaign to get rid of county councillors who nailed their colours to the single unitary mast. Anyone can see that. A few scores have been settled and there has been a lot of bitterness.”
Yesterday Blyth Valley Borough Council leader Dave Stephens, who is also a Labour county councillor and will contest the May election, said: “Any suggestion that this has been payback time is completely false. What has happened is that this will be a brand new council and all existing councillors, both county and district, have put their names forward for selection.
“I am confident that the people who have been selected will be able to do a good job, because most of them have experience of being councillors and running things.”
A number of experienced Conservative and Lib Dem county councillors will also be missing when the elections are held in May. Those from all three parties who have failed to be selected will now be considering whether to stand for election as independent candidates

Hexham Courant 14/03/2008

Tony Reid is spared party backlash
Published on 14/03/2008
PRUDHOE’S Coun. Tony Reid is the only member of Northumberland County Council’s ruling executive who will be fighting for a seat on the county’s new unitary authority.All eight others have failed to win selection for the safe Labour seats in the party’s South East Northumberland heartland.The driving forces behind the county’s bid for a single unitary authority, including present leader Coun Peter Hillman, and former leader Bill Brooks, as well as the architect of the switch to two-tier education Coun. Jim Wright have all been axed by their own party.The nominations have gone to Blyth Valley and Wansbeck district councillors, in what is being seen as a payback for the county council’s failure to support Northumberland’s six district councils’ bid for a rural/ urban split.It now remains to be seen whether the visions put forward by the present county hierarchy are put into practice by successors who have no experience in running schools, highways or social services departments.One councillor who has survived is Blyth’s Coun. Dave Stephens, who denied the district councillors were getting their own back on their county colleagues. He said there were a lot of very good candidates for a limited number of seats, following national party procedure.“It was very close in some cases, but the candidates chosen bring with them a great deal of experience,” said Coun. Stephens.Elsewhere, another senior Tynedale councillor has fallen victim to petticoat power.Veteran Hexham councillor Tom Flaws has been denied the opportunity to defend his seat at the forthcoming elections under the party rule which insists 50 per cent of winnable seats have women-only shortlists for candidates.Coun. Flaws’s Hexham Central seat falls into that category, so the nomination instead has gone to Acomb district councillor Jane Wrigley.Coun. Flaws said this week: “I am naturally very disappointed not to have been given the opportunity to defend the seat, and while I wish Jane Wrigley well, I cannot agree with Labour’s policy on women only shortlists.“It would make far more sense to concentrate on equal pay for women, which would impact on many more people.”Unlike other ousted sitting councillors, Coun. Flaws will not be standing as an independent.Coun. Flaws’s seat is one of three in the district where the “women only” rule is being enforced.Fighting the Hexham East seat will be Caroline Warburton, despite the fact she has just finished bottom of the poll twice over in the recent by-elections in Hexham.The other women only seat was supposed to be Bywell, but an acceptable local female candidate could not be found, so sitting councillor Paul Kelly has secured the nomination.Nominations for seats on the new council don’t open until March 25, and close on April 4. Polling will take place on May 1.

HILLMAN DEEPLY HURT

Hillman 'deeply hurt' as he is overlooked for election spot
Coun Peter Hillman.
By TEGAN CHAPMAN
THE leader of Northumberland County Council has said he was deeply hurt by his party's decision not to elect him into the new unitary council.
Peter Hillman will not stand for Labour in the Holywell ward of the new authority after his party opted for a different candidate to contest his ward.It was decided on Friday that Blyth Valley councillor Bernard Pidcock will contest the seat.Coun Hillman said: "I am hurt by it, of course I am – I am really upset that I will not be able to contest the seat for the Holywell ward that I have had for 19 years."I think I have served my constituency well, nevertheless this is part of the democratic process I have to abide by."I am incredibly proud that I have manag
ed to lead this council to a four-star excellence authority, and I really do hope that whoever takes over will move that forward."I am really pleased that the bid for single unitary status was accepted and I hope that the new council will fulfil promises that I made when we were submitting the bid, as I will now not be here to see those promises through."Former county leader Bill Brooks also failed to win a nomination to contest his seat within the Blyth Newsham ward – meaning two of driving forces behind the creation of the new 'super council' will not be part of it."I am sad that I will no longer be part of it – because it is something that I have done for 19 years, and the new council was something that I hoped I would see through," Coun Hillman added."Come May I will have to find something else to do, and I am thoroughly disappointed, but that is how democracy works."
The full article contains 310 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Last Updated: 11 March 2008 4:30 PM
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Party drops Leader

Mar 10 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal
THE leader of Northumberland County Council will not be elected to the new unitary council after his party opted for a different candidate to contest his ward.
Peter Hillman will not stand for Labour in the Holywell ward of the unitary authority after the party selected Blyth Valley councillor Bernard Pidcock to contest the seat.
Blyth Valley constituency Labour Party chairman Dave Stephens said the vote to select the candidate had been very close. He said: “They were both excellent candidates and Peter Hillman hasn’t been deselected.
“It was a surprise, but having said that, it is understandable because Bernard Pidcock has been an excellent councillor for more than 12 years and is very well respected.”
Coun Hillman said he was surprised. It means two of the driving forces behind the creation of the new council will not be on it.
Former county leader Bill Brooks failed to win a nomination to contest his Blyth Newsham ward in May.