North Sunderland Parish Council round-up

Chairman, Coun Geoffrey Stewart, the clerk and Jeff Sutheran, chairman of the North Northumberland Tourism Association had a meeting with Active Northumberland and the county council.

It was confirmed that the current building has been condemned due to health and safety concerns, but it was also reported that the former resource centre on Main Street – a possible temporary replacement – would not be ready for this season, meaning the search goes on.

Coun David Donaldson said: “We are the centre of the AONB and tourists come here and they need information. That building is the perfect place for it, where they come into the car park.”

New county councillor Guy Renner-Thompson said that the council had not ruled out spending the money to bring the current building back into use, but it would not be ready for this season.”

Coun Donaldson added: “It’s very urgent, we need something to be done as soon as possible.”

Coun Stewart said: “I pressed that to them and I can’t so anything more than that.”

• Problems caused by the relocated bus stops in the centre of Seahouses have been highlighted again.

The parish council has already written twice to the county council calling for the buses to go back to stopping at the memorial, right in the centre of the village.

But ahead of Monday’s meeting, the council had received a letter from Julie Dawson, at the Links Hotel, who reported that due to the lack of shelter at the new bus stops on King Street, passengers were sheltering from the rain in the hotel’s reception ‘which is not acceptable’.

She also pointed out that a number of delivery wagons stop in that area for the Co-op.

The changes to the bus routes were made due to the congestion caused by cars parked illegally along Main Street, which were preventing the buses from getting through in a timely manner.

Given that the parish council has already made two complaints, members asked ward member, Coun Guy Renner-Thompson to intervene. He said he would look at ways of tackling the parking problems on Main Street.

• A plaque is to be put up in the village by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust to mark Seahouses Airfield. The site, between Springhill and Elford, was used between 1917 and 1919. It had been suggested to put it on the wall of the Sports and Community Centre, but members thought it would be better on the toilet block so it’s in the centre of the village.