Meeting set to appoint new Northumberland County Council leader

The extraordinary full council meeting on Wednesday, September 23, follows the removal of Conservative leader Peter Jackson at the start of the month.

It came as part of the row between the Tory administration and the chief executive Daljit Lally, sparked by Mrs Lally being placed on ‘extended leave’ just after she emailed all councillors with what she claimed were ‘serious whistle-blowing concerns’.

There have been a range of allegations and counter-allegations in leaked emails since, although nothing has been made concrete publicly, with Mrs Lally and the political leadership declining to comment.

Northumbria Police has confirmed it has been contacted on two occasions in relation to the county council and its regeneration company, Advance Northumberland, but has not said any more at this stage.

Three cabinet members – Cllrs Wayne Daley, Veronica Jones and Cath Homer – resigned, before Cllr Jackson was ousted as leader by a single vote in a motion of no confidence on Wednesday, September 2.

This was made possible by three Tory rebels – former deputy leader Cllr Daley plus Cllrs Christine Dunbar and Mark Swinburn, who all represent Cramlington wards.

Cllr Glen Sanderson became deputy leader after Cllr Daley’s resignation in August, and then acting leader in the wake of Cllr Jackson’s dismissal.

On Friday, September 11, the Conservative group officially elected Cllr Sanderson as its leader with Cllr Richard Dodd, the current business chairman, as deputy.

However, the council leader has to be voted in by the full council, so Cllr Sanderson will need to be backed by a majority of members at next week’s meeting.

The Labour opposition also tried to put forward a motion to dissolve Advance Northumberland, which is wholly-owned by the local authority, and to transfer its housing and commercial stock plus regeneration function back into the council.

This fell foul of the 14-day notice period required for motions at full-council meetings, but there is anger at how next week’s meeting was confirmed.

Emails seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service suggest that the Labour motion was submitted on the morning of Thursday, September 10, only to be told that the deadline was noon on the previous day.

But an email from the democratic services team to all councillors confirming the meeting only appears to have been sent out on the afternoon of Friday, September 11.

A council spokesman said: “An extraordinary full council meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 23, at 3pm. All members were aware that an extraordinary meeting was pending, and the business chairman emailed all political group leaders advising that the 23rd was the planned date on Tuesday, September 8.

“One notice of motion was submitted on the morning of September 9, which was within the 14-day deadline. The 14-day deadline for notices of motion was agreed last November by the cross-party constitution working group.”

Advance Northumberland was specifically set up to replace its predecessor Arch, following concerns around governance and spending, including serious allegations of wrongdoing, under the previous Labour administration.

Northumbria Police was involved but later concluded that ‘no criminal offences have been identified’.

Therefore, Advance was supposed to be a fresh start, but the company has been mentioned in the latest row, although managing director, Ken Dunbar, said he was ‘surprised’ to see a reference to ‘significant concerns’ about the ‘well-run’ company.

Earlier in September, however, it was confirmed that Advance is facing a £5.5million legal claim after halting work on the Northumberland Energy Park (NEP1) project on the Blyth estuary in March amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

At a meeting on Tuesday, September 8, Cllr Nick Oliver, the cabinet member for corporate services, said: “There’s £5.5million put into the budget for dealing with a legal claim against Advance Northumberland.

“We’re hoping that this will be at the upper end and it could quite reasonably be significantly lower than that.

“It will be vigorously defended, but that’s the value of the claim as it stands, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the value of the payment.”

Labour group leader, Cllr Susan Dungworth, said: “It’s also possibly as much as £5.5m which is not available to spend on services for local people. That money could have been used to plug the gap in income in Active Northumberland because of the pandemic.”

She added: “I will be pressing for a thorough explanation and investigation.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

If you can, please do pick up a copy when you are at the shops. Thank you for your support.