TORY LEADER BRANDED ‘FAKE NEWS CHAMPION’ AS LABOUR CHALLENGE TORY COUNTY HALL CAMPAIGN
Tory ‘stitch up’ to stop County Hall move may see hundreds of jobs and services lost to county market towns Two Northumberland Labour Councillors representing wards in Ashington and Blyth have submitted a standards complaint to Northumberland County Council after branding local Conservatives led by Cllr Peter Jackson as ‘purveyors of fake news’.
The councillors are challenging Conservative claims that a move from County Hall in Morpeth to a smaller ‘hub’ in Ashington would cost £80m when council officers confirmed the move would cost no more than £32m with hundreds of council jobs and services being returned to market towns like Alnwick, Berwick, Hexham, Bedlington, Newbiggin, Blyth, Ashington, Morpeth and Prudhoe.
Cllrs Brian Gallacher (Haydon ward in Ashington) and Cllr Gordon Webb (Isabella ward in Blyth) have submitted a formal complaint under the county council’s constitution and standards procedures against Cllr Jackson and his Conservative group of councillors for ‘knowingly misleading the public about the true cost of County Hall’.
The council’s code of conduct which all councillors sign up to makes it an offence to ‘bring the council into disrepute’. The complaint alleges that the Conservative party have continued to mislead the public about the cost of the new ‘hub’ in Ashington even though as far back as Dec 2016, Cllr Jackson was publicly admonished by the council’s CEO and s151 officer Steven Mason over the use of inaccurate information. The £80m ‘fake news’ story has been repeated and reprinted on a number of social media sites including Morpeth Matters which is administered by senior Conservatives and their supporters.
The decision on a planning application for the County Hall site has also been called in by Conservative Secretary of State Sajid Javed in a move branded as ‘blatantly politically motivated’ by Labour group leader Grant Davey. He went on to describe the call in as a ‘political hijacking by politicians set on dividing communities’.
Cllr Gallacher said “Cllr Jackson has and is engaging in ‘fake news’ on County Hall in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. His councillors repeat this ‘fake news’. My town and other market towns stand to benefit from the move from Morpeth and it’s time Cllr Jackson and his party were held to account for their blatant attempts to mislead the public”.
Cllr Webb said “Every councillor signs up to a code of conduct and while they are councillors they should adhere to it. Local Tories now aided by their government seem to be intent on spreading their own version of ‘fake news’ about County Hall. I’m urging that they are held to account for a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. They’ve been corrected in public by the independent CEO about the use of ‘fake figures’ yet they continue to use ‘fake news’ to peddle their brand of setting communities against each other. They’re bringing the council into disrepute”.
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Official Council Minute Extract
