Northumberland Towns who could benefit the most miss out on Government clean up grant

Towns which could benefit the most miss out on clean up grant 

I’m not one for looking a gift horse in the mouth and it’s good to see the government has given out £9.75m (of your money by the way) to local authorities to help them work with their local communities and clean up where they live. This money is to be used for working with volunteer groups, training, buying litter pickers (those things with handles that save you having to bend down and pick up rubbish, not people!) and other equipment needed when you’re cleaning up an area. It’s all good stuff and Northumberland County Council has done better than its neighbours with a grant of £55,925. I’m not sure how the government did its sums at a national level but something seems to have gone wrong at county level. The trouble with this end of year money is it doesn’t give proper time for planning or serious thought about how it should be allocated. Northumberland County Council has decided to allocate it to the 12 largest towns in the county, depending on size. Great news for our biggest town Blyth and the towns in between like Berwick, Hexham, Prudhoe, Ashington and Cramlington, but nothing for Newbiggin and Bedlington which could really do with the clean up cash.

Nothing also for Belford, Rothbury, Bellingham, Seahouses and Allendale Town. There are 14 towns in our county apparently and the money is being split up over 12 of them. It makes you wonder if anyone actually looked at the litter problem across the county and thought ‘let’s allocate it where it’s needed most’. It doesn’t look like it…