Following the local elections, the authority has a new political leadership so today I wrote to the new Leader of the Council asking for an opportunity to appraise him of SENRUG’s various campaigns, and in particular, for an assurance that the Council’s commitment to re-opening the Ashington Blyth & Tyne re-opening remains in place (see our letter here). SENRUG started this campaign in 2004 and this is now the 3rd local authority we are dealing with. We started with a Labour-led Council who did not support, then changed to a Lib-Dem led Council who did support and did much of the early feasibility work, then back to a Labour led Council who have fully supported the scheme and got as far as Network Rail’s GRIP 2 Stage. So let’s hope the current Conservative-led authority will continue with that commitment, take us through to GRIP 4, and be the administration that finally signs the order with Network Rail.
