Darlington Councillor

Amidst all the very difficult proposals the council is having to put forward as part of its budget between now and 2019/20, the future of the library service is amongst the most fraught.
The closure of Cockerton Library, the ending of the mobile library service and the relocation of the main library away from its historic site in Crown Street, are all emotive and difficult options for anyone who loves learning and literature in Darlington...

At the very heart of Darlington Council’s appalling difficulties (and those of every other Local Authority in the North East) is the scale of the Government grant that has been taken away since 2010 – cuts that will be compounded between now and 202...

Just as I did back in 2014, I'm resurrecting my blog for the purposes of getting some points across regarding the Council's draft budget, which will be announced over the next few days.
Things were really tough in 2014, but now they are truly horrendous. The Tory Government has carried on where the Tory/LibDem hybrid left off, and is targetting local council spending for the heaviest of the cuts - presumably they continue to bank on...

Amidst the endless cut and thrust of Darlington politics, a clear theme has been running since 2010 - the challenge of meeting the horrendous cuts to the Local Authority budgets imposed by the Coalition, and the impact on services in the Borough.
The unfairness of how these cuts have been apportioned - with the North East and metropolitan areas suffering most - has been widely commented. For a small unitary authority like Darlington, however, the cuts are particularly tough. The Council has had...