Newspaper Review - Hexham Courant August 26th

Dunno if i will do this every week - but thought it might be interesting to have a look at this weeks Hexham Courant and pick out a few articles to highlight. 

I quite like the Hexham Courant. Lots of interesting articles and local news - also covers quite a lot of local politics. The letters page is always entertaining.

Great to see Hexham Bus Station reopening the waiting room - hope people will start using buses more - a lot of the ones I see going past don't have many people on. It's going to be crucial to tackle climate change to have much more public transport. In another article, there's mention of more COVID around and an increase in hospital admissions - so keep that in mind. Not mentioned in the Courant this week, but from my own experience and stuff on social media, there have been quite a lot of train cancellations recently. Need a reliable service to encourage people to use the trains - and affordable tickets!! COVID vaccination gets good coverage in the talking point section, hopefully that will encourage people to get the vaccine.

Northumberland County Council are supporting the UK effort to provide help for those fleeing from Afghanistan - the article mentions supporting 3 families. Doesn't sound like many - hopefully they will get a warm welcome. Nice Editorial comment, supporting the efforts to welcome Afghans. Also a nice letter from Jean Saunders who comments that there is much hostility to those seeking asylum in the UK, on social media, and urges us open our homes and show compassion. Steve Ford form Haydon Bridge writes a good letter. "Britains's reputation has been utterly trashed internationally by successive Tory administrations" Spot on Steve.

The other editorial comment was about how fantastic the local community response to the pandemic has been in this area. In Horsley neighbours clubbed together to fund a memorial bench for a neighbour who dies. Having knocked on many doors in Horsley during election campaigns, I am not surprised. Many lovely people in that village. 

The Great North Air Ambulance often gets a mention in the Courant. I bet we all know someone who has been whisked away in the helicopter. Lots of fundraising which is great - but shouldn't such a crucial service be publicly funded??

No Hexham fireworks this year - back in 2022. In the meantime there's a plan to improve the Sele skatepark. Local skaters are raising money and various local groups helping. We need more facilities for young people in Hexham constituency.

The planned removal of the £20/week uplift to Universal Credit is going to cause problems for many people and families. Shocking that this is going ahead. Northumberland is getting some investment in community mental health services - £2 million sounds like a lot but it won't go very far. There's a lot of people in need of mental health services so at least it's something.

The NFU President Minette Batters highlights concerns that rural communities are being left behind and a new approach from government is needed for genuine levelling up

Watch this space re how to fund social care - one of the biggest issues facing us. The previous cooperation between Northumberland County Council and Northumbria NHS Trust is coming to an end but it provoked some debate. What the future plan is remains a bit unclear

Some people think the Courant is a bit "pro" the local Conservative MP - it will be interesting to keep an eye on it:

LOCAL MP WATCH IN THIS WEEKS COURANT

Photos: 0

Quotes: 0

Mentions: 1 - In the "10 years ago" section 




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