It is a little over two years since the last county council elections Northumberland and with your support our Conservative led council has been making real progress. Our administration has three key priorities to help shape Northumberland’s future. These are delivering value for money for taxpayers, tackling inequalities, and creating jobs through economic growth.
Working with a Conservative government and our local Conservative MPs we are seeing more investment into Northumberland than at any point in our history. Future High Street Fund; Town Deals; Borderlands Growth Deal, Heritage Action Zones; Restoring your Railway and more are all Conservative Government programmes delivering hundreds of millions of pounds to level up our great county of Northumberland.
Some major projects, such as Lilidorei, the world’s biggest play structure at Alnwick Gardens and Ad Gefrin, a distillery and museum, have already come to life attracting tourists, creating jobs, and contributing to our county’s economy. Others like the Northumberland Line will soon open to the public, whilst others like the new Maltings Theatre in Berwick are in the design phases.
To ensure we take advantage of this record investment we are training the workforce for the future, by ensuring young people have the skills they need to succeed in technical roles, as well as academic education.
Our dedicated Skills Service is providing new post-16 vocational courses, apprenticeships, and employability programs across the County. We have built new learning centres in all parts of Northumberland, including Seghill, Prudhoe, and Alnwick.
In Blyth we are ensuring young people have invested in a £1.4 million state of the art welding learning facility in which industry leaders say will ensure “Northumberland continues to lead the way in creating new green jobs for the future.”
Since 2017 we have consistently invested in our young people with over £100 million in new school buildings to ensure young people have access to the best facilities for learning. We saved Haydon Bridge High School from closure.
We’ve built brand new High Schools in Ponteland and Hexham, and new high schools are on their way for Seaton Delaval, Amble and Berwick. No other Council in the North East is investing in their schools this way.
This investment has ensured our dedicated teaching staff have the resources they need to deliver the highest quality learning. Our OFSTED results have never been better with 94% of our schools rated Good or Outstanding, well above the National and North East averages, and up from 76% under Labour.
Residents can now be proud to say that Northumberland County Council is a well-run authority, delivering value for money, while also tackling inequality across the county and investing in the areas which will improve lives.
