About 20 mature trees have been felled in the two inner courtyards of County Hall Morpeth in secret over the weekend as the Labour administration gets ever more desperate to start works on their unnecessary move to Ashington. The work was undertaken despite no planning permission has been granted for the demolition of County Hall or the building of a retail park, school and 200 homes on the site.

The felling of the trees is being seen by some people as a highly prejudicial to the planning applications and questions are being asked about who ordered the works, when and why. Richard Wearmouth, Conservative Candidate for Morpeth Kirkhill which includes the County Hall site said, "Under the UK planning system, local planning authorities have a statutory duty to consider the protection and planting of trees when granting planning permission for proposed development. 

“Whilst it is little wonder that the administration want to rip these trees down before having to consider them as part of the planning applications for the site in the coming months, in doing so they have shown that they cannot act impartially in respect of this application.”

Cllr Peter Jackson, Leader of Northumberland Conservatives, said, “The extent to which this Labour/Independent run Council will go with its scorched earth policies before the elections in May knows no bounds.

This is just one example among many which shows how they are actively trying to destroy the character of many of our communities across the county. All respect for the fair application of our planning system has gone and we are seeing a Council which is prepared to trample over local opinion at every turn.
People are telling me that there must be a change of direction in May. We need to bring back local control and provide a county that works for all and not just the few.”