14/02/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)


14/02/2017

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It needs to save ?6 million from its budget.

:00:09.:00:12.

But Northumberland County Council wants to loan more than ?8 million

:00:13.:00:16.

to the Alnwick Garden to create a new play area.

:00:17.:00:19.

The garden's run by a charitable trust, and was created

:00:20.:00:22.

She and her husband are among the richest couples in Britain.

:00:23.:00:27.

Council leaders claim the scheme will boost tourism,

:00:28.:00:30.

but critics say the money could be better spent.

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Here's our News Correspondent, Mark Denten.

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It's becoming the alternative uniform for politicians -

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These Northumberland councillors wearing it at the site

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for a new headquarters for the Council, a ?32 million

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We're trying to lower the costs to the council by moving people back

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We're currently centralising the town of Morpeth.

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It's very, very expensive to deliver services in rural areas.

:00:59.:01:03.

Now, the scheme has faced criticism, with some saying moving the Council

:01:04.:01:06.

headquarters from Morpeth is a monumental waste of money.

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The Council does have ?6 million to shave from its budget next

:01:11.:01:14.

year, so what should Northumberland Council

:01:15.:01:15.

Roads, schools - or a play structure for elves?

:01:16.:01:23.

The Council plans to loan the Alnwick Garden ?8.5 million

:01:24.:01:30.

to build a play village called Lily Dory - the elf play

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structure is billed as the biggest in the world.

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The gardens are run by a charitable trust, but the Duke and Duchess

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of Northumberland are thought to be worth in the region of ?365 million.

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That is more than Her Majesty the Queen.

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And some councillors think council taxpayers' money

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Why can't Alnwick Castle in Northumberland's

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The project, the Alnwick Garden, was originally started by them.

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They've probably got a better credit rating than the County Council.

:01:59.:02:02.

But this is not the first time Northumberland Council has been

:02:03.:02:05.

In 2012, it loaned Northumbria Health Care Trust ?100 million

:02:06.:02:09.

to pay off costs of building Hexham and Wansbeck Hospitals.

:02:10.:02:15.

Last year, the Council's property arm, Arch, bought

:02:16.:02:17.

Manor Walks Shopping Centre in Cramlington for ?78 million.

:02:18.:02:22.

The Council has to save ?6 million this year from its budget.

:02:23.:02:26.

Council tax could go up by nearly 5%, including a 3% hike

:02:27.:02:29.

Why at that time is the Council loaning money to what's

:02:30.:02:36.

described as a play structure for elves?

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Well, I like that, a play structure for elves!

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We've got to boost the economy of Northumberland, and we've got

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to increase the job numbers here in Northumberland.

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The Council will meet to discuss its budget

:02:52.:02:53.

The Alnwick Garden say it is early days and they are still looking

:02:54.:03:04.

But they say that if the project goes ahead, it will be

:03:05.:03:07.

an international attraction which will have a measurable impact

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They point out that it is a charitable, non-profit-making

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trust that runs the gardens, and, crucially, they say that it

:03:14.:03:17.

would be a loan they would take from Northumberland Council -

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Mark Denton, BBC Look North, Alnwick.

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Elsewhere, meanwhile, another controversial loan.

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Stockton's taxpayers may be about to get

:03:30.:03:32.

The local council is planning to take out a ?17 million loan

:03:33.:03:36.

to invest in a Hampton by Hilton venue in the town.

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The Labour council says it's a good deal.

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Here's our Political Editor, Richard Moss.

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A scrappy car park and former garage site in Stockton.

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But, by the end of 2018, it could look very different.

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It'll become a hotel that the local council believes the area needs,

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putting an estimated ?6.7 million into the economy and

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The businesses are saying it's a good idea.

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They find it difficult to find rooms for visitors to their companies.

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We've got lots of events that take place across the year,

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which brings people into the town centre, without any hotel provision.

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But to get the Hampton by Hilton built, the council has agreed

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to take a ?17 million stake, funded by a loan.

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It'll share in any profits the hotel makes - but to earn money,

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80% of its 150 rooms will need to be occupied all the time.

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I think they'll struggle to get that amount of money in.

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And of course, if you're borrowing that kind of money,

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you're paying an awful lot more than ?17 million back.

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Over the 30-year life span, it'll probably cost something

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in the region of ?30 million, once you've added on the interest.

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And it seems council taxpayers on Stockton High Street

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are also concerned. It's more shops that they need,

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There's an awful lot of unemployed people here,

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and who can afford to stay in a hotel?

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And there is a reminder here of how the hotel business can go wrong.

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Stockton's previous town centre hotel shut almost overnight in 2009,

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and has never reopened. The shell of what used to be

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the Swallow Hotel does have a haunting presence

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Although work is due to begin to convert it into student flats.

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The council insists it has looked over the figures,

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and the hotel it'll invest in won't end up like the Swallow.

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The council will discuss the plans on Thursday before making a final

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commitment on whether to go into the hotel business next week.

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Well, earlier I asked Richard, with two of our councils taking

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loans to put into developments, why is this happening?

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Well, two reasons why councils might increasingly be looking at this.

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One is pretty familiar to us all - councils like ourselves have

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savings, or reserves, as they call them.

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Now, if you put your savings in a bank account at the moment,

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you get virtually no return in terms of interest.

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So investing is something a bit different.

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A hotel, for instance, might get you a better

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For many years, our councils have largely been dependent on Government

:06:05.:06:08.

grants for their funding, with a bit of council tax.

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But by 2020, the Goverment's going to get rid of that grant,

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and councils will have to raise the money, either through

:06:15.:06:16.

council tax or business rates on local firms.

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Now, Stockton Council, by attracting that hotel in,

:06:19.:06:20.

estimate it will generate another ?150,000 per year in business rates.

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Not an inconsiderable sum for a council that is looking to try

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and find money to put into its services.

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So, increasingly councils will be looking at opportunities to get

:06:29.:06:30.

businesses in to actually boost their income and

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But of course, for every good investment, there may be a bad one.

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Of course, the only way councils would be able to recoup the money

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if their investments go wrong is by cutting services

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There are fears over plans for a new nuclear power plant

:06:45.:06:51.

near Sellafield after the Japanese company Toshiba said it would be

:06:52.:06:53.

The ?10 billion project at Moorside would create around 20,000 jobs.

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This is supposed to be the future of nuclear power.

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Moorside is due to be built over the next few years.

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At a press conference earlier, Japanese company Toshiba announced

:07:12.:07:17.

massive financial losses, and said it would be

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selling its shares in Nugen, the company which plans to build

:07:21.:07:23.

There are more than one Japanese company involved in this business.

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So we will continue to discuss with industry players

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We've got an open mind about how best to deliver this.

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For decades, this part of Cumbria has been a hub

:07:42.:07:43.

Down the road from Moorside is Sellafield, a reprocessing plant.

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And nearby Heysham Power Station is coming to the end of its life.

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Moorside is part of a new generation of energy production.

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Plans to build large pylons in the Lake District to transport

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The plant's due to be online in 2024.

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It's been clear for some time that financing new nuclear power stations

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It took us eight years to get to this point

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So we haven't seen it coming directly, but I don't think it's

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very surprise that even very, very large international companies

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are finding difficulties with the sort of capital investment

:08:23.:08:25.

Toshiba said it had always planned to sell its shares in Nugen,

:08:26.:08:30.

and was still committed to working on the development of Moorside.

:08:31.:08:37.

Football, and three of our teams were in action tonight.

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In the Championship, leaders Newcastle were one-up

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in the first minute at Norwich, but had to come from behind

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In League 2, great result for Carlisle, beating

:08:47.:08:50.

What could be more romantic for Valentine's Day than a ride

:08:51.:08:58.

on an historic steam train on one of our most scenic railways?

:08:59.:09:00.

The Darlington-built Tornado is replacing diesel locomotives

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on the Settle to Carlisle line for three days between Appleby

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in Cumbria and Skipton in North Yorkshire.

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The move by Northern Rail is to compensate passengers

:09:12.:09:13.

for disruption caused by a landslip on the line.

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And all for the price of a regular ticket.

:09:17.:09:21.

I'll leave you with Jennifer Bartram and Wednesday's weather.

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We saw some decent spells of sunshine today

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But I think as we head into Wednesday, the cloud

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is going to win out, and we will see some light rain

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This is the picture as we go through the night tonight.

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We will have a few outbreaks of light and patchy rain.

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Some mist and hill fog across the Cumbrian fells for a time.

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It's going to be mild overnight, though.

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Temperatures dropping down to around five Celsius,

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The wind first thing tomorrow morning.

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It will be a bit of a misty, murky start, lots of low cloud around.

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But gradually, things should start to improve,

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certainly for the north-east, where we will see some

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Into Cumbria, we will start to see some further showery rain pushing

:10:07.:10:10.

And it's going to be feeling much milder tomorrow.

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Temperatures up to around nine or 10 Celsius, the wind dying down

:10:15.:10:16.

And gradually starting to move to a south-westerly direction

:10:17.:10:23.

A little more in the way of brightness first thing.

:10:24.:10:30.

But again, we start to see just a few showers pushing into Cumbria.

:10:31.:10:33.

Not many of those making it over the Pennines.

:10:34.:10:36.

A few will, but generally it's looking like a dry day with some

:10:37.:10:39.

Temperatures getting up to around nine Celsius.

:10:40.:10:44.

So still keeping with that fairly mild theme.

:10:45.:10:46.

As we head towards the weekend, it stays fairly dry and settled

:10:47.:10:49.

through Friday, with highs of 10 Celsius.

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Here is the outlook for the next few days.

:10:54.:10:59.

weather into the weekend. A bit of fog around to watch out for. Jon

:11:00.:11:03.

Hammond with the national forecast now.

:11:04.:11:07.

Good evening. There is some rain in the forecast but not a lot. Plenty

:11:08.:11:13.

of dry weather to look forward to as we head to the weekend. Cloud

:11:14.:11:18.

delivering some rain but plenty of spaces in between, hence my

:11:19.:11:24.

optimism. One of these blobs of cloud is producing dampness right

:11:25.:11:27.

now. We could see a glancing blow across the far south-east through

:11:28.:11:32.

the early hours and later some rain arriving across the far south-west.

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In between some hill fog overnight, not desperately

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