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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. | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
Here's our News Correspondent, Mark Denten. | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
It's becoming the alternative uniform for politicians - | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
These Northumberland councillors wearing it at the site | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
for a new headquarters for the Council, a ?32 million | :00:46. | :00:47. | |
We're trying to lower the costs to the council by moving people back | :00:48. | :00:54. | |
We're currently centralising the town of Morpeth. | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
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. | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
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 | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
structure is billed as the biggest in the world. | :01:34. | :01:35. | |
The gardens are run by a charitable trust, but the Duke and Duchess | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
of Northumberland are thought to be worth in the region of ?365 million. | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
That is more than Her Majesty the Queen. | :01:45. | :01:46. | |
And some councillors think council taxpayers' money | :01:47. | :01:48. | |
Why can't Alnwick Castle in Northumberland's | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
The project, the Alnwick Garden, was originally started by them. | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
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? | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
Well, I like that, a play structure for elves! | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
We've got to boost the economy of Northumberland, and we've got | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
to increase the job numbers here in Northumberland. | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
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 | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
They point out that it is a charitable, non-profit-making | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
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 - | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
Mark Denton, BBC Look North, Alnwick. | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
Elsewhere, meanwhile, another controversial loan. | :03:28. | :03:29. | |
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. | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
The Labour council says it's a good deal. | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
Here's our Political Editor, Richard Moss. | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
A scrappy car park and former garage site in Stockton. | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
But, by the end of 2018, it could look very different. | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
It'll become a hotel that the local council believes the area needs, | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
putting an estimated ?6.7 million into the economy and | :04:02. | :04:03. | |
The businesses are saying it's a good idea. | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
They find it difficult to find rooms for visitors to their companies. | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
We've got lots of events that take place across the year, | :04:15. | :04:16. | |
which brings people into the town centre, without any hotel provision. | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
But to get the Hampton by Hilton built, the council has agreed | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
to take a ?17 million stake, funded by a loan. | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
It'll share in any profits the hotel makes - but to earn money, | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
80% of its 150 rooms will need to be occupied all the time. | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
I think they'll struggle to get that amount of money in. | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
And of course, if you're borrowing that kind of money, | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
you're paying an awful lot more than ?17 million back. | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
Over the 30-year life span, it'll probably cost something | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
in the region of ?30 million, once you've added on the interest. | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
And it seems council taxpayers on Stockton High Street | :04:54. | :04:55. | |
are also concerned. It's more shops that they need, | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
There's an awful lot of unemployed people here, | :04:59. | :05:05. | |
and who can afford to stay in a hotel? | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
And there is a reminder here of how the hotel business can go wrong. | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
Stockton's previous town centre hotel shut almost overnight in 2009, | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
and has never reopened. The shell of what used to be | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
the Swallow Hotel does have a haunting presence | :05:19. | :05:20. | |
Although work is due to begin to convert it into student flats. | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
The council insists it has looked over the figures, | :05:26. | :05:27. | |
and the hotel it'll invest in won't end up like the Swallow. | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
The council will discuss the plans on Thursday before making a final | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
commitment on whether to go into the hotel business next week. | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
Well, earlier I asked Richard, with two of our councils taking | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
loans to put into developments, why is this happening? | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
Well, two reasons why councils might increasingly be looking at this. | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
One is pretty familiar to us all - councils like ourselves have | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
savings, or reserves, as they call them. | :05:54. | :05:55. | |
Now, if you put your savings in a bank account at the moment, | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
you get virtually no return in terms of interest. | :05:59. | :06:00. | |
So investing is something a bit different. | :06:01. | :06:02. | |
A hotel, for instance, might get you a better | :06:03. | :06:04. | |
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. | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
But by 2020, the Goverment's going to get rid of that grant, | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
and councils will have to raise the money, either through | :06:15. | :06:16. | |
council tax or business rates on local firms. | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
Now, Stockton Council, by attracting that hotel in, | :06:19. | :06:20. | |
estimate it will generate another ?150,000 per year in business rates. | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
Not an inconsiderable sum for a council that is looking to try | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
and find money to put into its services. | :06:27. | :06:28. | |
So, increasingly councils will be looking at opportunities to get | :06:29. | :06:30. | |
businesses in to actually boost their income and | :06:31. | :06:32. | |
But of course, for every good investment, there may be a bad one. | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
Of course, the only way councils would be able to recoup the money | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
if their investments go wrong is by cutting services | :06:42. | :06:44. | |
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. | :06:54. | :07:03. | |
This is supposed to be the future of nuclear power. | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
Moorside is due to be built over the next few years. | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
At a press conference earlier, Japanese company Toshiba announced | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
massive financial losses, and said it would be | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
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. | :07:24. | :07:32. | |
So we will continue to discuss with industry players | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
We've got an open mind about how best to deliver this. | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
For decades, this part of Cumbria has been a hub | :07:42. | :07:43. | |
Down the road from Moorside is Sellafield, a reprocessing plant. | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
And nearby Heysham Power Station is coming to the end of its life. | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
Moorside is part of a new generation of energy production. | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
Plans to build large pylons in the Lake District to transport | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
The plant's due to be online in 2024. | :08:01. | :08:07. | |
It's been clear for some time that financing new nuclear power stations | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
It took us eight years to get to this point | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
So we haven't seen it coming directly, but I don't think it's | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
very surprise that even very, very large international companies | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
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. | :08:38. | :08:39. | |
In the Championship, leaders Newcastle were one-up | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
in the first minute at Norwich, but had to come from behind | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
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 | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
on the Settle to Carlisle line for three days between Appleby | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
in Cumbria and Skipton in North Yorkshire. | :09:09. | :09:11. | |
The move by Northern Rail is to compensate passengers | :09:12. | :09:13. | |
for disruption caused by a landslip on the line. | :09:14. | :09:16. | |
And all for the price of a regular ticket. | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
I'll leave you with Jennifer Bartram and Wednesday's weather. | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
We saw some decent spells of sunshine today | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
But I think as we head into Wednesday, the cloud | :09:32. | :09:39. | |
is going to win out, and we will see some light rain | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
This is the picture as we go through the night tonight. | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
We will have a few outbreaks of light and patchy rain. | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
Some mist and hill fog across the Cumbrian fells for a time. | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
It's going to be mild overnight, though. | :09:54. | :09:54. | |
Temperatures dropping down to around five Celsius, | :09:55. | :09:56. | |
The wind first thing tomorrow morning. | :09:57. | :09:58. | |
It will be a bit of a misty, murky start, lots of low cloud around. | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
But gradually, things should start to improve, | :10:03. | :10:04. | |
certainly for the north-east, where we will see some | :10:05. | :10:06. | |
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. | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
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. | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
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. | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
In between some hill fog overnight, not desperately | :11:37. | :11:37. |