What you say #134
Is the Northumberland Local Plan irrelevant?
I have recently forwarded the following query to the County Council querying their Local Plan and housing planning permissions, as I feel the Local Plan actually seems an irrelevance.
‘You have finalised the Northumberland Local Plan I see after some two – three years deliberations I wish to pose you the same question I raised in 2019.
The indicative housing requirement for Amble is an additional 540 houses, roughly 27 per year, over the 20 year period 2016 to 2036. I accept that this is not an absolute limit and some local leeway may be appropriate.
Question: How can it be possible or justified to have given planning permission for over 1,500 new houses in Amble just in the last few years?
This is some 300% over the much lauded Northumberland Local Plan assessments!
Either the long awaited Plan has no real worth, or the Planning Department pay no heed to your Local Plan.
Amble is being swamped with houses for which there is no strategic need, built to benefit rich landlords and holiday companies buying them up to provide second homes and holiday homes.’
George Martin
Amble
Concern about the Braid development
I am not personally affected by this proposal but I would rather not have buildings on such a well-used community space. However, there are those who need somewhere to live, now and in the future. So if approval of the plan is inevitable, it should not be without enforceable safeguards.
One safeguard could be ensuring that the development be totally for primary residential use only. (Compare with Alnmouth where second homes and business use are prohibited in an established block of flats.)
The insignificant number of affordable homes planned should be increased, preferably at the west end of the site.
The three-storey blocks would be better at the east end of the site, giving the elderly residents easier access to the shops and harbour area; and surely accommodation for a full-time warden should be specified for those who need support.
New access roads should not be built at the cost of losing public space, without at least a contribution to recompense the community to a much-needed health centre, perhaps?
Living with neighbours who look out for each other has long been an Amble strength. This development has the potential for permanent residents to continue this, but it will fail if second homes or holiday accommodation take over and where permanent residents do not know their neighbours from one week to the next.
I hope that some of these issues can be resolved.
Douglas Temple
Amble
See also p8
Wishing for the Good Old Days
Well here we are at the start of another year of visitors, dogs, litter, wild parking and many other things. Oh. how I wish for the ‘Good Old Days’ when almost everyone knew everyone and things were clean and tidy.
More and more homes are being bought for holiday homes and some pay hardly any rates!
The young people of our town have no chance of owning their own homes, let alone paying the rent.
While having a grumble, I go further to say, I wish holiday home owners would keep the fronts of the houses clean by sweeping paths and deweeding. They are a mess. I would also like to see builders’ bags and rubble removed from the rear of many houses.
My last grumble is the state of the Little Shore, the promenade and surrounding area. I watch many walkers’ programmes around England, Scotland and Wales and see with a great deal of envy, how beautiful other beaches are. It makes me wonder why people want to come to this filthy beach, litter on the grass and dog poo, because as we know, not everyone picks up.
For the future, I would like to see a more looked after Amble.
Audrey Jones Amble
More memories of the legendary Dr Robertson and What became of those in the Lord Mayor’s Camp?
I was on the pier with my young daughter sometime in the early 1960s when an elderly lady, returning from the then accessible pier end, slipped through the railings into what we called the triangle between pier and breakwater.
She floated just underwater with eyes open. Luckily, there was a very high tide and swell and some fishermen managed to pull her out as she rose up. Dr Robertson arrived and gave her CPR for a long time eventually seeing signs of life. When ambulance men arrived she was carried back to the dock with Dr Robertson giving oxygen and me keeping her nostrils pinched as instructed. I understood at the time that he saved her life after a long time under water
As regards the Russians future after their time in the Lord Mayor’s camp (What you say #133) my Father Bill Thirtle was on the cruiser HMS Berwick on the Russian convoy to Murmansk and saw some of these returning Russians being escorted onto railway trucks and probably as in Dr Zhivago a nameless number on a list long forgotten along with millions of others
Des Thirtle
Darlington
Minister leaves Amble after 11 years
Thank you everyone! I may not have met each and everyone of you over the 11 years that I have been in Amble and Hauxley as the Methodist Minister but I want to thank all of you for shaping the minister who is leaving Amble this summer.
This has been my first appointment as a minister. Like a lot of things we may know the theory of how to do things but putting that into practice is something else.
So, thank you to those who have entrusted me to baptise your child(ren), to conduct your wedding, or to celebrate the life of someone you loved at their funeral. Thank you for allowing me to be involved in the Remembrance Day tributes at the Town Square, and thanks to Amble Coastal Rowing Club for naming and blessing two skiffs.
Thank you to the staff, children and parents at Amble First School, Edwin Street for my time as a Governor. To Isolate Support Group Amble, and Coquet Medical Group that enabled me to help during the lockdowns and subsequent vaccination roll-out.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Methodist Church, not just while I’ve been there but throughout its life on the High Street and the last 50 years on Percy Street.
My final service will be on July 17 and I start in my new post on September 1. The Rev Christopher Wood-Archer will be taking up the reigns here in Amble and I am sure that you will give him a warm welcome.
It has been a joy and a pleasure to be part of the community in the friendliest port. I wish you all the best for the future.
Rev Lynda Coulthard
Trinity Methodist Church
Gloster Park report
Since my letter was published (Gloster Park footpath and boundary concerns, The Ambler #132, p6) I commissioned an expert to assess the structure, this expert is a chartered engineer.
I have forwarded this report to my local councillor and Glen Sanderson. The report states the structure is a danger to the public who use the public right of way.
The council should close the public right of way until this issue is resolved.
Lee Jackson, Gloster Park, Amble
If you would like to read the report, contact Lee directly:
lee1967jackson@gmail.com
Tulips destroyed
I, and I am sure other people, have really appreciated the flower bed displays at the bottom of the Wynd junction with Gloster Hill and the one in Rotary Way as one drives into Amble. Lovely displays of tulips and other flowers.
Unfortunately some imbecile has come along this Bank holiday weekend and smashed most of the heads off of the tulips in the Wynd display. Some of the bulbs have also been pulled up.
What goes through the brain of a person like this, (if they have a brain)? The hard work of the people who planted this bed up has been ruined.
The culprits must have very sad lives if they do not see the beauty of nature. They have a long future ahead of them.
Name withheld, via email
