Happy New Year and welcome to the first Eyes & Ears of 2026. This could be quite a year, in more ways than one. Without wishing to sound mysterious, I’ll tell you more about that in the coming weeks and months.
Ambition No.1 is to double the readership of Eyes & Ears in the next 12 months. That could be achieved 364 days early if every one of you persuaded a friend, family member or colleague to take out a free subscription just like you. And if you persuaded two of them…
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this edition. There will be another one delivered on Sunday.
Call that fair?
The Government’s new three-year ‘fair funding’ settlements for councils are meant to move money from prosperous areas to the most deprived.
That’s certainly been the case in Tees Valley where, as Peter Morris reports for Byline Times, the four Teesside councils will benefit from above average increases - Middlesbrough being the biggest beneficiary - while Darlington will get about the average increase.
The seven councils in the North East Combined Authority area fared less well. North Tyneside is the only one of our 12 councils to have a settlement below the national average and will end up being 1% above over the 36-month period.
Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle all beat the national average. But it’s bad news for Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside - areas not known for their prosperity.
Even some of the ‘winners’ feel like ‘losers’, with councillors in County Durham and Northumberland telling the BBC that the settlements would short-change their neighbourhoods.
£2 tourist tax
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness says plans are being drawn up for a £2 a night tourist tax which would generate about £20m a year. The charge would apply to tourists booking hotels, holiday lets, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses across the region with the money raised being used to improve cultural attractions.
New Year honours
The oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has been appointed an OBE for her services to justice in the New Year honours list. Betty Brown, 92, who ran the Annfield Plain Post Office in County Durham, said she was accepting the honour on behalf of all the victims. The oldest person honoured was 102-year-old Jack Hearn from Cramlington who received a BEM for services to judo and the North East community. Alice Wiseman was appointed MBE for her leadership as director of public health for Gateshead and Newcastle and for her proactive and pragmatic leadership during the Covid‑19 pandemic. Sunderland couple Tanya and Simon Brown were appointed MBEs for their work tackling knife crime. Middlesbrough playwright Ishy Din is being made an MBE for services to the arts and young people. Services to music were rewarded with an MBE for Allison McKay, chief executive of Darlington’s Forum Music Centre. Campaigner Gill Castle, from Alnwick, received a BEM for services for people living with stomas.
You can see the full list of North East recipients here.
Good news but…
After a year in which it hosted the MOBOs and the Mercury Prize, Newcastle’s Utilita Arena is to get a £65m transformation.
The improvements will see a 20% increase in the capacity of the venue which opened 30 years ago with a concert by David Bowie. Work will start this year on the creation of a mezzanine floor with new lounge areas, new entrances, improved acoustics, and the introduction of new technology to improve the speed of service.
Operators Legends Global say the improvements will see every space in the arena receive a major upgrade, giving the North East an arena fit for the future and a place where people want to turn up earlier for events - and stay later.
The announcement, however, casts serious doubts over the planned arena and conference centre on Gateshead Quays. Work on that venue was supposed to have started two years ago and it was expected to take over from the Utilita Arena as the region’s premier music and events venue.
Legends Global say they are still in discussions with Gateshead council about that. A council spokesperson said: “We are working closely together with our partners and specialist advisers on a comprehensive assessment of market demand for the proposed footprint and scale of the project. This assessment is expected to conclude early in the new year.”
You can’t help but think that the investment announcement is an indicator of what the assessment report will conclude.
Good news but…
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has hailed the “excellent news” that Teesside International Airport has reported a profit of £1.17m in its latest set of accounts. But, there’s a but…
The profit is not from normal trading alone. The figures include a one-off £10.1m Government grant, without which the airport would have shown an increased loss for the year - and it is carrying liabilities of £119.3m, mostly owed to the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
Good news, no buts…
A major milestone in the fight against child poverty in the North East was reached over the festive period when the 3,000th Baby Box was delivered by The Children’s Foundation.
The charity, which is based at the RVI in Newcastle, began delivering the boxes in March 2023. The initiative is now backed by North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and supported by Stiller Warehousing and Distribution which is based at Aycliffe Business Park in County Durham.
Foundation CEO Sean Soulsby said: “Reaching 3,000 Baby Boxes isn’t just a number, it represents real, individual families whose babies are now starting life with the essentials, the learning tools and the support every child deserves.”
The mayor said: “I’ve seen the impact that baby boxes have first hand, they level the playing field for new parents from day one. That’s why they’re part of our region’s plan to tackle child poverty.”
Quick workouts help
Short bouts of exercise can protect against bowel cancer, according to a study by researchers from Newcastle University. Dr Sam Orange said results showed that exercise benefitted healthy tissues as well as potentially creating a more hostile environment for cancer cells to grow.
“In the future, these insights could lead to new therapies that imitate the beneficial effects of exercise on how cells repair damaged DNA and use fuel for energy,” he said.
A quick word
The North East Combined Authority and Sunderland City Council will contribute £1m towards the hosting of Radio 1’s Big Weekend and a week-long fringe festival across the North East in May. Two Newcastle Cabinet members have resigned as councillors - Lesley Storey for health reasons and Paul Frew because of a new job. Their seats will remain vacant until the May elections leaving Labour holding only 34 of the 78 seats. Bus lane fines totalling more than £2m were paid by drivers in the seven North East council areas last year. Newcastle City Council raised £760,000 and drivers in Gateshead paid £690,000. Rail Minister Lord Handy has asked operator Northern to look at a solution for getting more carriages on the successful Northumberland Line. It was a Happy New Year for fans of Hartlepool United after it was announced on December 31 that the football club had been bought by Landon Smith, co-founder of US real-estate investment company the Tailwind Group, bringing to an end Raj Singh’s seven-year spell as owner and chairman. Durham Police said it received more than 4,000 calls over the festive period, including almost 300 to its 999 emergency service on Christmas Day. Long-serving Newcastle councillor Gerry Keating, a former teacher at the city’s RGS, has died aged 78.
Bills to soar
Regional airports are among those facing the steepest increases in business rates of any sector in the UK, according to global tax firm Ryan’s calculation of Valuation Office Agency (VOA) data.
Most airports will see their bills more than double over the next three years. Even with so-called transitional relief, which limits increases to 30% next year, Newcastle International Airport’s business rates bill is estimated to increase by £244,755 to £1.1m.
Business bites
Ad Gefrin's first whisky has officially become a single malt - the first Northumbrian English Single Malt Whisky - after three years. The distillery and Anglo-Saxon museum has had more than 100,000 visitors since opening to the public in 2023. Sunderland-based Hays Travel has paused the integration of two companies it bought in October pending an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Turnover and operating profit were both down but Northumberland Estates chief executive Rory Wilson says their business model “has remained resilient despite challenging economic conditions”. Maxim Brewery, formed following the closure of Vaux Breweries in 1999, has been sold to Hampshire-based Powder Monkey Group. The group already owns Seaham-based Castle Eden Brewery. UK Land Estates has completed a £6.5m warehousing unit at Team Valley, the largest single-unit speculative build in the area for years. Digital product consultancy hedgehog lab has acquired Edinburgh-based innovation support firm Label Sessions. Barker & Stonehouse reports an increase in turnover and profit in a year which included the sale of its Newcastle city centre store.
2014 ad break
Sainsbury’s 2014 Christmas advert dramatised the extraordinary moment on Christmas Day 1914, when soldiers on both sides paused fighting, sang carols, exchanged small gifts, and even played football together.
The ad was created in partnership with the Royal British Legion to mark the centenary of the event and to raise funds through a special chocolate bar.
ITV described it as “a beautifully produced and historically accurate production” that portrayed the themes of peace, friendship, and putting aside quarrels - and we need more of that, as you will see from the next two items in The Wider View.
THE WIDER VIEW
Tommy rot
Social media can be a cesspit at times - and it’s a place where self-styled journalist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon seems to thrive. Here is a post from his Twitter feed. It’s a perfect example, and one so close to home, of how a happening can be misunderstood, twisted and blown out of all proportion - and then spreads like a virus online thanks to people constantly looking for confirmation of their own prejudices.
There is no speed limit or Stop signs on the misinformation motorway.
A holding statement from Northumbria Police on what happened at the Metrocentre on December 27 was twisted to suit their narrative, as well. I took note of the comments under Yaxley-Lennon’s post but I’m not going to waste my time or yours by repeating them here.
Trusted sources of news and information are at a premium. We need to treasure them like never before. Thanks to the BBC, here is what actually happened.
I know I said I wouldn’t mention the comments under Yaxley-Lennon’s post, but I couldn’t let this one go (after resisting the temptation to point out the extra ‘h’ in the sentence ‘all five males where armed’ in the screenshot at the top of this article). In a naked abuse of exclamation marks, one person wrote: “This is absolutely outrageous that the police are covering up this attempted terrorist attack ! Guns were witnessed! They were headed into the mall ! Our police are disgusting!!!!.” Note the inconsistency with the spacing before an exclamation mark and their overuse at the end - surely at least one too many, even when you are looking for emphasis? And you don’t need a full stop as well. Shocking.
Christmas Day abuse
We need to talk about social media, says Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash who posted on his Facebook page about the abusive messages he received on Christmas Day.
“They don’t hurt me personally, but they deeply worry me,” he says. “Because this isn’t normal. It isn’t healthy. And it didn’t happen by accident.
“Somewhere along the line, social media has become a breeding ground for online radicalisation. Fake news, conspiracy theories, Russian-sponsored bots and bad-faith actors are deliberately polluting people’s minds, often the most vulnerable among us. And it’s working.”
The MP added: “If we don’t start taking this seriously, the damage won’t stay online, it will keep spilling into real lives, real families and real communities.”
Shaky system
The foundations of Britain’s two-party system have come to look even shakier in the past 12 months.
In an article for The Conversation, How Britain’s new political divide delivers voters to Reform and the Greens, Professor John Curtice says age and education now shape how people vote, not the job they do.
“Younger voters and graduates are more likely to vote Labour, while older people and those with less in the way of educational qualifications are more inclined to vote Conservative.
“The problem is that the two parties now face competition for these demographic groups from the Greens and Reform. Last year the Greens won as much as 21% of the vote among under-25s. Reform secured 25% among those who do not have an A-level or its equivalent, nearly matching the Tories.”
A regular on our TV screens when polls are big news, Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, says low levels of trust and confidence in how they are being governed is also encouraging voters to back the challenger parties.