Another Sunday already. Happy Monday Eve. Today’s edition starts with a good news story about a company relocating to the North East from London. It ends with a look back at the first North East Roots Homecoming event held by the Community Foundation - it’s surely the first of many.
Further good news is that my issues with Substack appear to be over. So those of you who pledged to support Eyes & Ears can now sign up for monthly or annual subscriptions.
Newcastle here we come
A legal tech start-up company is relocating from London to Newcastle after securing £5m in seed funding to create the UK’s first enterprise-grade AI platform trained specifically on UK and devolved law.
AttiFin AI is backed by the founders of Newcastle software consultancy Scrumconnect, who have experience of operating in the criminal justice system.
Founder and CEO Shilpa Kaluti said the company looked at the UK market place and chose the North East because it offers the right mix of skills, respected universities, and legal-service clusters to support their growth - and they want to show that high‑tech innovation can thrive outside the South East.
“This investment gives us the momentum we need as we move towards launch,” she said. “Our priority is to build a platform that meets the expectations of legal professionals who work with complex UK-specific legislation every day. They want tools that are reliable, trustworthy and ready for real-case use.”
QT columnist Jamie Hardesty described the move as “a ringing endorsement for the North East tech scene” in his Substack column.
So far so good. But what will the legal sector make of it?
You’re about to find out…
Good for growth - and retention
By Nigel Emmerson, Immediate Past President, Newcastle and North of England Law Society
The march of Artificial Intelligence is evident in all of our work and personal lives. This is particularly true of the legal profession. AI and the law has been around for a decade or more, but the advent of generative AI has accelerated development and adoption considerably.
Lawyers’ lives are being irreversibly changed as a result. Most of the developments have made our lives easier but we are still to fully learn of AI’s effect on the nature and number of roles required in the future. In addition, recent publicity about inaccurate references in court cases generated by AI, has reinforced the need for AI development in the legal world to be carefully monitored and regulated.
While some see AI as a threat, many see it as an opportunity. The Newcastle and North of England Law Society launched a LegalTech initiative 18 months’ ago which has seen closer cooperation between the legal and IT sectors in the North East. We recognise that there are huge opportunities for both sectors to provide solutions for the legal sector building on the fantastic law and technology experience and resource in the region.
We are therefore encouraged to learn of AttiFin’s £5m funding boost, relocation from London to Newcastle and creation of 25 jobs. The development will allow the region’s law firms to work with AttiFin to help develop its services and hopefully further build the local LegalTech sector.
It should further allow us to retain more of the local graduates from our excellent universities in the North East.
United in learning
Durham has officially joined UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities. It joins 11 other UK cities in being part of a global network of 425 Learning Cities across 93 countries.
The award recognises Durham’s outstanding commitment to making the right to education, learning and skills development a reality for everyone of all ages, both inside and outside the classroom.
The bid to join the global network was led by the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site Partnership, in partnership with educational and community-based learning and skills providers across Durham.
Professor Karen O’Brien, Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Durham University, a key partner in the World Heritage Site Partnership, said: “Durham has a long, rich history of learning and cultural excellence. This additional UNESCO recognition ensures that this legacy will continue long into the future.
“We will work with partners locally and globally so that everyone in our city and region can access education, learning and skills opportunities and the life-changing benefits they bring.”
Tale of two buildings
On the left is The Sir Bobby Robson Institute which this week received formal planning permission. The £30m centre will be built next to the Northern Centre for Cancer Care at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.
The three-storey building will provide much-needed additional capacity, meaning Newcastle’s specialist cancer research teams will be able to pioneer more ground-breaking innovation in cancer treatment.
Construction is being funded by The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. With £20m raised so far, a campaign is now ramping up to raise the final £10m.
On the right is the new regional centre for HMRC in Newcastle’s Pilgrim’s Quarter, which is something of a rarity these days - a major project that has reached practical completion ahead of schedule.
The building will be home to 9,000 staff when it opens in 2027 - imagine the difference that will make to city centre businesses. The milestone means HMRC can now begin the fit-out of the 463,000 sq ft office.
Cash dilemma
Newcastle City Council has proposed cutting 75 jobs and raising council tax by 4.99% in April in order to balance its budget. The authority warned its projections suggested it would overspend its current budget by £9.6m, which would have to be funded through its reserves unless another solution was found.
Northumberland County Council, meanwhile, has said is having to look for £8m more savings because new Government funding criteria no longer recognises the “remoteness indicator” where, for instance, it costs more money to collect fewer bins from a much wider area.
Crack on
The development of Durham Mathematics School, a new specialist sixth form aimed at nurturing mathematical talent across the North of England, has been approved by the Department for Education.
Durham University and Durham Sixth Form Centre welcomed the go-ahead - and being told to move forward with pace.
The school will offer A-levels in mathematics, further mathematics, physics and computer science, alongside access to a broad range of subjects. As the only school of its kind in the North East, DMS will deliver outreach programmes and professional development for maths teachers, helping to raise attainment and inspire future generations in STEM.
A quick word
What is it with some people? On Friday I told you about a thief breaking into a bus depot and stealing collection buckets for the Chronicle Sunshine Fund. Today there’s news that a large Christmas tree in Shotton Colliery that has stood in the village for a decade was chopped down just hours after the Christmas lights were switched on. Work on a flagship regeneration project at Gresham in Middlesbrough has been paused since October - the news just hadn’t been made public. Papers for a Middlesbrough Development Corporation meeting on Thursday say there are “several viability issues”. The Crown Estate has awarded Port of Blyth £275,000 in match funding to support the expansion of its Battleship Wharf terminal that will strengthen the UK’s offshore wind supply chain. Around 47 jobs are at risk of redundancy at the DHL depot at the Essity factory at Prudhoe Mill. It is understood that changes to production at Essity means there will be fewer products for DHL to distribute.
Tribute to Len
A statue which will commemorate war hero Len Gibson and the “Forgotten Army” in which he served will be unveiled in its permanent position in a Tyneside park.
In the 80th year of VJ Day, the artwork by sculptor Ray Lonsdale will be installed in North Marine Park in South Shields.
The statue of Len, from Sunderland, who was a prisoner of the Japanese on the Burma-Siam “death railway”, has been financed by Brian Burnie, founder of the Newcastle-based Daft as a Brush cancer care charity.
The unveiling event at 10:30am on Thursday, will feature Highland pipers, Vice Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear, General Robin Brims, Brian Burnie, South Tyneside Council leader Tracey Dixon, and Ray Lonsdale. You can read more from Tony Henderson here.
You’ve started something
It seemed ambitious (it was). It sounded like a lot of hard work (it was). It looked like an effortless triumph (it wasn’t - effortless, that is). But was it worth it? (it was).
The Community Foundation’s first North East Roots Homecoming event took place over four days and started in Blyth last Friday, had a Spotlight on Sunderland, which included a Music’s Coming Home event at The Fire Station, and finished with a double-header in Newcastle on Monday that included a summit at Northumbria University.
The theme was ‘bringing opportunity home’ and it all came together beautifully at an awards ceremony at The Boiler Shop in Newcastle where stars, regional leaders, ex-pats, adopted Geordies and people who care about the region enjoyed a celebration of everything that is good about the North East.
George Clarke, Tim Healy, Live Theatre, Greggs, Ann Cleeves, Children North East, Rob Wood, Brenda Blethyn, Paul Smith, Charlie Charlton, David Almond, mayor Kim McGuinness, Colin Smith, Brigitte Keatings, Equal Arts, Rob Wood, Fiona Hill, the Great North Run, Lord Lieutenant Lucy Winskell, North East Screen, Michael Heppell, Ringtons and Charlotte Kennedy were all on stage to perform, present or receive awards.
Thom Lewis received an award for taking the North East’s sound to the world - he produced the first two Sam Fender albums. He is from the Wirral but talked about feeling like the North East was home shortly after arriving here - his Geordie credentials confirmed when he was knighted with a Greggs sausage roll underneath the Tyne Bridge.
My personal highlight was seeing friend and colleague Sam Wonfor make an emotional presentation to renowned producer Malcolm Gerrie.
Sam’s late mum and dad, Andrea and Geoff, along with Malcolm, were the architects of the iconic 80s music programme The Tube, which was broadcast live from Newcastle every Friday at 5pm.
John Hollingsworth, the leader in philanthropy and fund development at the Community Foundation - a man who made his own homecoming when relocating his family from Detroit to Whitley Bay - now how the unenviable job of deciding what to do next year.
He also can’t spend much time lying down in a darkened room because he has to plan for a North East Roots event in Dubai in April next year.
