For art’s sake
Power over arts and culture funding should be devolved to regional mayors, according to a new report from independent think tank IPPR North.
Their latest State of the North report highlights a £450m ‘culture chasm’ with the North receiving £28 per person in Arts Council England (ACE) funding between 2023 and early 2025, compared to £57 per person in London.
To be fair, the gap was £700m when IPPR North last looked at the figures and this time the North East received the third highest ACE funding per head of any region - although at £32.58 it’s still nearly £25 behind London.
The North East Combined Authority is due to sign off a £2 million grant next week to help open a new national centre for writing in Newcastle, which is also being backed with £5 million from the Government.
Mayor Kim McGuinness said that the New Writing North project “shows that the tide is turning, but we have a long way further to go”.
“Too much power is held in London, and by unelected quangos, where decision makers hold the future of Northern arts in their hands,” she said.
Talking of devolution…
Nationally, publication of the Government’s child poverty strategy has been delayed until the autumn.
Regionally, Mayor Kim McGuinness doesn’t have to wait and can press ahead with her £28m plan to help reduce child poverty in the North East - funding is due to be signed off by the North East Combined Authority’s Cabinet next week.
The mayor has published a set of 36 projects which include providing baby boxes to all first-time families on Universal Credit, offering more low and no-cost activities for young people, and establishing a North East Fundamentals Fund to support the expansion of proven, local schemes that ensure no child goes without essential items.
North East Child Poverty Commission Chair Beth Farhat said: “Devolution presents us with a significant opportunity to prioritise tackling this issue together – and it is so important that this has been grasped by Mayor McGuinness, with an action plan that not only recognises the importance of collectively investing more in babies, children and young people, but sets out why this matters to the whole of our region.”
Pioneering success
Eight healthy babies have been born in the UK thanks to groundbreaking three-person IVF treatment at Newcastle Fertility Clinic.
It is designed to prevent children from inheriting mitochondrial diseases - serious genetic disorders passed down from the mother that can result in early death and often cause devastating damage to organs including the brain, muscle, liver, heart and kidney.
Thanks to the pioneering team in Newcastle, the child inherits 99.9% of their DNA from their parents and 0.1% from the donor, which is enough to eliminate the risk of mitochondrial disease but doesn’t affect personal traits.
The UK became the first country in the world to licence the treatment in 2015 and two years later the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform it.
Means and motive
Former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, who chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree, were each sentenced to four years and three months at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday - the first people ever to be jailed for felling a tree.
But they weren’t the first suspects. A tenant farmer who had recently been evicted after complaints from people, including the National Trust, was the first to come under police scrutiny - and he was a former lumberjack with a chainsaw.
“It was heartbreaking,” said Walter Renwick. “There were police everywhere, drones flying around the valley, divers in the lake, they were 100% certain I'd done it.”
He said he became a hate figure and resorted to wearing a Rod Stewart wig to disguise himself when out in Hexham or Haltwhistle.
Meanwhile, the detective who led the investigation spoke to Chroniclelive about the behind the scenes story of the most unique investigation of his career.
£75,000 and rising
An eight-month independent inquiry into allegations of bullying made against the former leader of Newcastle City Council Nick Kemp has still not been concluded - with the bill at £75,000 and rising.
The complaint was made by Michelle Percy, the council’s director of investment and growth, who has recently taken a period of leave from the council. Councillors were told on Tuesday that the findings of an external law firm were expected to be delivered next month.
MIMA coup
The world-famous Turner Prize is coming to MIMA, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, next year. The exhibition of work by the four shortlisted artists will open in autumn 2026 with the winner being announced live at the venue in December.
In 2011, the Baltic in Gateshead became the first non-Tate venue to host the Turner Prize, and it was the first time the event had been held outside of London. The exhibition achieved a record footfall of 149,770 visitors which has not been surpassed since.
That caught your attention
Talking of art… it’s 3am on July 17, 2005 and writer David Whetstone is stripping off on Baltic Square in Gateshead, having been ordered to do so by a man up a stepladder with a megaphone.
He wasn’t alone. There were 16,999 others. All naked and all taking part in American photographer Spencer Tunick’s latest commission, showcasing the Newcastle Gateshead quayside at a time when Baltic, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and The Glasshouse (then called something different) were shiny and new.
I recommend that you find the time to read David’s memories of that day 20 years ago. It’s a delight.
“To cross the Swing Bridge – in accordance perhaps with some ancient by-law, never explained – we were all handed a plastic hoodie (see-through, of course) and flip flops, to be discarded on the other side. It would have been a surreal moment but frankly it was all so surreal that no particular moment could be described as such.”
Net zero pledge scrapped
The Reform UK-led Durham County Council has voted to scrap its pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2045 and instead voted through an alternative social care pledge.
Deputy council leader Darren Grimes brought the motion to revoke the climate vow and said the alternative “care emergency” declaration would help recognise the “critical and escalating crisis” in children's social care, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision.
Not sure why net zero and SEND became an either or decision - something picked up by Green councillor Jonathan Elmer who said: “If councillor Grimes really cared about SEND provision, he'd have brought this motion without reference to climate change.”
Durham resident Professor Bob Hudson has written a column for Eyes & Ears on Reform’s first couple of months in power. All subscribers will receive that in their inboxes first thing tomorrow.
18 months of disruption
The A167 central motorway will be cut to one lane in each direction through Newcastle city centre and closed completely overnight to allow for critical repairs to a deteriorating concrete viaduct, with work beginning on August 11.
There was no attempt by Newcastle City Council to sugar coat things. The works will last for up to 18 months and “will be highly disruptive to the travelling public,” they said.
Four Green Flags
Four Newcastle parks have been awarded Green Flag status, marking them among the best-managed parks in the UK.
Paul Todd MBE, Green Flag Award scheme manager, said: “Quality parks and green spaces like Jesmond Dene, Leazes, Walker and Exhibition parks make the country a healthier place to live and work in, and a stronger place in which to invest.
Judging began on March 1 - the day Newcastle City Council took over from Urban Green Newcastle who had been running the city’s parks for five years.
A quick word
A leaked report says funding for the dualling of the AI was quietly dropped during the Tory government’s 2021 Spending Review despite it being approved in May 2024 - just weeks before they were widely tipped to lose the General Election. Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has again refused calls to end bus deregulation, saying he would not “break promises” by raising taxes to fund changing the network. Newcastle’s Big River Bakery and Gateshead-based The Skill Mill have made the list of the UK’s top social enterprises published by Pioneers Post and Social & Community Capital, the independent social investment charity set up by NatWest. Organisers have confirmed that the Tour of the Reservoir and an accompanying cycle festival will return to Consett next year after positive feedback from participants and local businesses to this year’s revived event. One hundred poets have contributed to Words on a NE Street, an anthology about homelessness compiled by Andrew Mears to raise money for rough sleepers. The Environment Agency has granted a permit to the controversial Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility at Teesworks. Seven local authorities across the North East will use the incinerator. Northern Pride takes place in Newcastle this weekend just days after a High Court judgement said Northumbria Police acted unlawfully by allowing its officers to take part last year. John Torode has decided against making a headline appearance at next month’s Seaham Food Festival after the makers of MasterChef decided not to renew his contract over the use of racist language. Solar panels are to be installed at 24 schools in Sunderland and Northumberland thanks to an award from the North East Combined Authority that will save a combined £100,000 in energy bills every year.
PJ and Duncan time
Byker Grove is coming back to our TV screens - this time on ITV. The classic teen drama, which gave Ant and Dec and Jill Halfpenny their big breaks, originally ran between 1989 and 2006 on BBC1
It is already available to stream on STV Player and will we streamed on ITVX later this year under a deal with Ant & Dec’s production company Mitre Studios, who are also working on a reboot of the series.
Business bites
Hornsea 3, developed by renewable energy company Ørsted, has signed a lease agreement with Teesworks and will become the first large-scale offshore wind user at Steel River Quay. Workers at Gardner Aerospace in Consett have voted to go on strike in a dispute over sick pay. There were 523,065 overdue invoices on the books of North East businesses in the second quarter of this year - a 16.5% increase on the same period last year. Luggage and travel accessory firm Modrec International has expanded into new premises in Benton, North Tyneside, after a multi-million-pound investment. Electronics manufacturer Filtronic has secured a new contract in the aerospace and defence sector worth £13.4m. A dry winter helped building services company Northern Bear deliver an “excellent” set of results for the year ended March 31. Latest results from Unipres, who supply parts to the automotive industry and have a factory next to Nissan, show a drop in revenue and operating profit plus a reduction in staffing numbers from 913 to 794.
Hub opens
Turntide Technologies, which recently became Hitachi Rail’s preferred supplier of batteries for the intercity trains they are building, has integrated its three North East sites and created an expanded engineering hub at its Team Valley base.
The hub was officially opened by North East mayor Kim McGuinness this week. Chief executive Steve Hornyak said: “This campus forms the core of Turntide's global electrification operations and reinforces our commitment to supporting the decarbonisation of anything that moves.”
Hitachi to the rescue
The world’s first railway station has been saved from dereliction by a significant donation from Hitachi in time for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
Heighington Station dates from 1826 but has been empty since 2017. Hitachi, whose Newton Aycliffe train-building factory backs onto the site, has given the money, which The Northern Echo understands is £250,000, to the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway to buy the Grade II listed building. You can read Chris Lloyd’s report here.
Better by degrees
It’s normal at this time of year for universities to hand out honorary degrees - it’s unusual, however, for the recipient to be a football club. But that’s what happened in Sunderland where the university recognised their hometown club’s “outstanding contribution to football and the city of Sunderland.”
Other recipients of honorary degrees were former university Chair John Mowbray, former Sunderland MP Baroness Julie Elliott, Brigadier Ben Banerjee, Sergio and Emma Petrucci, founders of the Red Sky Foundation and Clyde Best, one of the first black footballers to succeed in top-flight football in the 60s and 70s.
1972 ad break
Public Information Films were a big thing in the 60s and 70s with the Government pumping out warnings and advice on everything from playing with matches, stranger danger and AIDS awareness, to clunk clicking every trip, crossing the road using the Green Cross Code, and reverse parking with Reginald Molehusband (an ad, alas, that has been lost from their archives).
We were also told you wouldn’t keep “loosing your birds” if you learned to swim. I had something in common with Mike, who could swim like a fish. Sadly it wasn’t his prowess in the water but his sticky out ears.
I still know every word of this advert.
THE WIDER VIEW
Conspiracy theories R us
What is it about the age in which we live that makes evidence-free beliefs attractive to increasing numbers of people, asks Hardeep Matharu in Byline Times.
She once interviewed Kate Shemirani, a nurse who was struck off in 2021 having declared the Covid pandemic to be a hoax and vaccines part of a plan to kill people. Now branding herself as “the natural nurse”, she sells membership to her alternative health business.
Last month, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that her 23-year-old daughter Paloma (above) died after refusing conventional treatment for cancer. Older brother Sebastian and twin brother Gabriel blame their mother’s anti-medicine conspiracy theories for their sister’s death.
The article examines why some people are prone to evidence-free beliefs that become entrenched. Social media obviously features. Interestingly, Kate Shemirani was barred from social media for spreading misinformation but reinstated after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Sebastian said that arguing with his mother simply had the effect of confirming – in her mind – that she was ‘right’. It was not only unhelpful to engage with her thinking, he said, but harmful: when presented with challenging facts, she would double-down.
How do you counter that?
Experts? What do they know?
That brings us round to measles, a highly contagious viral disease that can be deadly and was officially eliminated from the UK in 2016 and 2017 - only for misinformation and the subsequent decline in uptake of the MMR vaccine combine to see its resurgence.
The World Health Organisation says 95% of children aged five should have had two doses of MMR to achieve herd immunity. In Liverpool, where a youngster died of measles this week, only 73% of five year olds have received both doses.
To be clear, one in four parents in Liverpool decide not to inoculate their child with one of the safest and most successful public health interventions in UK history. The danger is now spreading.
None of the 12 council areas in the North East are hitting the 95% mark. Durham comes close at 94.2%, followed by South Tyneside at 93.7%, Northumberland at 92.5% and North Tyneside at 91.78%.
Middlesbrough has the worst rate in the region at 77.9%, less than 5% ahead of Liverpool. The other poorer performing council areas are Newcastle at 85.2%, Gateshead at 86.8%, and Darlington at 87.9%.
We need more Public Information Films - but would today’s public believe them?
Security blockers
They cost around £40, look like smartwatches, are widely available through online retailers such as Amazon, and are bad news for the six million households in the UK who have doorbell cameras.
Signal jammers are being used by thieves to temporarily block the wi-fi signal to doorbell cameras - without the need for a password - making them temporarily useless and giving rise to driveway car thefts, burglaries and doorstep parcel thefts.
I’d never heard of these devices before, but I should have done as Monday’s episode of Rip-Off Britain was a repeat of a programme first shown in January.
Council cubicle mystery
A wife is demanding answers after her 38-year-old husband lay dead in a toilet cubicle at Edinburgh council chambers for six days.
“I came off the phone when he was going to the toilet. That was the last time I spoke to him. How’s no one been in that toilet for six days, it baffles me.”