Smart work
The dividends will not be immediate, but North East mayor Kim McGuinness can reflect on a successful trade mission to Japan. Investment and green jobs will follow.
Two Memoranda of Understanding were signed with Hitachi - one will help with the commitment to have all local buses fully-electric within a decade, the other will see Hitachi work with the North East Combined Authority (NECA) and Port of Tyne to develop a ‘Smart Port of the Future’ via a clean e-fuels hub.
This could be hugely significant considering a certain very productive Japanese company with a car plant in Sunderland currently exports between 70-80% of its cars to Europe via Port of Tyne.
The Japanese see NECA as the regional government for the North East so it was valuable for the mayor to be there to forge relationships and help broker business deals.
She was interviewed by the hugely influential Nikkei, the largest business daily in the world by circulation, a 150‑year‑old institution with millions of subscribers, and a global reach through the FT, which it bought in 2015, and the English-language news magazine Nikkei Asia.
The mayor said: “We came to Japan to secure more good quality jobs for people in the North East and that’s exactly what we’ve done. But alongside creating more skilled jobs, we have been working hard to attract investment and showcase our fantastic export firms.
“We’ve brought together one of the biggest energy companies in Japan, Tokyo Gas, with growing County Durham based start-up Power Roll, who are building the next generation of solar technology that is lighter, more flexible and most cost effective. Tokyo Gas want to invest in tech just like this and we want to bring that investment back to the region.”
SENDing an SOS
Teachers say they are burning out, school budgets are being pushed to the limit and councils say they are facing “unimaginable debts” - reporter Katie Cole has done a great job in reporting on the SEND (children with special educational needs and disabilities) crisis this week on ITV Tyne Tees.
It’s a broken system close to collapse but Katie reports that hopes are high that it’s on the brink of change. Let’s hope she’s right.
No change
There has been much talk about what Newcastle United are going to do with St James’ Park as the club’s (relatively) new owners look to increase the number of fans who can watch home matches,.
One thing is now clear - the stadium will be untouched until after the European Championships in 2028. The stadium is a host venue and the club has given UEFA a guarantee that the ground will stay as it is until after the tournament.
Roundabout way
Cramlington Labour MP Emma Foody is to continue to lobby the Government for improvements to the Moor Farm roundabout after securing her second Parliamentary debate on the issue this year.
“It’s a roundabout that nobody enjoys going on,” she said. “People fear the unreliability and not knowing what the traffic is going to be like – it causes day-to-day misery.”
Conservative-led Northumberland County Council has already called on the Government to implement improvements, arguing that it is choking potential growth in the south east of the county - where a giant AI datacentre is being built, of course.
Tooth fairy stories
The addition of three words on a website showing which dental practices are taking on NHS patients is making it a “work of fiction”, according to the British Dental Association.
Practices used to reply yes or no to the question of whether they could take on new NHS patients. Now it’s no or yes “when availability allows” - and the BBC discovered that of the 34 North East practices “accepting new NHS patients when availability allows” only three actually had space in their books.
Tax us more
With little fanfare, a bus stopped off in Newcastle recently as part of a pre-Budget tour of Britain urging the Chancellor to tax the super-rich.
It’s not an uncommon call - but this one comes from wealthy individuals who make up Patriotic Millionaires UK and the slogan on the side of their bus is one which is undoubtedly less contentious than what was seen on Boris’ Brexit bus.
The Newcastle leg of the tour saw the ‘proud to pay, here to stay’ bus park up in Market Street where former Greggs Chair Ian Gregg spoke for the organisation which was formed in 2021 as an offshoot of the USA’s Patriotic Millionaires.
“As Britain continues to face this economic black hole we cannot expect people who are already struggling to heat their homes and feed their children to pick up the pieces,” he told North East Bylines. “The same applies to our shared and much-needed public services, which cannot afford to face further cuts.”
Round of a pause
Campaigners have called on Sunderland City Council to hold the university to account and help reverse a decision to close the National Glass Centre.
Campaign chair Carolyn Basing told a packed public meeting on Wednesday night that “the most important act the council can take at the moment is to persuade the university to pause its closure plans”.
Council leader Michael Mordey, who also sits on the university’s board, said the glass centre had been running at a significant loss for a long time and the proposed replacement hub was a “perfectly viable option” - but he said he would be supportive of other options that had been mentioned.
Unhappy birthday
An injured walker had to be stretchered from Ellington Dene in Northumberland at the weekend - and received a “spirited rendition” of Happy Birthday when the rescue team discovered it was their birthday.
Early birds
A Newcastle company with the “ultimate needle-in-a-haystack detector” has secured £2m of funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its DNA nanotechnology platform - it has the potential to help detect tumours as small as one millimetre up to a decade earlier.
Chief executive Dr Dan Todd, the founder of InvenireX, said: “Our machine could pick up cancer, HIV or sepsis earlier – a tool that we can put in the hands of scientists to enable the discoveries of tomorrow.”
Wait for it
Opposition councillors in Northumberland have joined forces to ‘call in’ the decision to demolish the old fire station in Hexham rather than sell it to Angel of the North creator Sir Antony Gormley. This means the situation will be paused and the decision put before a scrutiny committee of councillors in December.
1 big call
Two big music announcements for the North East this week - Radio 1’s Big Weekend will return to Sunderland in May next year and Lewis Capaldi is to play at Exhibition Park in Newcastle in the summer.
Radio 1 were last at Herrington Country Park in 2005 when the Foo Fighters, Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani were among the headliners. The three-day festival usually has around 100 artists ranging from global headliners to emerging acts. The full line up and ticket details will be released closer to the event which begins on May 22.
Tickets for Capaldi’s In The Park appearance on Saturday July 8 went on sale today. He is also headlining at Sefton Park in Liverpool the following Saturday. Sam Wonfor has all the details in Cultured. North East.
Get in quick
Newcastle drivers who want help to buy cleaner vehicles and avoid penalty charges have been urged to apply to the council before it stops taking requests for the Clean Air Zone upgrade grants on January 30.
The £15m scheme was funded by the last government and there is still £8m in the pot. Any unused funds will be used to upgrade the region’s buses to cleaner models.
Five-year spree
A senior executive at travel company Arriva used his company credit card to spend £100,000 over five years on rental properties, music, groceries, holidays and garden furniture.
An agent for Sean Forster, 60, from Ashington, said there was a “culture of tolerance if not endorsement” for executives to use company cards for personal use where departments were “performing well financially”.
He admitted fraud at Newcastle Crown Court and was jailed for two years suspended for two years with 300 hours unpaid work.
A quick word
Hartlepool council chief executive Denise McGuckin will step down from her role in early summer 2026 after nearly 30 years of service. Former Tyne Tees journalist Richard Salkeld, now head of communications and partnerships at train operator Lumo, has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London for his long-standing contribution to charity and community work. The 2035 FIFA Women’s World Cup is expected to be held in the UK, and Sunderland is already preparing to become a host city after the success of holding the opening match of the women’s rugby tournament at the Stadium of Light. Ouseburn councillor Alistair Chisholm has left the ruling Labour group to join the Greens - leaving Labour with just 36 of the 78 seats on Newcastle council. A statue of Mary Ann Macham has been unveiled overlooking the Fish Quay in North Shields to honour her extraordinary life as a slave who escaped the US and found freedom and community in the town. The opening of the £27m Culture House in Sunderland city centre has been pushed back until “the first half of 2026.”
West is best
Gerry & Sewell began life in a 60-seat attic theatre in Whitley Bay just three years ago - now the play, which follows the fortunes of two lads determined to find the money to buy Newcastle United season tickets, is heading for a two-week run in the West End.
After sell-out runs at Laurels, Live Theatre and the Theatre Royal last autumn, the acclaimed production had already secured another week-long run of fixtures at the Theatre Royal in June - but when the chance came to take it to the West End, the team didn’t hesitate.
Race for No.1
The Felling Male Voice Choir have recorded a special version of Blaydon Races to raise money for Age UK North Tyneside - with aspirations of supporters downloading enough copies to help it to No.1. Say it often enough and it could happen, gents!
Secretary Peter George said: “We all know someone who has been touched by dementia and we wanted to do something special that would help create awareness, and at the same time raise funds for this terrible condition.”
Meanwhile, in Durham
A football pop-up museum has been opened in Durham thanks to a ‘meanwhile funding scheme’. Yes, I had to look that up. It’s a scheme that supports the temporary use of vacant buildings or land, activating spaces while they await redevelopment of long-term tenants.
Fans Museum CIC, already established in Sunderland, celebrates football heritage while using the sport’s stories to support wellbeing for people who live with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Business bites
County Durham-based Tekmar has secured a £3.1m Middle East contract to supply polyurethane cable protection for a major offshore energy project, its largest deal of this kind to date. The National Cybercrime Team has selected Durham-based IT security consultancy Waterstons to become the new system provider for a cyber threat detection service which will be offered free to organisations across the UK. The Borderlands Partnership, which delivers the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal across five local authority areas, has appointed Newcastle-based Karol Marketing as its PR and communications partner. Durham County Council, regeneration company Muse and Durham University have signed a collaboration agreement to accelerate progress at Aykley Heads, one of the central sites in the emerging Durham Innovation District. North East company Rezon, whose sports headbands are engineered to protect the brain, has launched a million pound crowdfunding campaign to accelerate global growth plans and expand into grassroots and elite sport. Newcastle firm Bellway has been named large housebuilder of the year at the 2025 Housebuilder Awards. The company also won the best sustainability initiative and best design for four storeys or more categories. The majority of Cramlington-based Merit’s 340 construction workers have been made redundant after directors decided to call in administrators. Airline Blue Islands, which flew from Newcastle to Jersey and Guernsey, has stopped trading and all future flights have been cancelled. A listed building dating back to the 13th century has been refurbished and made into Grade A offices. The building at 4-6 Trinity Chare is set within a courtyard alongside Trinity House on the Newcastle Quayside. Newcastle-based Responsive Engineering is to make 37 roles redundant at its base at Armstrong Works on Scotswood Road. Sage chief executive Steve Hare said AI is creating a “significant opportunity” for the Newcastle-based software giant, following a solid year where revenue and profits increased. The business has also launched a £300m share buyback programme.
2013 ad break
There’s a good chance you won’t have seen this ad before - because it was an ad made to look like a TV ad that wasn’t really a TV ad.
It was said to be for Haynes baked beans(!) and was really a promotion by a company called Cinesite to promote its CGI skills - that’s computer-generated imagery.
I love the ending - made more special because I remember Billy Connolly talking to Michael Parkinson about being made to feel as welcome as a … (see video!)
THE WIDER VIEW
Out of order
The British Army is the only military in Europe that still recruits 16-year-olds. The Army Foundation College in Harrogate receives all 16 and 17 year olds who join each year - around 2,370 teenagers annually, according to data obtained through FOI.
An exclusive 11-month investigation by openDemocracy and the Children Rights International Network (CRIN) has revealed the extent of the bullying, harassment, self-harm, sexual offences and safeguarding failures that teenagers who join the army are subject to.
CRIN’s Jim Wyke said: “These recruits, coming from the most deprived backgrounds, join wanting to serve their country, to better themselves, to build something of themselves – and what do they get? An education that would be illegal anywhere else in the UK. A significant risk of being bullied or physically and sexually abused, including by their instructors. And worst of all, a welfare system that prioritises the reputation of the army above the children under their command.”
The investigation is extensive. North Yorkshire police have recorded 24 crimes at the college in the first six months of 2025 alone, including five sexual offences.
That’s the spirit
Curacao is more than a liqueur, I learn. It’s a tiny Caribbean island with a population of 155,000 - roughly the same as Middlesbrough - and it has just become the smallest country by population to ever qualify for the World Cup finals. The record was previously held by Iceland which has 350,000 residents.
Curacao is in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and its capital Willemstad is known for its colourful Dutch colonial architecture. The team is managed by Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, - also a liqueur! - a former manager of Glasgow Rangers.
Talking of the World Cup, I’m trying very, very hard to resist the temptation to mention Scotland qualifying and their magnificent goals against Denmark on Tuesday. In particular Scott McTominay’s acrobatic overhead kick. I’ve succeeded so far. Not long to go now.
Oops
Ultra sensitive
Ultra‑processed foods are in the news this week because a major new Lancet series has warned they pose a global health threat, linking them to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and even cancer.
Experts are calling for urgent worldwide regulation of how these foods are produced, marketed, and consumed. It was interesting to note that researchers compared the situation to the early days of tobacco control, warning that food corporations use aggressive marketing and political lobbying to block effective public health policies.
What are ultra-processed foods anyway? One in five Britons consume them daily without realising, according to the Independent.
UPFs are industrially manufactured products with artificial additives, sugar, and salt, designed for shelf life and profit rather than nutrition, with the most common examples being breakfast cereals, ready meals, fizzy drinks and packaged snacks like crisps or sweets.
Experts advise consumers to be wary of long ingredient lists and deceptive marketing, as the removal of fibre in UPFs allows sugar to flood the bloodstream rapidly, posing particular risks to older adults.