I hope you are enjoying your weekend and are prepared for Storm Floris that is coming our way tomorrow - unless, of course, you are one of a growing number of ex-pat readers of Eyes & Ears, or you’re on holiday!
I’m beginning this Eyes & Ears Extra with some words from people who have responded to my request for support in the past couple of weeks.
It is humbling and pleasing in equal measure that they have pledged their support to keep Eyes & Ears going. It would be great if you could join them.
Thank you
The exceptional quality of the journalism makes Eyes & Ears the go-to publication to find out what is really going on, with an additional twist of totally authentic North East storytelling and humour. You bring a fresh and crucially informed perspective to regional reporting. It’s valuable to have a source of intelligent, thoughtful (and witty) journalism about the region. We need penetrating, objective and unbiased information and comment in the North East. Happy to support. It's so hard to find objective information you can trust, so I am delighted to have found Eyes and Ears, thank you Brian. I so enjoy reading Eyes & Ears. I learn so much about what is going on. Thank you! I find the information a useful roundup of local issues. I love what you're doing Brian. Thoughtful insight alongside a well-curated canter across the regional news landscape. Thank you. You need someone you can trust to get the balance right in reporting, and still big up the North East. I love the no-nonsense way you describe what’s happening across the region. I somehow never got round to subscribing before, though I meant to: I wish I had. Proper journalism - proper regional journalism - needs and deserves our support. I am behind your wish to support and maintain genuine regional and other news comment, provided by journalists who are as independent as they can be. I also detest click bait and the poor editing policies of many media outlets these days. You give us a welcome place to avoid all of that and stay informed. Keep up the good work. I love that you distil things about my local area into writing I like and find accessible. As Emeritus Professor of Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University working nationally and internationally I need to keep up with the city and region. Because I value journalists with the determination to subject local issues to the same scrutiny as the broadsheets apply to national news. Local journalism has been dying on its feet for years. Eyes and Ears North East gives us back something that has been sadly missing. Quality, professional journalism online is increasingly important, carving a safe and trusted path through 'noise', uninformed opinion and fake news. The Eyes & Ears team clearly know their stuff and write about it very, very well. Whilst I read The Journal daily, there are always stories I miss and Eyes & Ears is such a good roundup of recent North East news and information that I would now miss it if I didn't have my weekly dose. I value independent journalism and all the content you produce each week, thank you. Good local journalism is vital for a healthy economy. It’s well written, filling an important role in the region really well at a time when reliability is at a premium.
Thinking big
A new nature recovery project near Hadrian’s Wall is set to transform over 11,000 acres of farmland and forest into a thriving, connected landscape for wildlife, people, and climate resilience.
The Hadrian’s Wall Wetland Landscape Recovery project covers an area four times the size of Kielder Water.
Following a two-year development phase, Northumberland National Park aims to secure long-term public and private investment for a 20-year delivery programme, making this one of the UK’s most significant landscape-scale recovery efforts.
“This is one of the most ambitious nature recovery projects in the UK,” said Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Park Authority.
“We’re creating a landscape where nature and farming work hand in hand – supporting biodiversity, tackling climate change, and enhancing the well-being of local communities and visitors alike.”
Changing bee-haviours
Planting trees, restoring bikes, inspecting bee hives and looking after green spaces isn’t just environmental work, says Michael Joseph Richardson, senior lecturer in human geography at Newcastle University.
It’s emotional work. It’s care work. And changing the narrative on who gets to do it is vitally important.
In his article for The Conversation ‘Why modern masculinity is a climate issue’, Dr Richardson talks about his work with the National Lottery Climate Action Fund project Birds, Bees, Bikes and Trees, a partnership between Gateshead’s Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and regional charity North East Young Dads and Lads.
“Opening up environmental care to young men brings opportunities. I am one of a team of beekeepers who tend to two beehives on the south facing roof of the Baltic.
“These hives are managed by the North East Young Dads and Lads. Due to conditions at this site – looking after bees at 42 metres in the air – the young men are offered extra training that provides them with industrial skills, in this case industry standard health and safety certification for harness and lanyard working. This adds value to the their ecological efforts.”
Bobbing home
Dave Stewart is heading back home this autumn for a one-off UK live show at The Fire Station in Sunderland on September 5 - performing songs from his acclaimed new album Dave Does Dylan.
Baby boxes backed
A cross-party group of MPs and North East mayor Kim McGuinness have signed a joint letter urging the Government to include Baby Boxes as part of their National Child Poverty Strategy.
Newcastle-based charity The Children’s Foundation piloted the scheme which gives vulnerable first-time parents a curated box of essential items and developmental tools to support their baby’s first 1,001 days of life.
It was awarded funding to deliver 1,450 boxes through the North East Combined Authority’s child poverty prevention programme. The commitment was extended when the mayor’s child poverty action plan was approved by the NECA cabinet recently.
Now, the foundation is calling on the Government to go further by integrating the Baby Box model into national policy. Dame Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner for England, has praised the project and added her support.
Championing Durham
A scheme to promote County Durham’s identity, ambition, and opportunities on a national and global scale has been launched.
Durham Champions is part of a broader place-branding effort called The Durham Story, which was developed through a year-long collaboration involving Durham County Council, Durham University, Visit County Durham, and Business Durham
The first Durham Champions event at Durham Cricket had more than 50 attendees from sectors spanning law, sport, tourism, education and public services. The champions act as ambassadors, sharing Durham’s story and raising its profile as a place to live, work, invest, study and visit.
And the county does have some passionate people…
There’s no rush
Sunderland University vice-chancellor Sir David Bell has delivered an open-letter response to Labour councillor Denny Wilson’s concerns that the university was in a rush to demolish the National Glass Centre so that the land could be sold to a housing developer.
“It is simply wrong to suggest that the university's intention to close the NGC building was driven by a desire to 'sell off the land',” said Sir David. “Indicative external advice suggests that the land is not of significant value and even that would be largely offset by the cost of demolishing the building and undertaking any potential landscaping.”
Checking out
Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour has confirmed that civic centre officials are in talks with the Home Office to end the use of a city hotel to house asylum seekers.
Art vandals
It was only nine days ago that I told you about plans to turn the former Wilco store in South Shields into a gallery and collaborative workspace for artists.
Laura Robertson and Theodore Godfrey-Cass have been left "heartbroken" after vandals broke in and destroyed their gallery days before it was set to open.
Walls had been graffitied, studio booths damaged and artwork urinated on, smashed and stolen, with the culprits then posting videos of the attack online. The videos have been shared with Northumbria Police.
Speed read
A library which holds historic books such as Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica and is usually reserved for researchers, will this month open to the public for the first time – though just for a single day.
Ushaw Historic House, near Durham, will open its 50,000-item collection to the public on August 9 as part of its first ever book festival.
Ushaw official Sanjay Gidda said: “This is one of the most exciting cultural days Ushaw has ever hosted.”
Off comms
A new role of permanent secretary for communications has been created after Prime Minister Keir Starmer voiced concerns about the Government's communications strategy during a difficult first year in office (at least he noticed).
The chosen candidate, David Dinsmore, a former editor of The Sun, is already facing calls for him to go.
Liverpool city region mayor Steve Rotherham said: “For many people in our city, particularly those who fought for justice for the Hillsborough families, this appointment will be seen as a deeply insensitive choice, given the hurt caused to our communities unjustly targeted by that 'newspaper', Rupert Murdoch and his acolytes.
“Liverpool hasn't forgotten. We haven't forgiven. And we never will.”
No point w(h)ining
I once made the mistake of not looking at the wine list when taking someone out to a business lunch at a very nice restaurant. I later had to grovel to my MD to get the very expensive bottle of rioja approved on my expenses.
I was reminded of that when I read a piece in The Knowledge this week on Michael Grynbaum’s new book Empire of the Elite about Condé Nast, a magazine empire that once told the world “what to buy, what to value, what to wear, what to eat, even what to think”.
Editors were given interest-free mortgages on swanky New York townhouses, and eye-popping photoshoot budgets allowed one assistant to rent an elephant for $30,000. When a GQ food critic handed in $14,000 worth of expenses after a fortnight in Japan, an editor asked, without sarcasm: “Is that all?”
The Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter used to dispatch his assistants to travel destinations a day in advance so they could set up an exact reproduction of his New York desk, complete with his preferred pencils and devoid of any paper clips – a distaste noted in the staff manual.
Writers and editors would FedEx their luggage rather than faffing around with it on the plane while one editor was once told her choice of hotel wasn’t splashy enough and she needed to upgrade it.
The rioja was lovely, mind.