Local MP Tom marks Holocaust Memorial Day

January 27, 2012 / admin / No comments

Tom signing Holocaust Memorial Day Book of CommitmentTom Blenkinsop, the Labour Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, has today (27 January 2012) marked Holocaust Memorial Day, joining calls that we must all “speak up and speak out” to prevent the atrocities of the Holocaust and other genocides ever being repeated.

Tom said “We all have a duty to stand up and speak out against all forms of inequality and intolerance, and to remember the millions of lives that were destroyed in the Holocaust and other genocides.

Today, I delivered an assembly at Laurence Jackson School, Guisborough educating students about the Holocaust, ensuring that we never forget what the terrible consequences of hatred can be. Pupils there were asked to read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Pastor Martin Niemoller’s famous “First they came…” poem.”

Tom also signed the Holocaust Memorial Day Book of Commitment in the House of Commons on Wednesday, whilst his constituency office has held a Holocaust Memorial Day display open to members of the public for the last three weeks.

On Sunday, Tom will be joining fellow Teesside residents in attending the Holocaust Memorial Service at St. Barnabas Church in Linthorpe at 1pm.

Category: Uncategorized /

Government needs to crack down on supermarket fuel profiteering

January 26, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today hit out at news that the big supermarket chains are increasing petrol and diesel prices at the pump as a response to refinery closures and a strike by a group of tanker drivers – including local drivers at distribution company Wincanton based at Stockton-on-Tees.

Tom said “According to what I have been told by both the RAC and the AA, the big supermarket chains have put up to 1p a litre on the price of diesel and unleaded petrol and that, on average across the UK, diesel has risen to 142.32p (from 142.21p) per litre and is now within a fraction of a new record. Petrol has risen to 134.03p per litre (from 133.89p).

This is sheer profiteering and is based on scare stories that there may be a fuel shortage – scare stories that are driving people to fill up their tanks.

The reality is that Petroplus is in administration, and the administrators are working flat out to find a new buyer to resume production. In terms of the Wincanton drivers dispute, the onus is clearly on the company to withdraw their plans to cut wages by up to 20%. According to my research this firm saw its profits soaring by £0.5 billion last year – a 37% increase on 2009, and that directors pay has increased by £500,000 – 41.7%. Given this, it is little wonder that the strike ballot was won by a margin of 83%. Wincanton should withdraw the pay cut threat and instead sit down with their drivers and their union to settle the dispute.

All of this just shows how the ordinary public – who need their cars to get from A to B – are being ripped off by big business.”

Category: Economy, Energy /

Tom praises BBC chairman’s decision to “reprieve” local TV and radio cuts

January 25, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (January 25th) welcomed the news that BBC Chairman, Lord Patten, had ordered BBC managers to ‘pull back’ from deep cuts to BBC Local Radio and the axing of regional TV news and programmes like the ‘Inside Out’ news magazine.

Tom said “The news that cuts were – in the wake of government funding reductions – going to affect local stations like BBC Radio Tees, were of great concern to me and fellow local MPs. People need radio stations like this to follow local news, weather and sports like BBC Tees live coverage of matches at Middlesbrough FC, Hartlepool and Darlington. In addition, stations like BBC Tees and other regional BBC stations act as an incubator for local talent in music and drama.”

“These stations are not minority hobbies. According to independent data, a big chunk of the population listen to BBC local radio, and they would have been deprived of a local lifeline if it were to be taken off air. They are part of the glue of local communities and were too valuable to lose”

Category: Local media /

Fall in GDP led by manufacturing “show that Cameron’s policies are still hitting Teesside hard”

January 25, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, said today’s news that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was still in free fall, particularly due to a slump in manufacturing, “shows how bad things are for industrial areas like Teesside.”

The Office for National Statistics said that GDP had fallen by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2011 and that this decline was most noted in construction and manufacturing.

Tom said “On a day when the jobs of over 60 workers at the North Tees Petroplus oil storage and distribution plant are in jeopardy following the firm’s bankruptcy, these figures are sobering for Teesside.”

“Teesside has been hit by a double whammy in manufacturing. Firstly, the squeeze on personal incomes imposed by the coalition has hit purchasing power and thus less demand for household goods – many of which have Teesside chemicals as their base – whilst the decimation of public sector investment has meant that goods like steel products for new schools and hospitals are simply not now being purchased.

David Cameron and George Osborne are failing to reduce the deficit and are failing to reduce the national debt. Their policies look set to plunge the UK into a double dip recession. The Government’s economic policies are hurting places like Teesside, but they are not working; Teesside will find it hard to prosper until the UK takes a new economic course.”

Category: Economy, Growth /

Tom Blenkinsop MP Slams Health Minister’s ‘Abdicatio​n’ Over Closure of a Ward at Guisboroug​h Hospital

January 20, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom BLenkinsop, today (January 19th 2012) slammed what he called the ‘utter indifference’ and ‘abdication of responsibility’ by Health Minister, Andrew Lansley over plans by the South Tees Hospitals Trust to close a ward at Guisborough Hospital.

The Truest plan to shut the Chaloner ward with a loss of a number of beds, a move that, according to Tom ‘could presage the total closure of the site over time’.

Tom said “I have vowed to try and halt the closure of this hospital ward which specialises in recuperation, respite care and care for the frail elderly, as I fear that the loss of the whole ward would raise costs and thereby give a reason for the total closure of the hospital at a later date.

Only a week or so ago I asked Mr Lansley how he valued such local hospital facilities and I got a honeyed reply saying that issues like local care and local recuperation were essential for a fully responsive health service. Given this, I then tackled him on why he could not put a block on the plans to shut the Chaloner Ward. He ducked an open answer, saying he would write to me.

I now have his letter, and it is clear that he is going to make no move whatsoever to take action on this local issue. He says that patients will not suffer and ‘he has been told that there are no current plans to shut the hospital’. Evasive language like that fools no-one. What does ‘current plans’ mean? It is the language of bureaucrats not wishing to make a full honest commitment to the maintenance of services on the site. It shows the utter indifference on the part of Andrew Lansley towards the patients and staff at Guisborough, and is an abdication of his ministerial responsibility to maintain a local NHS hospital presence in East Cleveland.”

Category: Health /

Tom Blenkinsop MP urges Government to create “war memorial fund”

January 12, 2012 / admin / No comments

Tom Blenkinsop MP today (12 January 2012) tabled a written Parliamentary question asking Defence ministers to create a British War Memorial fund.

Tom said: “It is vital that we remember those who gave up their lives to fight for freedom and for our country. War memorials are a good way for us to honour those who sacrificed themselves for us, so it is imperative that they are maintained.

I know local councils clean war memorials every year, but doing so is a costly process, especially when they are very elaborate like at Saltburn, and when Teesside local authorities are facing such financial hardship.

I have listened to local Royal British Legion members’ concerns, alongside those of local councillors, and asked the Secretary of State for Defence to provide a dedicated fund for the maintenance of cenotaphs.

The Government has a duty to help Britons remember those who sadly lost their lives in wars, and I hope that they will commit the necessary funding for the establishment of such a fund.”

Category: Culture /

Tom Blenkinsop MP Speaks Out in Commons Against Pay ‘Dash to the Bottom’

January 12, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, used a House of Commons debate on Tuesday (10th January 2012) to speak out against possible government plans to try and break up central national pay bargaining for public sector workers.

Tom said “For some time now the government have been looking at trying to ‘regionalise’ public sector pay. This is nothing more or less than an attempt to start a drive to push for worse wages and conditions in areas like Teesside.

It would be an expensive and bureaucratic nightmare. Imagine every secondary or primary school in England and Wales suddenly becoming a separate bargaining unit! All this would do is to take the head teacher and governors away from teaching and management, and force them to become pay bargainers.

It would also reinforce and entrench the existing regional divide. How would lower pay in – say – the North East or on Teesside boost the local economy? All it would do would be to reduce local purchasing power and by that reduce employment in the private retail, service and manufacturing sector.

In the debate I also highlighted the fact that many public service workers work across boundaries. The most visible example of that in recent months was the deployment of officers from the Cleveland Police to London and other cities as back up in the recent riots there. Can you imagine the views of bobbies if they were expected to undertake such dangerous and hazardous work on lower wages than their fellow bobbies next to them?

The Coalition dreams of regionalisation of public sector pay are, in fact a nightmare. I and my fellow Labour MP’s will back all public service workers in standing up against these crazy proposals.”

Category: Economy /

“I Fear From Non-Answer From Government During Yesterday’s Debate in the House of Commons That Teesside Might Be Left In The Rail Electrification Sidings”

January 12, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (January 12th 2012) said he feared that a blanket non-reply from transport ministers to his arguments in a key House of Commons, meant that Teesside might be left in the sidings when it came to railway modernisation.
Tom has earlier asked transport ministers to look to see whether the electrification of the line linking Middlesbrough with the East Coast Main Line could be done at the same time as the already announced Leeds – Manchester project. In a reply, Junior Transport Minister, Theresa Villiers said “I intend to ask Network Rail to establish the cost and whether there is a business case for electrification of the line between Northallerton and Middlesbrough.”

Tom said “I raised this issue again today in a House of Commons debate on rail modernisation but this had no response from key ministers on the coalition benches.

The Department for Transport and Network Rail need to make sure the business case study on electrification to Teesside is done properly, and with full co-operation of all local agencies such as Tees Valley Unlimited, the North East Chamber of Commerce, local train operators and councils. It cannot be just left as a London-based desk study with all the dangers of coming to a shallow pre-ordained conclusion in the absence of any meaningful and deep consultation and possible partnership.

The failure of Ministers to respond to these basic questions today again calls into doubt the real commitment of the Government to see that Teesside is plugged into the circuit board of an proper electrified UK rail network.

I will not rest on this issue and will, again, be writing to both Justine Greening, the Transport Minister and to Theresa Villiers, asking for just vital element of rail investment to be delivered for rail travellers from Teesside. If it is to be left off, this could pose a real threat to our Trans-Pennine services to Leeds, Manchester and Manchester Airport – and indeed possibly a new direct link to London – if Teesside is left on a non-electrified branch line.”

Category: Transport /

Tory Plan to Make Local Council Workers and Pensioners Pay to Widen Regional Divide ‘Must Be Resisted’

January 12, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop, today (11th January 2012) said a new Government plan to ‘raid’ local council workers pension funds to underwrite expensive infrastructure projects would mean low paid workers and council pensioners on Teesside paying to widen the North-South divide.

Tom said “Press reports today reveal that Chancellor George Osborne has targeted town hall pension schemes to underwrite big construction schemes which the government does not want to pay for itself.

This means that low paid council workers on Teesside and former council workers who are now pensioners would be forced to see their pension pots paying for schemes which will almost all be in the booming South East.

This was demonstrated only the other week when the new national infrastructure was unveiled. All the big road and rail schemes were in London or the South. In the North East we did not even get the crumbs off the table.

To force local council workers and pensioners to underwrite these schemes from their pension pot will mean that local people will be paying to widen the already cavernous social divide that exists in this country, and thereby eroding the finance base of the councils that employ them and who they pay council tax to.

It is clear that unlike – say – asking the council pension fund to consider investing in local high-tech start up firms, Osborne’s scheme will do nothing whatsoever for the local economy. It is like asking Turkeys not only to vote for Christmas, but pay for it as well.”

Category: Economy /

“We have to stop absentee landlord blight in East Cleveland”

January 5, 2012 / admin / No comments

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, is calling for action on what he called the ‘blight of absentee landlordism’ affecting East Cleveland communities.

Tom said “In the space of just a mile and half we have – in Skinningrove and Loftus – prominent buildings in the middle of both communities slowly rotting with seemingly no interest from their owners – people who are largely anonymous and living far away.’

“In Skinningrove we have the former Co-op Store now roofless, and in my opinion dangerous. We have tried in the past to get the Landlord to take action, but this is a faceless property company based in Jersey, far remote from local council and HMRC pressure”

“Similarly, in Loftus we have the large former United Reform Church and the Methodist Chapel, both on the main road, and both empty and becoming more and more derelict. Again the owners are hard to trace.”

“I have also had complaints from small businesses based on the Skelton Industrial Estate. This was once owned by the old English Estates Corporation but has been sold off to a number of different owners. One landlord is – in theory at least – supposed to be responsible for the upkeep of the common areas, pathways and lighting, but getting action to improve these facilities seem next to impossible.”

“I believe that there are things that can be done. In particular, I do know the Treasury are now benefiting from new measures to levy full council tax on unoccupied buildings, and has amassed a sizeable collection kitty. Some of that could be used to allow local councils the wherewithal to track down and harry absentee landlords to keep their properties in a reasonable and safe condition.”

Category: East Cleveland /
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