Answered by Jeff Reid

I would say that local people in Northumberland are very involved in how the council makes decisions. Our councillors are local people who live in the areas they represent and ultimately they are responsible... Show more »

I would say that local people in Northumberland are very involved in how the council makes decisions. Our councillors are local people who live in the areas they represent and ultimately they are responsible for every decision we take.

Partnership working at a local and area level through Community Forums and Area Partnerships help to ensure that we engage with as many people as possible.  We also work closely with communities to identify the issues that matter to people and look at how we can improve.

We are committed to talking to people and there are a number of ways of getting involved including: contacting our customer services team, using our interactive web site or visiting councillor surgeries and Area Committee meetings.

The Council is currently putting in place a Citizens Panel as another route for residents to influence services

The majority of our employees are also residents of Northumberland and we are working hard to use their experiences to improve services even further.

Finally, I have never felt any one has held back from commenting if they feel we are doing the wrong thing.

Answered by Jeff Reid

I am not aware of this problem, so I would not like to comment until I have had time to look into the specifics.   But what I will say is that Highways are a key issue for the public and every year... Show more »

I am not aware of this problem, so I would not like to comment until I have had time to look into the specifics.

But what I will say is that Highways are a key issue for the public and every year we respond to hundreds of suggestions or recommendations from the public. Unfortunately we can't get to everything as we are responsible for almost 5,000km of roads. This year the issue of grit or road salt has been particularly newsworthy because of the terrible weather at the turn of the year and the national salt shortage. Throughout that period we have been working hard to try to ensure that the salt has been used as effectively as possible and have made sure all of our own staff and the contractors we employ have been briefed on the need to preserve salt and work effectively. 

Answered by Jeff Reid

I’m not sure there is a big communications problem with our parish councils and in general the relationship works well. However, like any big organisation I’m sure there are times when things slip ... Show more »I’m not sure there is a big communications problem with our parish councils and in general the relationship works well. However, like any big organisation I’m sure there are times when things slip through the net although we’re working to eliminate the mistakes. There’s a real willingness to get this right and we have set out in detail how we want to communicate with parish councils and other partners in our charter. We’re always looking at ways of developing closer working relationships with parish and town Councils.
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Answered by Steve Stewart

As an employee of the county council it’s not appropriate for me to talk about my own personal views on taxation. There has to be a way of collecting revenue to pay for local services and there are... Show more »As an employee of the county council it’s not appropriate for me to talk about my own personal views on taxation. There has to be a way of collecting revenue to pay for local services and there are pros and cons to both the current system and the alternatives that some have suggested. Show less »

Answered by Steve Stewart

The questions we answered were part of a nationwide survey of councils by the BBC and we have no control over how they choose to publish the answers. However, all the information on how we spend public... Show more »The questions we answered were part of a nationwide survey of councils by the BBC and we have no control over how they choose to publish the answers. However, all the information on how we spend public money, what we intend to do next year and how we arrived at these decisions is all available on our website – you can find it by visiting www.northumberland.gov.uk/budget
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