Featured Articles

Register to vote now

Aug 20th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

Voter registration have been delivered to every home in South Tyneside.  The details you provide on the registration form will be used to update the information the Council has about who is registered to vote at your address.  The up-to-date register of electors will be published on 1 December 2010. If your details are not on the register [...]



COUNCIL PROPOSALS TO CLOSE 3 CARE HOMES: HAVE YOUR SAY

Aug 4th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles, Uncategorized

Residents have an opportunity to put forward their views about South Tyneside Council’s controversial plans to close the borough’s three remaining care homes. There are 5 options under consideration and the council appears committed to option 1. A summary of the 5 options are: Option 1 Close both Beech Street and Gerald Street in the short term, keep Connolly House open in [...]



Have you got something to say on childcare?

Jul 20th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of childcare in South Tyneside? Do you think the Council should be doing more? Well now’s your chance to tell the Council what you really think because South Tyneside Council is inviting parents and carers to have their say on the childcare it provides. The Council has [...]



Councillors could be jailed for revealing information

Jul 15th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

Complaints about elected councillors are made to an auspicious body called the Standards Committee. This body is supposed to be unbiased and is chaired by someone with no apparent link to the Council or any political party. It considers any complaints made against councillors and decides whether these complaints should be investigated. Between May 2008 [...]



Big brother: does your council spy on you?

Jul 7th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

In the helicon days that followed the results of the May general election, many news items slipped under the media radar, condemned to irrelevance by the scenario of Clegg and his “will he or won’t he” dithering.   Once such gem was a report by Big Brother Watch cataloguing the ways in which local authorities [...]



Departing MPs receive a ‘golden goodbye’

Jun 19th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

The recent General Election saw a huge turnover of MPs. It seems many of them decided against standing for re-election after last year’s expenses scandal and others were rejected by the electorate and were voted out at the election. With the help of the Tax Payers Alliance we can reveal the following that the majority [...]



South Tyneside Homes: the housing register

May 28th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

Today we start a series of articles about council housing in South Tyneside. These articles will provide local people with advice on council housing and to help them understand what can often be an over complicated and bureaucratic system.  In 2005 South Tyneside Council set up an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) called South Tyneside [...]



It’s time to act

Mar 26th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

The work that the Independent Alliance campaign does includes knocking on doors throughout the borough twice a week and discussing the issues that the people of the area are concerned about and one thing that is high on the agenda where ever we go is irresponsible dog owners. People are infuriated by the piles of dog muck that [...]



Independent Alliance: Our History

Mar 20th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

As it is becoming obvious that the Independent Alliance is seen as the biggest (and only) threat to the Labour Party here in South Tyneside we are determined to explain were we came from, how we are organised exactly what we believe in. We intend to do this by publishing a series of articles on our [...]



FOI – What is South Tyneside Council hiding?

Feb 14th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Featured Articles

Recently we have been looking at the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), particularly how councils have been trying to move the issue forward and be more transparent with how it conducts its affairs.  How then, does South Tyneside Council compare to other areas when it comes to direct accountability?  At first glance, the picture looks [...]