Local News

Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Borough Council has come out officially against controversial proposals by the Boundary Commission to split the town between two new constituencies, stretching into northern Stoke and south as far as Stone.

Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley is to look at the circumstances surrounding the planned closure of Newcastle-under-Lyme’s popular High Street Medical Practice following an intervention by the town’s MP in parliament today.

The boards running Staffordshire’s three NHS primary care trusts have been abolished 18 months early, pre-empting Parliament and provoking fresh controversy over the Government’s top-down health reforms.

Newcastle MP Paul Farrelly is calling for a full explanation about why the government rejected North Staffordshire’s application to become a low-tax enterprise zone.

Waiting lists for hospital treatment in North Staffordshire rose sharply during the first year of the coalition government, prompting accusations by Newcastle’s Labour MP Paul Farrelly that “the NHS is at serious risk under the Tories.”

The Government’s decision to overlook North Staffordshire’s bid to become an Enterprise Zone has dealt a serious blow to hopes of generating new jobs and kick-starting economic recovery in the area, Newcastle MP Paul Farrelly said today.

Damning evidence of secrecy and misjudgment over proposals to sell off public open spaces across Newcastle have provoked fresh demands by the town’s Labour MP Paul Farrelly for the plans to be scrapped.

Council plans to sell off green spaces across Newcastle Borough were embroiled in fresh controversy today after the town’s MP, Paul Farrelly, disclosed evidence linking one of the sites earmarked for development with a source of toxic waste.

Newcastle’s Labour MP has criticised the Borough Council and its outgoing leader Simon Tagg over secretly writing off business rates, yet again, of pub owners whose companies serially collapse year after year, leaving creditors in the lurch.

Newcastle’s Labour MP Farrelly has issued a formal complaint to the Borough Council over its insistence on withholding key details of the scope of its controversial plans to sell off green spaces and playing fields.