Gateshead's political leadership seem to have woken up to the fact that pathfinder money isn't easy money. This week the building of 3,000 homes in brownfield sites was announced along with the regeneration of the town centre. The town centre project is in collaboration with designer Wayne Hemmingway. Hemmingway is increasingly focussed on good urban design and might help Gateshead break out of their fixation that growth is equal to demolition.
The political cost of demolition is on the mind of former Newcastle City Labour Councillors. Their misguided mass demolition programmes have led to electoral disaster. In the west of the city they depopulated the area to remove the Scotswood Ward and replace it with a merged Benwell and Scotswood Ward. In west city the Moorside ward has disappeared. In the east of the city Monkchester ward is a memory. All in all 9 Labour councillors sacrificed. Newcastle has gone from 3.5 Labour MPs to 3 with 2 seats now Lib-Dem targets. An own goal of monumental political suicide.
Newcastle Labour Councillors are said to be baffled by Gateshead Council plans to demolish 440 homes in safe Labour seats in central Gateshead. The lessons of recent political history are only useful if politicians learn them.
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