Lagamorph wrote:We've got the Tees Valley Combined Authority mayoral election coming up soon. The current mayer Ben Houchen is a Conservative and has overseen the grossly mismanaged and corrupt Teesworks project. Labour have already pledged to send in the National Audit Office at the General Election level.
The election guide only lists Labour, Tory and Lib Dem candidates.
Labour candidate is pledging to introduce free town centre parking and a £2 cap on bus and train fares and bringing buses under public control, whilst making public transport for under 18s free. Also some stuff about a "Guaranteed Skills and Employment Review" (whatever that means) for everyone at 16, 24 and 50.
Lib Dems are campaigning on a £25million investment in fighting Child poverty, alongside some more vague pledges surrounding bus fare caps, though no mention of public ownership or train fares.
I used to work in the area, the free parking was in place until very recently. Makes a massive difference as £2 minimum charge for parking in a genuinely grim seaside town is enough to make everyone park in the side streets or just park at Morrisona for 2 hours instead.
The council (currently about 8 million short) has also brought back parking charges for staff at council buildings, which amounts to a pay cut.
The Teesworks scandal is going to be huge when it eventually pops, the promise of all the money it was going to make was always an empty promise. Private Eye and News night has covered it a bit, but it's going to be very interesting when the truth comes out about the sale of the land and the lack of return on investment.
