As her party's grip on political power in North Tyneside ebbs away she has just buried her head deeper in the sand.

If the Labour administration of which she is part had delivered efficient cost- effective services across the whole of the Borough of
North Tyneside why is the political group which she is in charge down to only 35 per cent of councillors? Why does her party have no representation in the six wards at the coast? Is it because the Labour group have abandoned the coast and allowed it to rot?

I quote Coun Eddie Darke in last week's News Guardian letters pages: "In sport and leisure the picture has been more mixed and the borough has not invested in its facilities for some time."

This is especially true at the coast. The pavilion at Churchill Paying field's pre-dates the creation of North Tyneside Council; there is still no permanent changing facility at the Foxhunters playing fields, just a few metal cargo containers.

Whitley Bay is the largest urban area in the country without a council-run sports centre. North Shields has one - The Parks; Killingworth has one - The Lakeside Centre. The Labour administration have refurbished the facilities at the Rising Sun sports ground (Wallsend) and Lockey Park (Wideopen), what has it done in Whitley Bay Cullercoats or Monkseaton? Not a lot.

In Wallsend the boys club has received new facilities to the value of £1,000,000 in recent years, and the town is getting a new swimming pool, while the pool at Whitley Bay is still closed awaiting refurbishment with reduced facilities. Will it be open before the next millennium - who knows?

It is in WhitleyBay so do not hold your breath as it is not a priority for the council.

Muriel Green mentions the increased opportunities for walking and cycling in the borough. How true this is if you live in Monkseaton and want to go for a swim or use a council gym or sports hall without increasing your carbon footprint by using an automobile to get there.

It's 1.7 miles to the Tynemouth Pool, 3.3 miles to the Parks and 5.9 miles to the Lakeside centre.

If you live on the coast and want to use the council-run facilities provided by our Council Tax payments, to paraphrase Norman Tebbitt you have to get on your bike.

Some 94 per cent of residents may enjoy living in North Tyneside, however given the election results in May approximately two-thirds of the electorate are not happy with the Labour administration in North Tyneside.

Muriel Green harps on about negative Conservative campaign literature.

That's politics - the Labour group and elected Mayor in particular have been in power long enough to deliver.

They have failed the electorate of the borough and their political demise owes everything to their actions. Blaming a Tory government that was voted out of office as long ago as 1997 for the decline of Whitley Bay is frankly ridiculous.

Across the river in the last ten years the town and resort of South Shields has improved and prospered, while Whitley Bay has been allowed to rot. Two Labour-controlled local authorities - one that has got it right and has a majority that will enable it to enact its policies in years to come, and one, our council, that has got it so wrong.

John Harrison's attempt to impose a borough-wide one price fits all parking policy on Whitley Bay shows how out of touch his administration is. Just because a policy works in North Shields or Wallsend does not mean it will work at the coast.

It is not the Conservative Party that has created divided communities in North Tyneside, it is the Labour administration who have done that. Our borough is now divided into two - the coast which has been neglected by the Labour party and therefore have no representation.

Remember Whitley Bay had Labour councillors when Thatcher was PM and Wallsend, North Shields, Killingworth, Benton and Longbenton where the Labour vote and representation where it exists is in terminal decline.

Less than half of the borough's wards now have a Labour councillor.

Thankfully it will be the electorate who will decide who the next and future Mayors are. It will be a great shame that the present and future Mayors will, if they get it right, not get praise, or if they get it wrong, they would have got two barrels of invective and ridicule from that voice of reason, the great Peter Mortimer. It's also a shame that the sage of Monkseaton, Simon Carr, did not make it into print in the last competition.

DAVID McMEEKAN
St George's Crescent, Monkseaton.
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