Sir John Hall backs my Aycliffe policy

Sedgefield

It was a fascinating day today as my appraoch to the problems of Newton Aycliffe Town Centre was backed enthusiastically by Sir John Hall, the man who built the Metro Centre.

He walked through the centre with me and met local people and media. He had some interesting insights. He said that when Tesco had been built it should have faced inwards twaords the town centre. He said enclosure of the centre was an obvious requirement and that the neglect of the public realm with cracked pavements and grass growing through the concrete illustrated a lack of civic pride by local council leadership. He did not pull his punches.

In the evening I canvassed support in Faverdale. Residents are perplexed that they are in Sedgefield constituency when their local affinity is with Darlington. I have to agree that the boundary is weird, some might say gerrymandered, but we have to live with it and work to get local people the results they expect and deserve. We bumped into a couple of Labour activists giving out leaflets, the conversation was good humoured and friendly. We both agreed the Lib Dems were running a policy free negative campaign.

Graham Robb Blog