| Elsewhere on Teesside, there's a very different crisis facing local town halls, as a senior Middlesbrough councillor fears the spiralling cost of caring for vulnerable children could force councils like hers to effectively go bust. Deputy mayor Mieka Smiles says Middlesbrough council is now spending £56m of its annual budget of £116m on children's services and said the costs for the department "are just totally spiralling out of control". She tells The Northern Agenda podcast how one local private children's home wanted £33,000 a week to care for one child, with an average weekly cost of £5,500 for a residential placement in a local children's home. Among the problems is the town's high levels of deprivation but also the difficulty the council has in retaining its own foster carers and social workers, many of whom are leaving to work for agencies for higher wages. Conservative Cllr Smiles says Middlesbrough - like other authorities in better-off parts of the country - could be forced to declare the equivalent of bankruptcy if a solution isn't found. Listen to the full interview here or read more here. "I think it's very close," said Cllr Smiles. "And I don't want to kind of unnecessarily alarm people. But [with] Middlesboro being a more and more deprived area, it follows on that we don't have the reserves that other councils have. "So I think we've got about £12 million in reserves, and our current budget for Children's Services is £56 million. We literally don't have any more money that we can spend on this." 
Levelling Up: 'They've moved the goalposts and wasted taxpayers' money'  Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan with Birmingham council leader Ian Wards (Image: Husna Anjum)
Recriminations continued this weekend for the local leaders whose time-consuming and expensive bids for investment from round two of the £4.8bn Levelling Up fund were rejected by the Government. And their hackles are likely to rise higher after a senior Minister, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan, revealed that areas who'd had success in the first round of bidding for the regeneration found had no chance of being successful second time round. It sounds a bit like the double jeopardy rules but in reverse. Asked about Birmingham council's failed bids on a visit to the West Midlands, she told BirminghamLive: "It was made a rule that if you'd been successful in the first one, you couldn't be successful for a second one because we would have to spread that money around the UK." Leeds city council deputy leader Jonathan Pryor told this newsletter he was "stunned" by the revelation, while leaders in Rotheram and Bradford they were unaware of the policy and submitted bids which were doomed to failure. Cllr Pryor said: "In round one Leeds submitted two bids, one was successful and one was not. The Government actively encouraged us to resubmit our failed bid with amendments for round two of the Levelling Up fund. The Government have moved the goalposts and in the process wasted huge amounts of taxpayers money." In response a government spokesman said: "Our decision making criteria, published last year, made clear that ministers could take into account other investment in local areas, including grants from the first round of the fund, to encourage a spread of funding across more areas. Only when all bids had been received, and their quality known, could decisions be taken to achieve this."
Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister has indicated that Rishi Sunak is not considering his position after being fined for failing to wear a seatbelt in a moving car during a trip to Lancashire to promote the Levelling Up Fund. Dominic Raab said this weekend that by admitting he made an "inadvertent mistake", the Prime Minister has not thrown his promise of a premiership of "integrity" into disarray. Mr Sunak has come under fire after being handed a police fine for a second time, with critics accusing him of showing "the same disregard for the rules" as his predecessor in No 10, Boris Johnson.
Burnham on Gove: He doesn't just mind paper clips, he gets thing done  Andy Burnham and Michael Gove will be speaking in Manchester on Wednesday
This week's big set-piece political event for our region looks set to be the annual Convention of the North, an event set up in 2018 "to create a powerful unifying voice for the North". And among the highest profile speakers at the event in Manchester on Wednesday will be Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Greater Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham. Though on different sides of the political divide, according to the Labour mayor the two have always got on going back to their time as Education Secretary and Shadow Education Secretary. Mr Burnham told Gloria de Piero on GB News this weekend: "He gets things done. He makes change happen and that's what you want in a government minister. Too many of them mind the paper clips and they're there because they like being there, they like the idea of it. "Whereas Michael actually uses it to try and get things done, and I think both of us have kind of come a bit more together. So it's a pleasure to work with him at times, actually. I don't mind saying that because he goes about things in a good way. "He listens, not every Minister on any side does that, but he does. And I'm hoping within a month or so, to have signed a new devolution deal for Great Manchester with Michael and the rest of the Government. That will be a big sign that devolution is really coming into its own."
Wednesday's event isn't the only Northern conference in the calendar - and comes a few weeks after November's This Is The North event organised by The People's Powerhouse (described as a movement for change for individuals, communities, businesses and services). Writing in The Northern Agenda today Ruth Hannan, a director of The People's Powerhouse, challenges organisers of this week's event to do more to achieve a fair North where different groups are brought to the table and allowed to share power.
Supermarkets battle over petrol prices - but only in the North  How pump prices compare in Rochdale and Ashton-under-Lyne, according to the AA.
There are few things more likely to annoy a motorist than filling up with petrol only to discover they could have done it much cheaper just a few miles away. And according to the AA, this was just what happened in Greater Manchester last week. Supermarket petrol in Ashton-under-Lyne was as much as 13p a litre cheaper (saving £7.15 a tank) than 10 miles up the road in Rochdale as a clutch of three superstores in close proximity went head-to-head on fuel, charging as little as 132.7p a litre. In the neighbouring town, the cheapest supermarket petrol was 145.7p. There was a similar gap in Bishop Auckland versus Durham in the North East and "more competitive supermarket pump prices" in places like Preston and Widnes. But it appears these price wars are a largely regional phenomenon. "Very rarely, southern towns will show glimpses of more competitive supermarket pump prices, such as around the Medway area, but not on the scale further north," the AA said in its press release. AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet said: "Discovering that supermarket petrol or diesel is £5 to £7 a tank more expensive than just 10 miles down the road is guaranteed to leave drivers livid. It just doesn't make sense, particularly when other essentials like bread, milk and eggs are pretty much the same price wherever you go." Average UK petrol prices continued to fall last week, reaching 148.6p a litre on Wednesday, while diesel was down to 170.7p.
 The first new Merseyrail train were due to welcome passengers today
This morning was being billed as an historic day for Merseyside public transport as the first of the region's new state-of-the-art Merseyrail trains welcomed passengers. As the Liverpool Echo reports in its live blog, "the road - or track - to this point has been difficult and littered with delays after a deal was first agreed but has finally arrived". The first new passenger service for the new Class 777 trains was due to depart from Liverpool Central, heading for Kirkby, at 10.50am. On board was Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, who says the new trains are a vital part of his promised London-style public transport plan for the city region.
Speaking of things being delayed, readers of The Northern Agenda might have noticed this newsletter arriving later than normal in the past few days. There are a few gremlins currently clogging up the system that sends out our newsletters, but a crack team of newsletter gremlin-hunters are on the case. Please bear with us in the meantime!
Family 'vindicated' as coroner rules in-person GP care could have saved student The parents of a Cheshire law student who died after four remote GP consultations say they have been vindicated after a coroner ruled it was likely he would have lived if he had been given a face-to-face appointment. Andrew and Anne Nash have fought for more than two years to find out whether 26-year-old musician David Nash would have lived if he had been seen in-person by clinical staff at Burley Park Medical Centre, in Leeds.  Andrew and Anne Nash have fought for more than two years to find out whether their son would have lived if he had been seen in-person
On Friday, Mr and Mrs Nash, from Nantwich, Cheshire, said they were "both saddened and vindicated by the findings that the simple and obvious, necessary step of seeing him in person would have saved his life" and wanted to make sure "others don't die as David did". The couple were speaking outside Wakefield Coroner's Court after assistant coroner Abigail Combes ruled it was a "missed opportunity" when an advanced nurse practitioner failed to arrange a face-to-face appointment for the student when he complained of fever, neck stiffness and night-time headaches during a phone consultation on November 2, 2020. The coroner said in her narrative conclusion: "Had he been directed to seek face-to-face or urgent care by the GP practice, it is more likely than not that he would have undergone neurosurgery approximately 10 hours earlier than he actually did which, at that time, it is more likely than not would have been successful." 
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Northern Stories  The Queen Consort with children during a visit to the Norbrook Community Centre in Wythenshawe, as part of her visit with King Charles III to Greater Manchester
- The Queen Consort sang the praises of Marcus Rashford when she unveiled a donation of books from the Manchester United striker to his former youth club. Camilla described the England player's gesture as "wonderful" during Friday afternoon spent touring Norbrook Youth Club with the King, where as a schoolboy Rashford played pool with his friends when not training with his club. The Norbrook Youth Club, in the Manchester area of Wythenshawe, received a bookshelf unit crammed with children's novels – picked by the footballer and Macmillan Children's Books team – donated by the Marcus Rashford Book Club in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
- The Government is considering a plan to funnel nearly a third of a billion pounds towards British Steel to save the struggling metal maker from collapse. A Treasury source told the PA news agency that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is thinking about handing the company £300 million in instalments over the next few years, if it meets certain conditions. Sky said that the funding will be linked directly to attempts to get British Steel to decarbonise, by helping it to replace the company's blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, with electric alternatives.
- New electric bin wagons which cost half-a-million pounds each were off York's roads for up to 26 days a month several times last year due to technical issues. The two HGVs were not operational for a combined total of 481 days from January 2021 to November 2022, data from a freedom of information (FOI) request shows. City of York Council bought the fully electric vehicles in 2020 as part of their bid to reduce carbon emission from their fleet. Each vehicle was off the road for around 35% per cent of the 23 month period. York resident and democracy campaigner Gwen Swinburn submitted the FOI request after noticing she saw the vehicles only "very occasionally".
- An extraordinary probe has been launched by the Vatican into an alleged lockdown sex party at a Newcastle cathedral. The Roman Catholic church is said to be examining the alleged incident as part of their inquiry into Robert Byrne's resignation as the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle in December. The Archbishop of Liverpool, who is leading the investigation, has been asked to prepare 'an in-depth report into the events leading up to Bishop Byrne's resignation', The Sunday Times reported. There is no suggestion that Bishop Byrne was at the alleged party or was aware of it.
- Residents of a Blackburn suburb have won their battle to prevent the conversion of a detached family house into a home to assess the parenting skills of troubled single mothers. Gryffin House Limited wants to take over the property on Moorcroft in Lower Darwen but councillors have rejected the controversial scheme. The firm submitted a planning application to use the house for up to four families at a time for 12 weeks to perform 'Residential Parenting Assessments'. With more than 20 nearby residents present Blackburn with Darwen Council planning committee turned down the proposal.
- The scale and complexity of North Yorkshire's biggest local government shake-up in half a century has been underlined as officers revealed it could take several years to complete the transformation from eight councils to one. Councillors have heard with ten weeks left until the seven district and borough councils and the county council officially merge to form a unitary authority officers remained focused on avoiding any major interruption in the delivery and quality of services on April 1. The unification would see North Yorkshire having about 2,500 property assets – some of which it would have no control over – including 143 farms, market stalls, a hotel and even beach huts.
I want a bold vision (and hugs) at the North's big get-together Everyone loves a get together – now more so than ever. After 2 years of online meetings, conferences and even Christmas Dos people seem to be embracing in-person events with gusto. At the People's Powerhouse convention – This is the North – in November, I'd never seen so many hugs. Now here we are at the next northern convention – The Convention of the North (we'll have to see if there's as many hugs as ours) – which presents an opportunity to explore our respective journeys to this point. The 2023 Convention of the North presents some evolution from the origins of the Northern Powerhouse; the event is now led by a collaboration of Northern leaders and delivered by a regional partner. This year's event is being organised by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and then the baton is passed to West Yorkshire; it is heartening to see that GMCA have worked with People's Powerhouse to explore how we can create a thread that connects both conventions but there still feels there's some way to go. It's clear that through a more collaborative approach, the Convention of the North presents an opportunity for the North to shape its own future and move away from a reliance on Westminster. The introduction of the Levelling Up agenda has presented an opportunity to connect broader economic activity with the needs of residents in communities in the North, the Convention is setting out a vision and aspirations, but haven't we been here before? People may wonder what's the difference between these two conventions and a big thing for me is the model of top-down solutions versus grassroots community collaboration; this is reflected in the policy provocations which despite speaking of the power of devolution have done little to explore devolving power to communities and developing models of collaboration.  People's Powerhouse chair Edna Robinson at November's This Is The North event
The Convention of the North clearly demonstrates the power, aspirations and opportunities that reside in the North recognising the opportunity presented by collaborating across the region that has a shared (albeit very varied) identity as: Northern. This opportunity doesn't really exist in other parts of England and more closely reflects (both a shared identity and collaborative ambition) to that of Scotland. But it still feels a little lukewarm. Where Scotland is embracing participatory decision making, community wealth building and a wellbeing economy, we still seem wed to the old models. One week before the Convention of the North takes place, the Better Business Summit was held – an exciting and engaging event which set out bold and provocative examples of what can be done by businesses to create a sustainable and even regenerative future. It is this type of bold ambition where the complexities of intersectional identity and doughnut economics are discussed in the same spaces as carbon literacy and participatory democracy. But how many of the people at this event (as well as This is the North) will be invited and enabled to attend the Convention of the North to challenge Northern leaders to be bolder and braver with their vision of the future North. When I attend the event next week, I'll endeavour to bring the spirit of these two events to the Convention of the North and ask five questions: 1. How will the proposals set out at the Convention of the North help to achieve a fair North? 2. Where are the opportunities and places that will work with a diverse group to explore a bolder vision of the North that looks to a just transition to Net Zero? 3. How will residents of the North see and experience a better life as a result of devolution? 4. Are Northern leaders willing to invite new and different people to the table and start to share power to collaborate on bold solutions for the North? 5. How do we make sure life is better for Northerners now and in the future? I hope others will join People's Powerhouse and our collaborators in asking these
and other challenging questions to leaders who feel increasingly far away. And I'll report back on the hug quota.
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