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Cities shunned - but we do like to be beside the seaside According to a local website Morecambe in Lancashire "enjoys one of the finest views from its promenade of any seaside town in England, a magnificent sweep of coastline and bay, looking across to the Lakeland mountains". And new mobile phone data has suggested that seaside towns like Morecambe have been thriving since the pandemic while city centres have thinned out as working patterns have changed for good, new mobile phone data has suggested, as LancsLive reports.  Morecambe is thriving since the pandemic but other places are doing less well (Graphic by Marianna Longo)
People have flocked to small towns and suburbs and enjoyed flexible commutes into their offices, according to anonymised phone activity by analytics platforms Placemake.io and Visitor Insights. It covers more than 500 high streets from January 2019 to December 2022, and is based on 8 million mobile devices across the UK. Morecambe saw activity shoot up by 70% between 2019 and 2022, while popular resort Bognor Regis in West Sussex surged by 40%. Visitors to Kirkby, in Merseyside, surged by 160% over the three-year period amid local regeneration to the town centre, the data indicates. The study also suggests a pattern of shrinking visitors to large city centres over the past three years. London boroughs suffered the biggest declines across high streets between 2019 and 2022 and activity in big cities Birmingham and Sheffield also dropped by about 30%.
Meanwhile, academics have concluded that travelling to see friends and family can help improve a person's health, after studying responses from 3,000 people living in the North. People who leave their local community are more likely to report good health compared to those who stay closer to home but the range of places visited and how often people travel are also important factors, according to academics from University College London. The authors examined constraints to travel outside of the local area, such as a lack of suitable public transport; trip frequency; the number of different places visited; distance travelled; car use and public transport use and compared these factors to people's self-reported health scores. Lead author Dr Paulo Anciaes said: "In the North of England, rural and suburban areas with limited access options are more likely to experience population loss as young people move to the cities in search of work and good travel options. "Meanwhile, older generations are left behind in these areas with limited transport options. The range of places they can visit is low, leading to less social participation and lower levels of general health."
'It's not levelling up': North East leader attacks region's devolution deal  North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll (left) and Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon
His council is one of seven across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham to have reached the long-awaited £4.2bn agreement with the Government, which will bring new funding and decision-making powers. But social media comments by Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon are evidence that long-standing disagreements over the devolution question among the North East's political leaders have still not been resolved, as Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland writes. He complained this week that the region is being "forced" into a devolution deal which he claims is "not levelling up". He says the huge package announced last week is "not a good deal" and called the proposed North East mayor a "non job", though insists he does not want to reject it. While insisting that he does support the new deal that he helped negotiate, the council leader wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that the North East was "being forced into a deal that gives us a fraction of what we've lost". The 64-year-old complained that a £1.4bn investment fund to be given to a new North East Mayoral Combined Authority over 30 years is a "fraction" of the amount lost from local council budgets under austerity cuts since 2010. Cllr Gannon said the North East was being pushed into agreeing to a mayoral deal as the Government will otherwise withhold promised funding, particularly over transport upgrades. He added: "Be under no illusion [Levelling Up Secretary] Michael Gove knows exactly what he's doing. And it's got nothing whatsoever to do with negotiating skills, helping the NE, or levelling up."
Meanwhile, a former Tory candidate has ruled himself out of the running to become mayor of the North East. Charlie Hoult has confirmed he will not be standing in the big election set to be held in 2024. The businessman, who owns the Hoults Yard in Newcastle, finished as runner up to Labour's Jamie Driscoll in the North of Tyne mayoral election in 2019. But he says commercial commitments with growing software business Opencast mean he will not seek the Conservative Party's nomination for the new mayoral job.
For the longer view on some of the historical tensions that have long simmered in the North East, I'd recommend this colourful piece by Dan Jackson, the author of The Northumbrians: The North East of England and its People. A New History.
On the Unherd website, he writes that "the hope is that the North East will thrive under a unified political leadership; and the region's history suggests this optimism is not unfounded". But he adds later: "Despite evidence that shows that people in the North East have the greatest sense of belonging to their region than anywhere else in England, we've memed ourselves into thinking that Tyneside and Wearside are so totally incompatible that we can't present a united front — even as the North of England's other great conurbations have surged ahead with their own elected mayors."
Devolution was on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's agenda this morning in his first big speech of 2023, where he promised to embrace the 'Take Back Control' message used so effectively by campaigners during the 2016 Brexit referendum. He told an audience in London: "But we'll turn it from a slogan to a solution. From a catchphrase into change. We will spread control out of Westminster. Devolve new powers over employment support, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare provision and how councils run their finances. "And we'll give communities a new right to request powers which go beyond this. "All this will be in a new Take Back Control Bill - a centrepiece of our first King's speech. A Bill that will deliver on the demand for a new Britain. A new approach to politics and democracy. A new approach to growth and our economy."
Northern leaders celebrate as Channel 4 sell-off plans dropped It was the privatisation virtually nobody was asking for - and now it looks like the controversial plan to sell off Channel 4 launched by Boris Johnson's Government is to be reversed by his successor Rishi Sunak. In a letter seen by Lewis Goodall of The News Agents podcast, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan wrote to Mr Sunak to tell him that "pursuing a sale at this point is not the right decision and there are better ways to secure C4C's (Channel 4 Corporation) sustainability".  Tracy Brabin is among those happy at the news the sell-off of Channel 4 is being reversed. Graphic by Carly Holds
Channel 4 was created in 1982 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher and is entirely funded by advertising, out of public ownership. Everything aired by the broadcaster - which recently moved its HQ to Leeds - is commissioned from external production companies. Political leaders in the North feared the plan to privatise the broadcaster led by former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries would put at risk its plans to create new jobs and programming outside London. West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said: "If the Government are truly behind levelling up, they should be supporting our creative sectors to be the driving force. I hope Ministers can now draw a line under this saga and concentrate on solving the real problems our country is facing." And Henri Murison of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership said: "We will now see more jobs and opportunities move North under the leadership of Chief Executive Alex Mahon, and I am glad this Prime Minister has seen sense on this issue the way his recent predecessors did not."
The move was just the excuse Merseyside-born Nadine Dorries needed yesterday to launch a bitter attack on the PM as she accused Mr Sunak of U-turning or abandoning key parts of her ally Boris Johnson's agenda. Mr Sunak is blamed by allies of Mr Johnson for playing a key role in the former prime minister's downfall last summer, after resigning as chancellor. And Ms Dorries has not been shy since about making her feelings known about her new party leader. She wrote on Twitter: "Three years of a progressive Tory government being washed down the drain. Levelling up, dumped. Social care reform, dumped. Keeping young and vulnerable people safe online, watered down. A bonfire of EU leg, not happening. Sale of C4 giving back £2b reversed. Replaced with what?"
Speaking of Rishi Sunak, he yesterday set out plans for all pupils in England to study some form of maths until the age of 18 - though he later clarified this would not mean a compulsory A-level for maths for everyone and may not be achieved in this Parliament. He might be interested in this brainteaser based on the downgrading of the North's high speed rail plans in the Integrated Rail Plan in 2021 (when he was chancellor). With new high speed rail now only going from Warrington to Marsden as opposed to all the way across the Pennines, as originally promised, the answer is 64 kilometres. 
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Northern Stories  Peter Kay arrives on stage at Manchester Arena for the first night of his huge 110-date tour
- A Bolton councillor has warned of a Peter Kay tickets 'scam' after a pair of tickets costing £380 for this weekend's show in Liverpool failed to turn up. Andy Morgan, a cabinet member on Bolton Council, said friends had purchased the tickets from the 'peterkaytickets' website 'in good faith' for him and his wife to attend the show at the 8,900 capacity M&S Bank Arena this Saturday. However, the tickets failed to materialise with the website seemingly no longer in existence. Emails to 'customer services' at the site have also been returned unopened saying the address is no longer in use.
- Liverpool Council's books still cannot be signed off as the wait goes on for the findings of an independent investigation into alleged bribery and corruption within the local authority. Last summer, Bristol-based law firm TLT LLP was tasked with leading a scope into the local authority's records to establish whether there is any evidence of "improper influence in the council's decision making arising from the actions of the former Mayor and former senior officers." The firm is yet to issue its first stage analysis, despite saying it would be able to deliver within six weeks. A contract was first signed between the city and TLT LLP in May.
- Leeds City Council's decision to auction off a historic Grade II-listed site has been labelled "bonkers" by its longest-serving representative. Councillor John Illingworth said he was "really quite cross" that Abbey Mills, which has been publicly owned for 60 years, is due to go under the hammer next month. The 19th century mill buildings have been valued collectively at around £100,000, after the council said there was no financial benefit to retaining the property, which stands next to Kirkstall Abbey. In recent years, only a dwindling number of businesses have made use of the overall site as its condition has crumbled.
- Vetting procedures for police recruits in Cheshire have been tightened since a serving officer was jailed for raping a 13-year-old girl, the area's crime commissioner has said. Pc Ian Naude, who was then 30, was jailed for 25 years in 2018 for raping the teenager and for four convictions relating to sexual offences against other children. His case was highlighted following an inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into vetting, misconduct, and misogyny in the police service.
- Trafford Council now has a new leader after a meeting at the town hall to appoint a successor to the recently appointed MP for Stretford and Urmston. Labour's Tom Ross, formerly the executive member for Finance and Governance, will now take the place of Andrew Western who was elected to parliament in the Stretford and Urmston by-election last month. His predecessor was in attendance in the council chamber to nominate Cllr Ross into his old seat at the head of Trafford Council.
- High-priority complaints of mould and damp made by Barnsley Council tenants will be resolved in 24 hours, a report has revealed. Prompted by the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale from environmental mould exposure, the Labour-run council is set to take action to resolve mould issues quickly. A report to the council's cabinet states that Berneslai Homes, who manages 18,500 homes on behalf of Barnsley Council, has launched an "immediate inspection regime", bringing in a damp and mould specialist to ensure that high priority damp and mould jobs are completed within 24 hours.
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