Cllr Matt Blair

07/09/2026

There’s something about this poster that made me stop for a second.

It’s not just the slightly unhinged WrestleMania energy 😂

Reform spend an enormous amount of time talking about protecting “our women and girls”.

Yet at their own conference this weekend, a woman protesting Nigel Farage was grabbed by members of the audience, had her hair and face pulled at, and was struck with a walking stick while security were already removing her.

You don’t have to agree with her protest.

You can think she was disruptive, annoying or completely wrong.

None of that gives a group of grown men licence to put their hands on her.

What troubled me almost as much was the response afterwards. Robert Jenrick said he had “zero sympathy” for her. West Midlands Police are now asking her to come forward so they can make enquiries.

So I think there’s a pretty basic question here.

How exactly does this fit with all the rhetoric about protecting women and children?

Protecting women cannot mean protecting only the women who agree with you.

And protecting children cannot mean teaching boys that political disagreement makes violence against a woman somehow understandable.

History gives us plenty of reasons to be wary of political movements that spend a lot of time identifying threatening “outsiders”, while becoming remarkably forgiving when intimidation comes from people on their own side.

I’m not interested in throwing the word fascism around lightly. But I do think the relationship between authoritarian politics, masculinity, fear and the language of “protecting women” is worth paying attention to.

If your politics says “protect our women” but your reaction when a woman you dislike is struck is essentially “she brought it on herself”, then perhaps it’s worth asking what exactly is being protected.

Different ring. Same old bullying.

06/09/2026

🏍️ Surron / illegal e-bike resale update

A few days ago I raised a question that came from a resident about what actually happens to Surrons and other bikes after they’re seized by the police.

The concern was pretty straightforward: if we’re putting significant police time and resources into getting illegally used bikes off our streets, it would seem a bit daft if they were then simply auctioned off and potentially found their way straight back again.

I’ve now had an update from Northumbria Police

Many bikes which have been illegally modified are destroyed and cannot be resold.

However, bikes which are legally capable of being sold have previously been able to go to auction.

Importantly, Northumbria Police have now suspended further auction sales of these bikes while the policy is reviewed.

I also understand that the Police and Crime Commissioner is discussing the issue with the Chief Constable.

That seems like a sensible response to me.

There may be perfectly legitimate circumstances where seized property can be sold, but with the scale of problems we’re seeing from illegally ridden Surrons and similar machines, we need to make absolutely sure we aren’t creating a revolving door where bikes are seized, sold and potentially end up back being used illegally.

Thanks to the resident who raised it with me in the first place. It was a good question and one worth pursuing.

I’ll update again when I know the outcome of the review. 👍

03/09/2026

Anthony Leather and I met again yesterday with our Northumbria PoliceNeighbourhood Policing Team and the South Tyneside Council Public Protection team at the police station, specifically to discuss issues in West Park.

A lot of what we discussed was very local, but one point in particular is relevant right across the borough, and probably well beyond it.

Nowhere near everything being posted about antisocial behaviour in local Facebook groups is actually making it through the proper reporting channels.

I completely get it. Facebook is quick, people want to warn their neighbours and sometimes people don’t want their name attached to a report.

But reports can be made anonymously.

There also seems to be a bit of a stigma around reporting people as being a “grass”.

It isn’t.

If someone is intimidating residents, damaging things, riding dangerously, threatening people or generally making other people’s lives miserable, they’re the problem. Not the person who reports them.

These bullies and piss-takers need dealing with, and reporting what they’re doing is simply looking out for your neighbours and your community.

By all means post it on Facebook as well. Local groups are really useful for sharing information and making people aware of what’s going on.

But please don’t assume that because it’s on Facebook, the police or Council know about it.

The teams dealing with this stuff aren’t monitoring every Facebook group 24/7. If it hasn’t been reported through the proper channels, it can quite easily disappear into the Facebook black hole.

That matters because reports help build the intelligence picture. If everyone can see ten incidents being discussed on Facebook but only one of them is actually reported, the official picture is never going to reflect what residents are experiencing. It also makes it much harder to argue for resources and target them where they’re actually needed.

I’d also ask admins of groups that allow ASB posts to encourage people to report incidents properly. If a poster really won’t report something themselves, please try to make sure the information gets passed on so it isn’t lost.

One other important point: posting pictures of people’s faces asking “who is this?” or publicly naming someone you think is responsible can actually be counterproductive.

Apart from the obvious risk of getting the wrong person, it can affect evidence gathering and potentially cause problems with a later investigation or prosecution.

If you’ve got a good photo or video, get it to the people who can actually use it.

Post on Facebook by all means. Keep your neighbours informed. Keep talking about what’s happening.

Just make sure it gets reported as well.

Reporting isn’t grassing. It’s looking after where you live. 👍

HOW TO REPORT 👇

🏛️ South Tyneside Council ASB Team
📧 [email protected]
💻 https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/11704/Report-antisocial-behaviour-online

👮 Northumbria Police
📞 101 for non-emergencies
💻 https://www.northumbria.police.uk/ro/report/asb/asb-v3/report-antisocial-behaviour/

🤫 Crimestoppers, completely anonymously
📞 0800 555 111
💻 https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously

🚨 If there is an immediate danger or a crime is happening now, call 999.

03/09/2026

🌊 The tides haven’t read the contract end date.

After the big tides over the last couple of days, nurdles have once again been washing up in significant numbers at Sandhaven.

Nurdle UK have been back out sorting and collecting them, but I understand they’ve now been told they will be leaving on Monday, while the Briggs Marine operation has already reduced from 12 operatives to 6.

That worries me.

We know there are still huge numbers of pellets out there. While some remain buried in relatively concentrated lines left by previous tides, we still have a chance of recovering meaningful quantities.

Once the autumn storms properly arrive, those deposits will be disturbed and scattered again, making an already difficult clean-up even harder.

I’ve therefore asked the Council what contingency is being put in place for the coming spring tides and weather conditions, and how much material has actually been recovered by weight so far.

If the insurer ultimately decides to withdraw specialist contractors, despite every effort to keep them here, that cannot simply mean the clean-up ends.

We need to know what has been recovered, what remains, and what resources will be available when the next tides bring more ashore.

The community response to this spill has been incredible. Hundreds of local people have stepped forward, alongside Nurdle UK, Briggs Marine and our Council teams.

They’re still turning up.

Unfortunately, so are the nurdles.

27/08/2026

Couldn’t have said it better myself….

A brief summary of 100 days with Reform UK in South Tyneside. 🥳

• 117 hectares of Greenbelt land set to be destroyed. 🔥

• Climate emergency declaration scrapped. 🗑️

• Labour’s unwanted local plan forced through. ⏩

• Opposition voices thrown out of the council chamber.

• Two of their own councillors resigned.

• Around £20,000 of taxpayers money spent on a needless by-election. 💷

• Stanley’s nurseries still under threat. ❌

Is this really the change voters demanded? 🤔

24/08/2026

🚨 68 DAYS UNTIL… well, not HMO doomsday.

You may have seen the rather dramatic claim that the Government is about to “strip South Tyneside of its HMO powers”.

So I went and read what is actually changing.

There is a significant planning reform coming, and there’s a legitimate debate to be had about it. The new national scheme will mean more planning applications are determined by professional planning officers rather than elected councillors on Planning Committee, and councillors will lose some of the discretion we currently have to call applications in.

I’m not particularly comfortable with that. I think there’s a perfectly reasonable argument that locally elected representatives should retain a meaningful role in significant or contentious planning decisions.

But that is very different from saying South Tyneside is losing its powers over HMOs.

It isn’t.

Our HMO planning policies don’t suddenly disappear.

Our Article 4 Direction doesn’t suddenly disappear.

HMOs which require planning permission will still require it.

Applications will still have to be assessed against the relevant planning policies, and unacceptable HMO developments can still be refused.

In fact, under the new system, having strong, robust local planning policies arguably becomes even more important, because officers will be applying those policies when making delegated decisions.

There are also circumstances in which applications outside the mandatory-delegation categories can still reach Planning Committee.

So by all means let’s debate whether the Government is right to shift more planning decisions from councillors to officers. I have concerns about that myself.

But can we please do it without an “HMO DOOMSDAY COUNTDOWN” suggesting that on 1 November the drawbridge comes down and South Tyneside suddenly becomes an HMO free-for-all? 😂

There’s enough genuinely wrong with our planning system to argue about without frightening residents about something that isn’t actually happening.

68 days until a planning procedure changes.

Dramatic, admittedly, but apparently not quite dramatic enough for the graphic department. 😘

22/08/2026

I’ve had a response from Emma Lewell MP regarding the ongoing issue of illegal electric motorcycles and off-road e-bikes in South Tyneside.

This is something residents have raised with me repeatedly, particularly around West Park and the pump track, but it is clearly not just a West Park issue. It is affecting communities across the borough and across the country.

Emma has confirmed that she has written to both the Home Office and the Department for Transport about the rise in antisocial behaviour linked to these bikes, associated criminal activity, parental responsibility, pressure on local police and the need for national support.

Locally, I’ll continue working with residents, South Tyneside Council officers, Public Protection and Northumbria Police on the specific issues affecting West Park.

The key point for me is this: local police and council teams are working hard, but they are being left to manage the consequences of a wider national problem. We need proper controls around the sale and use of these bikes, clearer enforcement powers, and support for the teams dealing with it on the ground.

In the meantime, please keep reporting incidents through the proper channels. I know people get reporting fatigue, but it really does help build the evidence needed for action.

These bikes are not toys. Used illegally, they put residents, park users, children and the riders themselves at risk.

16/08/2026

💚 Values based leadership means getting stuck in.

Sharing this from Rachel Taylor, Leader of the Green Group, who’s been down on the beach helping with the nurdle clean-up.

Tonight is the peak of the spring tides, so it’s a really important opportunity to get down there and remove as many nurdles as we can before they’re carried back out and redistributed.

The Fish Quay in North Shields is a priority area, but honestly, if you know a beach with nurdles on it, getting them off the coastline helps.

I’ll be at Sandhaven this evening. See you down there! 💚🌊

One of the genuinely brilliant things to come out of this awful situation has been the community response. Our WhatsApp community now has over 340 members, and it’s been amazing seeing so many people giving up their time and working alongside Nurdle UK, Briggs Marine and South Tyneside Council.

If you want to link up with other people heading out, join the WhatsApp community here:

👉 https://chat.whatsapp.com/I8PC4ELuwHv4FhzMJBeVM2

Please also read South Tyneside Council’s volunteer guidance before heading out:

👉 https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/31271/Volunteer-guidance-for-plastic-pellets-nurdles

Gloves on. Bags ready. Let’s get as much of this stuff off our coastline as we possibly can. 💚

14/08/2026

Congratulations to all of the Reform South Tyneside lads and lasses who went down to Clacton to help Nigel Farage take on Count Binface.

You guys really showed the establishment! 😂

Now that the intergalactic threat has been defeated, welcome back down to Earth.

While you’ve been away, South Tyneside has been dealing with a serious environmental incident, with plastic nurdles affecting our river and coastline and potentially causing damage for years to come.

I’ve seen volunteers out helping. I’ve seen residents asking questions and demanding action.

I’ve not seen much from our Reform councillors about it.

So, welcome home everyone.

Nigel can get back to explaining that £5 million personal gift he says was for his security, and you can get back to the potholes, dog mess, fly-tipping and overflowing inboxes back here in South Tyneside. 👍

There’s plenty of actual work to be getting on with.