Eyes & Ears 03.04.26 (again)
I'm resending this because I know quite a few of you will have missed it over the Easter weekend. Apologies if you are seeing the edition again. A new edition will be with you on Friday.
Problem: too many towns with too many empty shops. Solution: build homes around an out-of-town shopping centre. Simples, as a well-known meerkat would say.
Also this week there’s a massive vote of confidence in Northumbrian Water from its overseas investors; the Chamber embraces the Prime Minister’s message to Europe; why Her Royal Fryness would never be an acceptable headline in Eyes & Ears; another vote of confidence, this time from the BBC to the North East; and what came first, punk rock or Apple?
I hope you enjoy today’s edition. There won’t be one on Sunday because of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. See you next week.
Two issues, one solution
New housing estates often draw criticism for being built with little or no amenities. At the same time many of our High Streets are in need of a revival, to put it mildly.
Those two things came to mind when I heard this week’s announcement of a landmark agreement signed by the owners of the Metrocentre and Gateshead Council to deliver a huge urban regeneration project around what was once the largest shopping centre in Europe.
Metro Riverside is a 20-year project that could create 5,000 jobs and see 4,500 homes built on 525 acres of brownfield land. It’s a development that starts with an amenity base that new estates lack - and the Metrocentre itself will be “re-imagined” (hate that word) to add community facilities to the retail, leisure, hospitality and transport links that are already there.
It will be carbon-neutral and a ‘20 minute destination’, aiming to have the needs of all residents located within a 20 minute walk.
Metrocentre Chair Martin Healy said: “By working in partnership with Gateshead Council and others, we can bring together long term investment, local leadership and shared purpose to create a new dense, urban community that delivers homes, jobs and opportunities, while ensuring Metrocentre continues to evolve as a major economic engine for the region for decades to come.”
Water injection
Northumbrian Water Group has confirmed a £400m equity investment to support delivery of its five-year business plan.
Hong Kong multi billionaire Li Ka-shing and his CK Infrastructure (CKI) arm, which has a 75% stake, is putting in £300m with £100m coming from US private equity firm KKR, which controls 25% of the business.
The investors said they were putting up the money to help fund a £4 billion investment in improving supply and halting pollution.
Heidi Mottram, CEO of Northumbrian Water, said: “Our shareholders have acted decisively, committing significant new funding that will accelerate improvements for customers and deliver real environmental benefits over the next five years.”
Andrew Hunter, co-managing director of CKI and Chair of Northumbrian Water, said: “The £400m investment is paramount to future-proofing Northumbrian Water’s network and for continuously driving its operational excellence, efficiency, and financial resilience. These qualities are essential for ensuring service standards and operational resilience over the long term.”
Europe here we come
The North East Chamber of Commerce welcomed the Prime Minister’s speech this week where he talked about the need to rebuild a trading relationship with Europe.
Chief executive John McCabe said: “When the Prime Minister visited us recently, he heard directly from our members about the importance of global markets in driving economic growth in the region. Local growth has to come from international trade.
“Recent events highlight the UK’s exposure to global energy market disruption. Improving cooperation with Europe on trade and energy is a practical step that can provide greater stability for businesses and support investment in key sectors.
“Strengthening ties with the European Union will provide North East business with better access to our biggest and closest market. It will help improve supply chain resilience, unlocking new and exciting opportunities for exporters.”
Seaham’s leading role
Seaham Primary Care Centre has been selected as one of the first 27 sites in England to be upgraded into a Neighbourhood Health Centre. This means it will be transformed into a one‑stop hub for: urgent treatment; GP services; pharmacy services; diagnostics; and, over time, wider support such as debt advice, employment support and family services.
The model is designed to operate 12 hours a day, six days a week, with the explicit aim of reducing A&E attendance and ending the “maze of referrals”.
Royal fish and chips
The centenary celebrations are in full swing at the family-owned Colmans of South Shields after an historic royal visit from the Princess Royal helped to mark 100 years of award-winning fish and chips on South Tyneside.
She sat down to enjoy a traditional fish and chip lunch at Colmans Seafood Temple alongside guests from across South Tyneside’s business community.
It was a busy schedule for the royal visitor. She paid a visit to Newcastle Hospitals’ maternity services in her role as Patron of the Royal College of Midwives - the unit at the RVI is one of the largest in the UK with more than 5,000 babies born each year.
And she also visited South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade, which is marking its 160th year. Honorary secretary Tom Fennelly described it as a “momentous day”.
Open to question
The organisation One Million Women and Girls is stepping up its campaign work ahead of the May elections, urging candidates and councils to prioritise women’s safety, economic equality and political representation across the North East.
The main political parties will be represented at a series of free hustings-style events this month chaired by former BBC editor Jacqui Hodgson - although registration is required.
The first one is at the St Mary’s Heritage Centre in Gateshead on April 13 with others following in Sunderland, South Shields, North Shields and Newcastle. Director Sally Young has more here.
Energetic campaigning
The electioneering continued yesterday with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch visiting the Wilton International complex in Redcar where she talked to staff at Huntsman about scrapping carbon tax - CEO Peter Huntsman has recently said he would close the Teesside facility because of increased energy prices.
She then went to Sheepfolds Stables in Sunderland where she visited Vito’s italian restaurant and talked about the need to bring energy bills down.
A theme emerging there, I think.
Investment - without the drama
The BBC has confirmed the North East creative cluster as a priority region and has pledged an extra £15m as part of an agreement with North East Screen and mayors Kim McGuinness and Ben Houchen.
That agreement will see the two combined authorities put in an extra £5.8m to fund the North East Screen Industries Partnership, which works to develop the TV and film industries in the region and boost employment in those sectors.
The creative cluster will see the production of The Northumbria Mysteries starring Robson Green. It will also produce more short films for The One Show, as well as a 10-part adaptation of Sue Townend’s book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ which will be filmed at The Northern Studios in Hartlepool and on location in the town and Sunderland.
Alison Gwynn, North East Screen chief executive said: “This extension shows the BBC believes in the North East as a welcoming home to majorproductions thanks to our stunning world-class locations, crew and facilities.”
A quick word
Stephen Patterson, CEO of Newcastle’s Business Improvement District (BID) company NE1, has been appointed as the first Chair of the national BID Steering Committee. The new committee will be responsible for providing services to BIDs across the country including lobbying national Government, advocacy, working groups, professional development and peer support for BID staff. Plans for 250 homes at Clasper Village, an elevated riverside site next to the Redheugh Bridge, have been submitted - eight years after demolition was completed. Work was held up for two years because one resident refused to leave the home he had lived in for almost 50 years. The BBC has uncovered fresh allegations about Reform councillor Barry Elliott who, before he was elected to Northumberland County Council, shut down companies with debts in the millions. The highly-successful Northumberland Line, which began operating in December 2024, is now fully operational with Bedlington this week becoming the sixth station to welcome passengers. A retrospective application to demolish the historic Kepier Brick Kiln, near Durham has been refused. Who knocked down the kiln in July last year is a mystery - and it’s not much clearer as to what happens next since all that remains is a large pile of old bricks. The East Durham Veterans Trust in Seaham is among 14 charities across the country being allocated up to £1m each by the Government to help ex-service personnel get easier access to health, housing and employment. Freight Island, a delayed rooftop entertainment complex at Eldon Square in Newcastle, is now set to open in June, according to the company behind the venture. The Town Moor in Newcastle is the latest location to receive a sapling from the Sycamore Gap tree which was illegally cut down in 2023. A seafront car park in Redcar is to close between 10pm and 6am to stop illegal car racing and anti-social behaviour. A 900-year-old Anglo-Saxon place of worship has been discovered underneath St Cuthbert’s in Darlington during a £2.5m restoration project. A campaign has been launched to build a new town pier in Redcar as part of a wider regeneration project. Leisure centre operator Fusion Lifestyle, which runs Newcastle's City Baths, has gone into administration with a council loan of around £5m still outstanding. Rage It Out, an axe-throwing and rage room venue in Consett will be allowed to serve alcohol despite concerns from police.
Cragside’s roof overhaul
A major, £1.8m roofing conservation project has begun at the National Trust’s Cragside property in Northumberland. It’s not a job you would want to tackle after a night on the tiles, says Tony Henderson in Cultured. North East.
Business bites
The Government is said to be examining how to use legislation to take complete control of British Steel, including its Scunthorpe works which employs 3,500 workers, according to the Financial Times. Housing provider Bernicia has launched a five‑year, £400m corporate strategy to build and improve homes while investing in skills, employment and wellbeing. Chief executive John Johnston, the new Chair of the North East Housing Partnership, said: “In a challenging environment, we’re choosing ambition over inertia.” Plans for the £340m expansion of the Integra 61 manufacturing and industrial site at Bowburn have been approved by Durham County Council. The development has the potential to support up to 3,000 jobs. Newcastle-based Collingwood Legal has been named employment law firm of the year at The Legal 500’s 2026 Northern Powerhouse Awards in Leeds. Marsden Quarry, which is near the National Trust’s Souter Lighthouse, is seeking a seven-year extension to its planning permission, potentially keeping extraction going until 2032 and restoration until 2034. The proposal is currently at the scoping stage with South Tyneside Council. Gateshead firm Aspire Technology Solutions has made its third acquisition in two years by taking on Glasgow firm the NVT Group and its 49 staff. Fintech firm Kani Payments is looking at overseas expansion after securing additional investment from Maven Capital Partners. British Engines has secured planning approval to redevelop the long‑vacant Parsons Works site in Byker into a new manufacturing facility expected to create up to 150 jobs. Leading North East businessman Matt Boyle was presented with an outstanding contribution award at the North East Automotive Alliance awards. An £8.5m expansion to Newcastle College’s Energy Academy at Wallsend has been recommended for approval by North Tyneside planners. Advance Northumberland, the council’s development company, plans to invest in Manor Walks shopping centre in Cramlington with a view to selling it by the end of the century for a modest profit.
1984 ad break
Apple is 50 years old. Founded on April 1 1976 by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the Silicon Valley startup helped turn computing into a personal technology.
The first Apple Mac was launched in January 1984, although it wasn’t called an Apple Mac then, it was a Mackintosh. The launch of the Macintosh was not just another technological leap for Apple, as Nick Dalton, associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Northumbria University explains in The Wider View below. It also inspired the now-familiar cultural moment of the ‘product launch’.
Here is the teaser - the Super Bowl ad, directed by Ridley Scott, that was shown during America’s most-watched televised event of that year and most years. It was shown just two days before Jobs made the big reveal in front of an audience of 1,500 people at a theatre in Cupertino in California where the Mackintosh was literally let out of the bag and began speaking for itself to rapturous applause. If you want to see that moment, then you can click here.
THE WIDER VIEW
In a fizz
Workers at the mothballed Ensus biorefinery in Wilton were kept on the payroll by their German owners after its closure in September last year - a victim of our trade deal with the US.
Why, you may well ask? Well, there was, and is, a lot going on...
The Teesside plant converted millions of tonnes of wheat from British farmers into bioethanol, the alcohol product blended into petrol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Petrol stations generally stock E5, which contains 5% ethanol, or E10 (10%). But the UK could allow retailers to sell E15 or even E20, a move that has already been pushed by other countries - and one which would obviously need more bioethanol.
In addition, the bioethanol process produces two crucial by-products: high-protein animal feed, which goes back to farmers; and CO2 which is essential for healthcare, the nuclear industry, abattoirs and the food and drink sector - it makes our drinks fizz.
The Ensus plant closed because of our trade deal with the US. In return for reduced tariffs on car exports, the UK agreed to reduce taxes on US bioethanol imports from 19% to zero. The resulting flood of US bioethanol left Ensus unable to compete, although The i Paper understands its German owners CropEnergies have been “very supportive” and agreed to keep employees on the payroll while negotiations over the site’s future continued.
The other main source of CO2 is fertiliser production - but that has also been disrupted because of the high cost of natural gas and ammonia shipments being held up in the Strait of Hormuz.
This exposure to a shortage of critical CO2 supplies prompted Business Secretary Peter Kyle to put £100m into reopening the Ensus plant, which employs about 100 people and supports a further 3,000 jobs in the supply chain.
“At the moment, Britain is having to import all of its CO2 and the Government has recognised that,” said Terry Waldron, a spokesperson for Ensus.
It does beg the question why the Government didn’t agree to support the plant when it asked for assistance before having to shut down last year?
What came first? Punk or Apple?
Fifty years! Where does the time go? I have to admit that I thought the Sex Pistols and punk rock came well before the launch of Apple. But it was close.
Apple was founded on April 1 1976. Two days earlier the Pistols played their now iconic gig at London’s 100 Club before a small but select audience which inspired many people to form their own bands - Billy Idol and Siouxsie Sioux being just two.
It’s probably because I encountered the Pistols long before Apple entered my life - and, oh, what an entrance!
I’d always loved jukeboxes. I fantasised about having my own. It would be full of music I liked and I wouldn’t have to keep popping 50ps into it.
Then the iPod came along (thanks in no small part to Northumbria University graduate Jonathan Ive) and my lovely wife treated me to one. It remains the best present anyone has ever bought me. It’s also the reason why I will never buy another Apple product again.
I had a large vinyl collection with a few cassettes and even more CDs. All paid for with my hard-earned money. I set about transferring every album and every song that I still liked into my iTunes library - the jukebox in my pocket.
Long story short. Apple shut down iTunes in 2019. Despite their promise that users would still have their music collections, I didn’t. Not all of it, anyway.
I used to have a record collection that was worth something. I could have included it in my will. But my (incomplete) iTunes library dies with me. I can’t pass it on.
Steve Jobs didn’t tell me that.
I mentioned Nick Dalton, associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Northumbria University, in the ad break. He is an early Apple adopter and an app developer. Here he gives his selection of the company’s (and Jobs’) most significant technological achievements over the last half century.
Noel Gallagher was 10 when the Sex Pistols released Never Mind The Bollocks. He says it is the greatest album ever made. He handed out the accolade towards the end of the Sky Arts documentary I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol, which explores the early punk era through first-hand accounts - primarily Glen Matlock’s, the only musician in the band who left (or was he pushed?) and was replaced by Sid Vicious.
If you are interested in the whole punk thing then the documentary is highly recommended - you can still stream it on Sky Go or through NOW’s entertainment package.
You can also read this article from The Conversation by Adam Behr, Reader in Music, Politics and Society at Newcastle University, who says that 50 years ago the Pistols “captured a particular moment of social disaffection and cultural experimentation that remains emblematic of how music, style and social context aligned to produce something both fleeting and enduring”.
Inside story of success
More than half of the students who attend this sixth form college are eligible for free school meals, and almost a quarter of the year group got into Oxford or Cambridge. The i Paper went inside the east London state school sending 62 kids to Oxbridge.
An age old problem
Given the ongoing and often heated debate about banning social media for under-16s, it’s easy to assume that young people are the only group at risk of online harm.
Misinformation research often focuses on younger people, and multiple studies do identify younger groups as vulnerable to online deception.
But evidence suggests it’s not just Gen Z - older adults are just as, if not more, likely than younger generations to believe misinformation, as Holly Barnett of Lancaster University finds out.
Really liking this feed. Excellent mix of info, opinion and news, both good and bad. Good news is hard to seek in the rest of journalism so this balance is profoundly to be welcomed. Also like the occasional comment, like hating the word ‘re-imagining’; now, if you go for an all out war on ‘reaching out’, I’m yours for life.
Interesting stuff as always. As a Geordie expat it's refreshing to find a decent way to keep up with the local news as some of the main local media give you cancer of the eyeballs.