Seaham spark (From Durham Times)

Seaham spark

3:50pm Thursday 26th April 2012 in Spectators Notes

A CERTAIN town not too far away from Durham was the subject of some debate at County Hall this week.

As cabinet members approved a masterplan for revitalising Seaham, Councillor Neil Foster invoked the ire of his east coast colleagues by recalling how he first set eyes on the community as a young apprentice engineer in 1977.

“I wondered where I’d arrived,” he said, surely regretting launching into his speech and wishing the ground would swallow him up.

The Tudhoe councillor quickly recovered, however, pointing out what ‘regeneration and renaissance’ had occurred in the town since.

THE redrawing of County Durham’s local electoral boundaries was a long and tiresome process and will affect many of the current constituencies for the next Durham County Council elections in 2013.

But with the political map finally redrawn, Spectator is aware of many a councillor scrambling to adjust their focus to the new world realpolitik.

De-selections are almost inevitable. Backbiting has already begun.

And Spectator is led to believe there may be more than a few high-profile casualties.