Northumberland County Council met on 10 September 2025, and agreed to increase the budget for the Northumberland Line project by £37.9 million, commence a county-wide Community Governance Review, and also discussed corporate performance and annual reports from cabinet members.

Northumberland Line

The council agreed to increase the value of the Northumberland Line capital project by £28.77 million to ensure the completion of the project as originally intended. The additional funding will come from an increase in the council's contribution of £10 million, £7.87 million from the Department for Transport (DfT), and £10.9 million from the North East Combined Authority (NECA). The DfT will also provide a further allocation of £9.13 million directly to Network Rail, making a total project wide increase of £37.9 million.

The additional £10 million from Northumberland County Council will be achieved by virement¹ from other council-funded capital projects:

• £884,226 from capital contract inflation
• £4,100,000 from the Fleet Replacement Programme
• £750,000 from the Mitford Road Landslip Scheme
• £3,000,000 from the Refurbishment of County Hall (Block 2)
• £1,265,774 from Ashington Town Centre Infrastructure

The council also agreed to add £9,115,774 to the 2026-27 Capital Programme to replace the money vired to the Northumberland Line capital project in 2025-26, with the exception of the capital contract inflation.

The report noted that the project had been very successful, with passenger journeys exceeding 500,000 since the line opened in December 2024. Stations at Bebside, Bedlington and Northumberland Park are expected to open in the coming months.

The report also considered mitigation options to avoid exceeding the existing approved budget of £298.5 million, including mothballing some or all of the remaining stations. However, these options were deemed unaffordable and not in line with the project's objectives.

Councillor Richard Wearmouth, Deputy Leader, said the Northumberland Line has already proved to be very successful with 3 stations open at Ashington, Blyth Newsham and Seaton Delaval. He added that user numbers had reached 500,000 by August, and that full monitoring and evaluation would commence shortly to quantify the true impact of the project.

Community Governance Review

The council agreed to commence a county-wide Community Governance Review, in accordance with the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007². The review will principally affect the smaller, more rural parish councils, as opposed to town councils.

The council also agreed to:

• Approve the Terms of Reference and timetable for the Review, as set out in Appendix 1 for Community Governance Review.
• Establish a cross-party task and finish Working Group of 10 members to oversee the Review, consider submissions, and make final recommendations to the council.
• Authorise the Director of Law and Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer to take all necessary consequential steps in relation to the Review.

The report noted that there are nine unwarded parish councils currently without any parish councillors. These are Akeld, Bewick, Earle, Ewart, Hartleyburn, Ilderton, Kilham, Roddam and Snitter.

The council has a duty to maintain the community governance arrangements within the Northumberland Council area, and a county-wide review will ensure that appropriate and effective second-tier representation is available to all electors within Northumberland.

Corporate Performance

The council considered a report providing a summary of progress against the council's three Corporate Plan priorities. The report presented the key performance indicators outturn position and supporting narrative to show the activity of services across the council in delivering the Corporate Plan priorities up to the end of quarter 4 2025/26.

The three key priorities of the Corporate Plan 2023-2026 are:

• Achieving Value for Money
• Driving Economic Growth
• Tackling Inequalities

Annual Reports

The council received the annual reports from the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, the Cabinet Member for Roads and Highways, and the Cabinet Member for Environment, Rural and Farming.

The Housing and Planning Cab Member Annual Report described issues that set the context for delivery of the Cabinet Member's portfolio, highlighted achievements, and outlined the areas of focus for the coming year.

The Roads and Highways Annual Portfolio Report highlighted achievements over the past year and outlined the areas of focus for the coming year.

The Environment Rural and Farming Annual Report Final_Sept 2025 - contained issues that set the context for delivery of the portfolio, highlighted achievements over the past year, and outlined the areas of focus for the coming year.

Appointment of Chairs and Vice Chairs

The council considered a report to appoint Chairs and Vice Chairs to the local area Planning Committees. The council resolved at the meeting on 3 July 2025 to create 3 new local area Planning Committees.

The report recommended that the local area Planning Committees make recommendations to the council to approve, as the committees have their own proportionality which is likely to be different to the overall proportionality of the council as a whole.