“The buck stops here” was a notice that Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-53), famously kept on his desk in the Oval Office, and it expresses one of the universally acknowledged truths of western democracy. The man or woman at the top carries the can when things go badly wrong.
But no longer, apparently, in English local government. Even if the truth of Truman’s dictum were any longer accepted by British politicians, such is the state of our local authority finances that it is hard to say who really ought to carry the can. 14 years of Tory austerity have left councils with such reduced funding that they cannot adequately provide even the most basic services they are tasked with.
By the time councils have paid for adult and children’s social care, they have only 48% of their revenue budgets left to cover everything else, from potholes to bin collection. An increasing number are not even able to meet their statutory responsibilities and have to issue Section 114 notices, effectively declaring themselves bankrupt. Between 2018 and 2023 seven councils – Nottingham, Birmingham, Woking, Thurrock, Croydon, Slough and Northamptonshire – issued 114 notices, some of them more than once.
They are in the position described in another famous dictum by a 20th century politician, but inverted. As Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin reportedly reputedly said in 1931 of the popular press barons of his day, they enjoyed “power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages”.
Today the leaders of English local government are in the opposite position. They are burdened with responsibilities without the power or means to fulfil them.
The case of the Gateshead flyover
The problem came to a head over the Christmas and New Year holiday with the case of the Gateshead flyover, which carries the southern approach road to the Tyne Bridge, one of the most important if not the most important, entry points into the regional capital of Newcastle, carrying 40,000 vehicles a day.
The flyover was built in the 1960s, and Gateshead Council has been talking about replacing it with a boulevard since 2008. The trouble is it’s a big job and they don’t have the money. Numerous applications to the government’s Department for Transport (DfT) have failed to produce the cash.
Then suddenly, on 13 December the consequences of years of neglect struck, causing multiple problems for the travellers of the Tyne & Wear conurbation. One of the concrete pillars supporting the flyover was found to be so decayed as to be unsafe and the road was closed, severely restricting access to the Tyne Bridge and central Newcastle.
But that was far from all. The tunnel used by the Metro rail service linking 60 stations on both sides of the River Tyne runs beneath the flyover and is also at risk. So it too was closed, cutting the entire network into two, north and south of the river. What is more, it quickly became clear that while Metro trains could continue for the time being to run on both sides of the Tyne, albeit unconnected to each other, trains stranded south of the river would be unable to reach their maintenance depot to the north and would eventually grind to a halt.
As if all that was not enough – traffic on the Tyne Bridge itself is restricted while major repairs take place. These, it is hoped, will be completed by 2028 (yes, 2028) in time for the 100th anniversary of its opening. And tests are being carried out on the motorway approach to the bridge in Newcastle on the north side, built in the early 1970s, to make sure it is still OK to use.
A blameless shambles?
This is a shambles of the first order. It can’t just be shrugged off. If ever there was a case in local government for which someone, somewhere, should be held accountable, this is it. But who?
The politician at the centre of the storm more than any other is Councillor Martin Gannon. Not only is he politically responsible for the flyover in his role as leader of Gateshead Council since 2016 but also for the Metro as deputy mayor and cabinet member for transport at the North East Combined Authority. Before that he had the same job as chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee.
He has said there have been numerous discussions with the DfT about the flyover, including applications for funding, but they had all been rejected. Other politicians now caught up in the shambles can fairly argue that they have recently inherited a problem not of their making.
Kim McGuinness has been North East mayor only since May. Now finding herself with overall responsibility for regional transport, she has acted with speed and decisiveness. Within days of the tunnel closure, she met Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander – with Councillor Gannon, who is also her deputy mayor, and with the Gateshead MP – and made clear what must be done both long- and short-term. She laid down the law to Gateshead and Gannon:
“We are taking immediate local action to repair Gateshead Flyover to the point where Metro trains can run again in the tunnels beneath it,” said the mayor. “Gateshead Council must deliver a plan to make that happen within days, they know that and they have my full support in getting it done … ”
“The permanent solution”, said McGuinness, “is not just to demolish the flyover, but to redesign the road network as well. There’s no route to delivering all of this without some government funding and we have agreed to continue this discussion, but we can’t afford to wait for that. We are willing to use regional resources for the demolition to take place as soon as Gateshead can put a plan in place”.
“My priority is to end the disruption and harm this is causing local people. I will be pushing Gateshead Council, my own regional transport team, Nexus (the Metro operator) and the government to do everything possible. They’re working round the clock to get the Metro back to normal and that intensity will continue with a long-term fix for the residents of Gateshead and our wider region.”
Looming for years
And Gateshead has indeed now got the flyover propped up and the tunnel reopened, and the Metro is now crossing the river again, albeit subject to gaps in service and one significant suspension due to other maintenance problems such as overhead lines and signalling.
There is no doubt that government austerity and cuts to local government funding since 2010 played a part in causing the present transport shambles. There were probably even more Tory transport secretaries than rejected applications for funds during those years. But those ex-ministers no longer have Whitehall desks where the buck can be brought to a halt. Alexander had been in office for only a couple of weeks when the roof fell in and cannot reasonably be held responsible.
But Councillor Gannon, with his much longer involvement with the North East’s transport network, including the Metro, has no such excuse. What is more, his time in charge has been beset by other problems too. The Metro has had a poor reliability record under his political stewardship for years. The service hit a low point a year ago, with only 61% of trains running on time.
This is due to no small extent to the fact that the fleet is more than 40 years old and well beyond its planned operational life raising the question of why a new fleet was not ordered earlier. Once again, the Conservative government must take a share of the blame. The first of 46 new trains that were eventually ordered are just starting to come into service following more lengthy delays.
When the councillor complains of lack of government funding he has a point, but voters expect their leaders to be problem solvers, not buck passers. This problem has been looming for years.
While the flyover has been crumbling within yards of his office, Councillor Gannon has had the time to draw up an ambitious £6.1bn regional transport plan to transform road, rail, bus and Metro services by 2035 with little or no realistic chance of being implemented.
Prominent on the wish list is a new Leamside rail line linking the Metro at Pelaw wIth Washington in Sunderland and Ferryhill in County Durham. This has all the makings of another “dual the A1 north of Morpeth” scheme, promised for decades, a good photo opportunity for politicians, but never materialising.
Accountability and trust
Gateshead Council and the DfT have clearly been aware of the looming flyover problem for years. Yet when the worst happened they were apparently caught without a contingency plan. No one seems to have anticipated the knock-on effect on the Metro.
Responsibility for this fiasco is a complicated matter, as we have seen, split between many local and national politicians over many years, not to mention the professional engineers and managers who are paid to advise them but who by convention are not held publicly accountable.
This confusing situation, where all involved – if still around – can find some reason to absolve themselves from responsibly, may change soon for the better, if hopes for the Labour government’s plans for widening and deepening English devolution are fulfilled. A white paper was published on 16 December, three days after the Gateshead Flyover was closed, and a Bill is to follow in the first session of the current parliament (time allowing). Already six metro mayors, including McGuiness in the North East, have been given greater control over their budgets through so-called integrated settlements.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has stressed the importance of devolving more control – and with it accountability – to local leaders: “Accountable local leaders, single-mindedly focused on delivering for local people,” she said. “This is the kind of change that is so badly needed to restore trust in politics as a force for good.”
Unfortunately, after 14 years of Conservative-led government, the level of devolved local control and the resources to back it up is coming too late to protect North East travellers from the Gateshead flyover fiasco. And completing the devolution job will take much longer; Rayner has described it as “a generational project”.
In the meantime, though, if public confidence in public services and the politicians responsible for them is to be maintained even at its present low level, the buck must be seen to stop somewhere. In view of his close involvement with North East transport over the past nine years, and even though he has clearly been hampered by lack of government funding, it has to be with Councillor Gannon. How does he plan to show that he accepts this? Rough justice on him it may be, but justice none the less.
Gateshead Council has been approached for a response.
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