THE Conservatives will this week come under sustained pressure to intervene in the North East as a series of interest groups prepare to tell ministers "it’s time to listen."
Senior Tories gathering for the party’s Manchester conference will be lobbied on a range of issues, including help to offset a Scottish threat set to take hundreds more jobs from Tyneside.
Ministers will also be told it is time for intervention to tackle metal theft, which is thought to be costing the region’s councils more than half a million pounds a year as well as regularly bringing transport chaos as thieves target Metro lines.
Council bosses are also making their pitch to safeguard local authority funding which they say will be reduced if changes to business rates go ahead.
Those needs are being taken to the party after groups across the region decided to seize the opportunity following complaints the North East is too far removed from London to have its voice heard.
North Tyneside elected Tory mayor Linda Arkley is one of few in the region engaged in regular dialogue with senior party members, following 13 years of Labour council chiefs having the ear of senior cabinet members.
Mrs Arkley said: “Right now we face a threat to jobs in North Tyneside, we have to start protesting about this and that is my aim here, to make sure we are heard at the highest possible level.”
Elsewhere various groups have struggled to see regional interests defended in Whitehall.
James Ramsbotham, chief executive at the North East Chamber of Commerce, said now more than ever it was important the region’s voice was heard.
“The North East’s limited representation in Government makes it imperative that we use all outlets available to us to champion the pioneering work of regional business,” Mr Ramsbotham said.
The Chamber’s efforts will include a warning that Government carbon emissions policies are putting jobs at risk at Alcan in Lynemouth, Northumberland.
In the run-up to the General Election last year, The Journal launched its Case for the North East campaign in an attempt to convince party leaders that the region should recognised for its cultural and economic contribution to the UK.
The campaign was launched in the face of Conservative proposals, now enacted, to scrap the regional structures which had ensured civil servants adapted policies which helped the North East.
