Shambles! Mayor blasts pigeon excuse for failure to finish work on time

THE redevelopment of a historic market place in a Northumberland town has been delayed by a month in part due to nesting pigeons.

- JAMES ROBINSON Local Democracy Reporter

Northumberland County Council announced plans to restore Hexham’s Shambles market place earlier this year.

The project was due to be completed in October, but is now unlikely to be finished until late November. The town’s mayor Coun Derek Kennedy called the reasoning the “worst excuse” he'd ever heard and warned the delay would mean work would clash with some of the town’s key events.

Coun Kennedy, who also represents the Hexham West ward on Northumberland County Council, said: “It’s the shambles of the Shambles.

“The council told everybody in August that it would be finished in two months, so into October. I live close by and I have seen a lack of work going on, so I have challenged the council on that and asked whether they were still on target.

“They have come back and said it is now going to be another two months. It's been a month and nothing has happened.