County Councillor Mark Mather has been working with bus service providers on both sides of the border to establish a new bus route that will serve Carham and Wark. Following feedback from residents, changes have been made to the timetable originally circulated in August. It has not been possible to make all the changes suggested by residents as the bus has limited availability around school times, when it is needed for the school service. Councillor Mather is happy to receive comments on the revised timetable. Please email him using this link. It is expected that the new service will begin in early 2026. Bus passes will be valid on both sides of the border.
Category: surveys
Surveys and consultations that may be of interest to residents of Carham parish.
GP Services
Wooler Health, the GP practice in the Cheviot Primary Care Centre in Wooler, is considering increasing its boundary to the north to include Wark and Carham. This is part of a wider proposal to change the practice boundary, which it says is needed because of the growth of the local population and difficulties in serving some areas. It says: “We propose to increase the boundary to the north to include Wark and Carham as these are both south of the River Tweed and therefore on the English border so people living there should have the opportunity to register with us as we already cover the neighbouring Cornhill.” You can comment on the proposed boundary changes by completing a short online survey. For more information, email Wooler Health or phone 01668 263 852.
Polling District and Polling Place Review
Northumberland County Council is carrying out a Polling District and Polling Place Review. Its goals are to ensure that all electors have reasonable facilities for voting; to make polling places as accessible as possible for everyone; and to ensure that polling places are located, where possible, in the polling district they serve. All residents of Northumberland are invited to provide feedback on the polling stations they vote at or on any of the polling districts across the county. Comments and representations can be sent by post to the Elections Office, County Hall, Morpeth, Northumberland NE61 2EF or by email or by following the link on the Polling District and Polling Place Review page to complete the online feedback form. The consultation closes on 9 October 2025. The outcome of the review will be published in November 2025 and will be available for inspection on the Council’s website and at County Hall. Anybody making representations should be aware that, upon completion of the review, all correspondence and representations received must, by law, also be published. For more information, email the Elections Office or call on 0191 624 811.
Proposed Bus Service for Carham Parish
County Councillor Mark Mather has been working with Northumberland County Council and Scottish Borders Council on changes to the bus services in the north rural areas. For Carham parish, this would mean a bus service along the B6350, calling at Carham and Wark and connecting with nearby communities. Councillor Mather is asking for comments on the proposed timetable. Please have a look at it and send your comments to the Parish Clerk, who will forward them to him.
If this new service is to go ahead, it will need the support of residents, so do forward this message to anyone you know who lives in the area and encourage them to respond with their comments, too.
Mobile Phone Coverage
Northumberland County Council is working with mobile phone network providers to make sure that all areas of Northumberland have good mobile coverage. Please tell NCC what coverage is like where you live by completing its questionnaire. The questionnaire is open until 30 April 2025.
ROWIP Consultation
Northumberland County Council is inviting comments on its ten-year Rights of Way Improvement Plan. This is a statutory document which sets out how Northumberland County Council will identify, prioritise and plan improvements across the PROW network for the the next ten years. You can read the plan and access the survey from the dedicated page on the Northumberland County Council website.
The deadline for comments on the plan is Friday 18 October 2024.
Rural Cost of Living Survey
Independent research commissioned by the Rural Services Network (RSN) last year shows that rural areas are suffering more acutely from the cost of living crisis than urban areas. To lend more weight to the argument for more funding for rural areas the RSN is calling on as many rural residents as possible to complete a rural cost of living household survey. The online survey is not difficult to complete and you can omit any questions that you do not want to answer. The RSN is part of the Local Government Association and is campaigning for fairer funding for rural areas. It has launched the survey in partnership with the Citizens Advice Rural Issues Group. Please forward this information to anyone you know who lives in a rural area. You can complete the survey by clicking on this link.
Storm Arwen Review
Northumberland County Council is carrying out a review of the impact of Storm Arwen and the response to it. It wants to hear from individuals and local businesses about their experience of the storm and the multi-agency response to it, including that of the County Council itself. As well as examining the disruption caused by the storm and the response to that disruption, the review will make recommendations to ensure that everyone is better prepared for similar events in the future. Please send your written submission to Sean Nicholson at Northumberland County Council, County Hall, Morpeth NE61 2EF.
Have Your Say on NHS and Social Care Services
Healthwatch Northumberland is an independent organisation that exists to make sure that people’s views on health and social care are heard. It is now holding monthly drop-in sessions to give residents the opportunity to talk about their experiences of NHS and social care services. The nearest drop-in sessions are held in Berwick-upon-Tweed on the second Wednesday of the month, from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon, or you can join the monthly online drop-in sessions on the second Friday of the month from 1.00 pm to 2.00 pm. For more information, go to the Healthwatch Northumberland website, call 03332 408 468, or send an email. The equivalent service in Scotland is Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
Gigabit Broadband Survey
Northumberland will be one of the first counties in England to benefit from a UK Government project to provide next-generation gigabit broadband to hard-to-reach homes and businesses by 2025. Gigabit broadband is ten times faster than superfast broadband, at 1,000 Mb per second. Northumberland County Council is working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and telecoms providers to thoroughly research and map the county for its existing and future broadband infrastructure, to help it identify hard-to-reach premises. To ensure that Carham parish’s connectivity needs are included and not overlooked, please complete the DCMS survey, and please encourage others to do so, too – particularly those who live in outlying farms and communities. The survey deadline is 11 June.
Carham Community Website 