“Save our Shipyard” and North East Party Leader condemned for “opportunistic” call for Fulwell73 Studio to be moved to Newcastle

The leader of the “Save Our Shipyard Campaign” and the North East Party has been condemned after he publicised a story in the Chronicle calling for the planned Fulwell73 studio in Pallion to be moved to Newcastle.

Brian Moore, who lives in Gosforth and chairs the North East Party, has long campaigned in Sunderland to restore shipbuilding to the banks of the River Wear in the former Pallion Shipyard. The group have been persistent for several years, but have never offered a credible business plan or gained monetary backing for their idea.

When plans were announced first announced that Fulwell73 would lead the way in building in a new film studio in Pallion (separate to the shipyard building) Brian and his campaign infamously denounced it as “pie in the sky”, despite the company having lined up big capital for it. The government later announced monetary backing for the project, with the North East Combined authority following suit.

Now, Brian has had the Chronicle publish his calls for the studio to be moved to Newcastle, claiming that Sunderland “is not good enough” in terms of its infrastructure and is “the worst possible location”. Predictably, many NUFC trolls jumped on this bandwagon to mock Sunderland, having long been vindictive about the game changing project.

SGM can exclusively reveal that Moore in fact approached us first to try and publish this story, but was subsequently rebuffed on the grounds that it would be met with a “rain of hate” due to its clearly unacceptable and absurdist premise in putting down Sunderland.

Brian responded to these objections by stating “my audience is Newcastle,” indicating he is seeking political gain in his own constituency by pushing this, aiming to be a councillor in Gosforth where he has stood for election several times, at Sunderland’s expense.

It was also subsequently pointed out to Brian that Fulwell73 is by nature of its name, a Sunderland aligned company, founded by a Mackem, Leo Pearlman, who campaigned for the studio on behalf of his hometown and is also a member of the SAFC board. Thankfully, this also means that this widely loathed proposal is, as was also put to Brian, a “non-starter.”

Editorial remarks

Politically, however, Brian must understand that he has tarnished the brand and name of the North East Party in Sunderland by choosing to run with this Anti-Mackem political commentary. Despite being part of the Pallion Shipyard Campaign, Moore has positioned himself as effectively favouring Newcastle Centric regional governance at the opportunistic expense of Sunderland.

Sunderland voters have long been wary of regionalist initiatives precisely because history shows they tend to accelerate Tyneside dominance at the expense of the Wear. The Tyne & Wear authority of the 1970s was opposed precisely because it funded the Metro using Sunderland taxes, only to then exclude Wearside from the system altogether. Even the new North East combined mayoralty has been met with scepticism concerning this, although to her credit Kim McGuinness has not shown any signs of it.

If Brian, or his campaign, supports jobs in Sunderland, why does he choose to try and undermine what is widely accepted as the largest investment in our city since Nissan, that will bring an entire industry supply chain into Wearside? It has always been our understanding that anyone who opposes this is lacking common sense, and while we always have “the moaners” to deal with locally even they would surely not go as far as calling the project to be given to Newcastle instead!

In this case, it would appear The North East Party is in fact, “The Gosforth Party”