Last night councillors received an email from senior management to say that problems with grass cutting and strimming were as a result of the exceptional weather. This is not the whole truth.

Two weeks ago Cllr Hopgood and I in a meeting with the Head of Service and managers received an apology because in the Durham City area the Council started grass cutting three weeks later than elsewhere.

We were then told that in Coxhoe grass had been cut SIX times, yet in Bearpark and Newton Hall it was only 3 times. Asked why, we were told the machinery had broken down. Why didn’t management bring machinery from other areas of the county to ensure a balanced service? They have now after our complaints.

We have evidence of staff taking longer breaks than they are allowed, of rude staff, in fact as I write this I have another complaint from Framwellgate Moor from a resident on the phone.

We have areas left unstrimmed, in some places several feet high, in one place trees growing out of the side of a council house, yet were told in the council budget that grass cutting services had not been cut in the recent budget documents.

All of this says to me a complete breakdown of communication and management at all levels and a complete failure by Durham’s Labour cabinet to get control of this huge Unitary Authority. We need political change in County Durham urgently. This is not the only department where there are problems.

And whilst budget cuts do cause problems, it does not help when the council persists in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money on publicity rags, refuses to cut the cost of councillors, and seems to spend more time on press releases than dealing with day to day issues which matter to residents.

I recently asked how many press releases the council puts out here was the response:

July 2011 – 112

Aug 2011 – 75

Sept 2011 – 117

Oct 2011 – 56

Nov 2011 – 105

Dec 2011 – 82

Jan 2012 – 59

Feb 2012 – 96

Mar 2012 – 98

Apr 2012 – 77

May 2012 – 123

June 2012 – 88

TOTAL 1,088

And how many complaints have they received?

In the last fifteen months complaints to Durham County council have more than doubled:

509 – Last Quarter of 2010/11

578 – First Quarter of 2011/12

630 – Second Quarter of 2011/12

759 – Third Quarter of 2011/12

1138 – Fourth Quarter of 2011/12

It strikes me that because of the failures all over the place at DCC, Labour are fighting a media battle to put out as many press releases as possible to help cover up the problems. Staff across all departments have stories of things not being run properly. Council phone systems still have wrong phone numbers for contacting officers months after they have moved to new premises or changed their numbers.

Many staff  are frustrated by the minority of colleagues  taking advantage of poor or none existent monitoring of sickness absense which would see heads at all levels roll in private industry and many other councils across the country.

No one knows who is in County Hall at any particular moment because no one has to swipe into the building and record their presence – so no proper monitoring of who is and isn’t working, a health and safety nightmare in the event of a fire and a serious security risk.

Labour are losing any credibility they ever had in this county to run our local services.