I don’t think I can add any more to this fromfellow councillor Nigel Martin – it is spot on – when are Labour going to realise that we are not going to go away and will continue to be the only party attacking their disgraceful record.

Over to Nigel:

Things at County Hall seem to be getting even more bizarre.

After a long staring contest earlier this year, Labour agreed to a small improvement to the system of call-in. This can happen when Cabinet takes a decision, but a group of non-cabinet members wants to have the matter reviewed before it is finally implemented.

In the old council, you had to persuade the Chair of Scrutiny (Labour) to agree or a Chair and Vice Chair 0f a scrutiny subcommittee (at least one Labour if not both) to support it. In practice that meant they had a veto and it was effectively impossible to get a call-in going.

In the new council any five members of a scrutiny committee can ask for a call-in and while the Chair of Scrutiny (still Labour) can veto it he has to stand up in public and justify why he has done so.

So far so good.

At the end of March, Cabinet agreed to build a new primary school in Esh Winning (something everyone supports) but they chose to build it on a green field site in the centre of the village against the wishes of the vast majority of people who responded to the local consultation, including the existing school management and governors.

So we decided that, since cabinet members had not visited either of the proposed sites and were going against the professional advice of the school management, the matter ought to be reviewed and we asked for a call-in.

At this point there is a procedural problem as the Chair of Scrutiny,  Councillor Joe Armstrong, had sent a letter to Cabinet in complete support of building on the green field site.So in our call-in request, we pointed out that Joe might be seen to have fettered his discretion, and asked that his Deputy make the decision on whether or not to accept the call-in.

All well and good, and the call in debate is to take place next Thursday (16 April) at 10.30 am at County Hall.

Now here comes the bizarre bit. Attached to the agenda papers for the meeting is a statement from the Council Monitoring Officer (chief legal advisor), that members of the Committee who have expressed a prior view on the issue can speak but must not vote, and consequentially that the members who asked for the call-in must also have a pre-determined view and so also should not vote.

This is utterly barmy. Scrutiny is not one of the quasi-judicial committees (like Planning or Licensing), so why cannot we argue on behalf of our constituents and vote on what we believe.

Surely that was what we were elected to do.

I have today written to Simon Henig, leader of the Council, Bob Young, Portfolio member for the Environment, as well as the head officer for Environment calling on them to be first off the blocks in preparing a bid for Durham to be one of the Electric Car Capital cities. Our press realease is below:

Liberal Democrats in Durham are calling on the council to bid to become one of the country’s first ‘green cities’, with the aim of taking a green road out of recession.

Councils will soon be able to put themselves forward to pilot a scheme for trialling electric cars in the city. Local Lib Dems are campaigning to ensure Durham does not miss out on the chance for vital new jobs that would help families struggling through the recession.

Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson Carol Woods said: “Durham City is the ideal location for this trial, with our world renowned university and the recently set up Climate Durham organisation we are in the perfect position to turn Durham City into one of the greenest cities in the country.

“We would also be building on the good work already done by the Lib Dem City Council, which introduced electric cars into the fleet of Council vehicles.”

Councillor Woods along with Councillor Wilkes (Framwellgate Moor Division), launched their call to action outside the Science Centre in Framwellgate Moor, which has one of the few electric car charging points in the country.

Councillor Wilkes commented “This is the perfect opportunity for the County Council to show that it can be environmentally friendly and to take the lead role nationally on climate. The Science centre in Framwellgate Moor shows what can be achieved in Durham.”

Councillor Woods further commented “If we can bring this to Durham, we will be able to create more jobs just at the time when we need them most, and put Durham on the map as one of the beacons of a future green economy. The Lib Dems have been calling for a green road out of recession and I am pleased that Durham might have the opportunity to lead the way.”

The councillors are calling for a response from leader of the Council Simon Henig and Portfolio Holder for Environment Bob Young as soon as possible to make sure Durham is first off the blocks in bidding for this opportunity.

County Durham has launched a “handyperson” service. The project is run by Three Rivers Housing Association’s Care and Repair Department and will take on small scale jobs for residents of County Durham who are over 60, disabled, a victim of crime, at high risk of falling or who are vulnerable in other ways.

The service providers  can complete small jobs (taking up to three hours) in and around the home of both owner occupiers and tenants , but tenants will need to check first whether some jobs are the responsibility of their landlords.

People who use the service will be asked to pay for materials used (at cost price) apart from screws and small fixings etc. and a charge of £10 per visit (including VAT) will be made to cover labour costs. This charge will not be made on jobs taking 30 minutes or less and all labour charges are waived for service users who are in receipt of a “means tested” benefit .

The service is funded by Durham County Council and County Durham Primary Care Trust.

You can contact the handyperson service in any of the following ways:

Write to County Durham Handyperson Service,  62-63 Bede Ave., Sherburn Road, Durham DH1 5TG

Email: handyperson@threerivershousing.co.uk

Visit the website www.threerivershousing.co.uk

Telephone  0191 375 3705

If you use the service, please do come back with a comment. Your experience could be really useful to other people.

I attended the funeral of Jo Fergus MBE yesterday,  councillor for  Barnard Castle East for over a quarter of a century and a true community councillor. It was a truely moving ceremony with representatives from the Police and Fire Authority as well as councillors of all colours. I wish all her family and friends the best at this difficult time.

Turns out the new council has decided that all business cards for staff and councillors must have larger writing and thicker card and be printed on both sides – appears they have to meet recommendations on the size of text. Clearly this also means yet more cost having to print on both sides – surely someone could have come up with an alternative.

Any way, it seems that council workers are only being offered 0.5% pay rises – whilst MPs get 2.33% – another injustice. Durham County Council budgeted for pay rises of more than 2%, so along with their hugh unallocated reserves, if this pay rise goes through at 0.5% they’ll have piles of our money – they should give a discount on the council tax if this happens – just like they promised last year before landing residents with 3.94% rise.

Congratulations to Ken Lucas down in Redcar who was elected yesterday with a massive swing of the vote. The Lib Dem vote almost doubled despite a local Labour candidate. Clearly all across the North East, the Labour vote is under threat and the chief beneficiaries are the Liberal Democrats.

Result:

Ken Lucas (Lib Dem) – 809
Marion Fairley (Lab)- 667
Lynn Payne (BNP) – 305
Barry Hughes-Mundy (Con) – 125

Turnout 36.83% (Up from 33%)

Dryburn Road will be closed next week whilst work is carried out on drainage for the new development on the old Dryburn park House site.

Full details below:

B6352 Dryburn Road, Durham City

To enable new storm sewer connection works to be undertaken, it will be necessary to close to vehicular traffic B6532 Dryburn Road, between Blackie Boy Roundabout and Aykley Heads Roundabout, Durham City.

The closure will be effective from 6.00 am on Monday 6 April 2009 for approximately 2 to 5 days.  Residents will be exempt from the closure notice and will be permitted access to and egress from their properties during the works.  A letter drop will be carried out to residents.

An alternative route will be available to vehicular traffic from the south eastern side of the closure

a)     at Aykley Heads Roundabout northerly via C12 High Carr Road and westerly via C12 Finchale Road onto C100 to Blackie Boy Roundabout

b)     via north westerly via A691 Southfield Way to A167 Sniperley Roundabout then 4th exit along C100 Dryburn Park to Blackie Boy Roundabout to the western side of the closure and vice versa.

The mycouncillor website has been given a make over which is why I haven’t been in touch for a while.

NEW COUNCIL START

Wednesday saw the start of the New Unitary Council which passed off smoothly. I was somewhat dismayed however at the String Quartet at the post-council buffet. Whilst the buffet did not seem over the top and was probably good value, having a string quartet (they were good) did not seem appropriate in the current economic climate and I have asked how much this cost. If everyone at home is having to tighten their belts (apart from Gordon Brown), the Council must do the same.

What planet are they on at County Hall. To approve a contract to a company for the park and ride which is £24,000 more than the bid by the existing company is bizarre. Especially when you see that the current company Scarlet Band was given a 98% satisfaction rating.

The continued waste of taxpayers money at County Hall must come to an end immediately. We have already seen a whopping great increase in council tax despite promises to cut it through savings, every other week we find another area where money is going out the window.

Only yesterday, despite the heating being on councillors opened up windows in an LGR update meeting to cool down the room. Perhaps it’s time for pensioners in Durham to send their energy bills to County Hall in protest.

With a new county council due to start on 1 April, the Boundary Commission started a process of reviewing both the number of councillors the authority should have together with the wards.

We heard a couple of weeks ago that the Boundary Commission is ‘minded’ to agree to the number of councillors remaining at 126 and that is has started on the process of looking at ward boundaries.

This is a public process, and anyone can put in views to the Commission. More information can be found at their web site: www.boundarycommittee.org.uk The deadline for doing so is 8 June 2009.

Readers should be aware that a law is going through parliament that would result in any changes being implemented at the next ‘normal’ local election date for the council, which in our case is May 2013.