Things are going from strength to strength at the leisure centre since being saved from the Labour-run council’s attempt to close it. The new gym – funded from local Lib Dem councillors neighbourhood budgets is proving a real pull. There were nearly 30 members in the combat class this evening. Member numbers are strong and the outlook is good.

There is an offer at the moment. If you join this month you get 2 months free !! pop in for more information. the £10 a month offer for under 16’s is also doing well.

I am investigating some question marks about future ownership and running of leisure centres run by the council, but on the face of it it looks like Abbey is doing very well.

Held a meeting this evening in Brasside with council officers and residents from Rowan Drive to discuss a way forwards for the two collapsed walls, and wider issues in the village were also brought up. the council will be writing out to all residents who own one of the garages where the walls have collapsed, to assist in getting the work done, the meeting was well attended and I believe a successful outcome is round the corner on this issue.

Wider issues of the state of the estate and of the Prison club as well as of anti social behaviour were also brought up and we intend to deal with these in separate meetings. I have passed some concerns across to the police already and will post the latest Police and community meeting dates shortly.

I attended the latest meeting on community buildings this afternoon. As a reminder, the council is currently considering the future of over 100 community buildings in the county, and is looking at closing some, transfering the ownership of others.

The final report is still due to come in February according to todays meeting, but the final outcome for buildings is going to be a long process, with assistance expected for up to two years in helping local groups take over buildings.

I raised concerns about the capacity of the council to work through this process and also about current and ongoing repair issues on some community centres.

To recap:

Framwellgate Moor Community Centre – the committee is interested in taking over the building to manage it as a community asset but there are a lot of unanswered questions, I am on the committee and helping to work through this.

Fyndoune House Witton Gilbert – User numbers are very slow and at the moment it looks like the building will not continue as a community building, but again there are issues as there is a property above the centre. Perhaps there is still a chance for it to be kept open but it will require local residents to get involved. also see Woodbine below.

Beaurepaire Communal Hall, Bearpark – it is possible that the Twelve villages network may wish to take the building on, so things look OK at the moment but clearly things could change.

Bearpark community centre – There is a big grey area here as the building is actually not owned by the County Council but by an organisation called CISWO. I am trying to get more information about the future of the centre at the moment.

Woodbine Road Communal Hall, Pity Me – similar situation to Fyndoune – I understand that Durham City Homes may be showing an interest in the old communal halls as technically they could say they are owned by them – if the ownership of Durhams Council Houses transfers from the County Council to an arms length housing association of some type which seems probable, then what happens to these halls will clearly change.

So overall still a lot of confusion, but also for some buildings the potential for big improvement.

Happy New Year!

You probably thought you were too late to nominate your “councillor of the year”, but the closing date has been extended to January 13th so you’ve still got the opportunity.

I only know this because I received an email from County Hall entitled “Leader of the Year Award”, but it turns out there is a full complement:

Last year when the weather was, well slightly colder than today, I was being inundated with winter probelms.

Over the last few years I have campaigned for changes to the way in which the council allocates grit (salt) bins. Fortunately changes were made, and after a lot of pressure I have managed to get additional grit bins. In total there are now 8 more grit bins across our area than before.

The council has still refused bins at the following locations following my reissuing of requests from past failed attempts.

Durham Tce – Fail, no bin to be placed
Hartside View – Fail, no bin to be placed
Oatlands Way – Fail, no bin to be placed
Potterhouse Tce – Fail, no bin to be placed

I am particularly annoyed that the council has again refused a bin at Hartside View given the distance from the nearest one, the number of households on the estate and the fact that there are elderly residents bungalows in this area too. I have asked for a copy of the scoring for this one.

I am waiting for answers on a few other locations, but to avoid the risk of theft from them I will not list them at this point. If you strongly feel  that you are too far away from a grit bin, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

The Bin contract issue has made the national press today – see the Express for example.

What has made me so furious about this whole debacle is the lack of any transparency for councillors. When we are not given the chance to look at such issues by the Labour-run council it can hardly be our fault. When we ask for transparency and it is denied, that is Labour’s fault.

Having considered the Bin issue today, I think that to ensure that the council is seen to be democratic, and is democratic, where there are working groups involving councillors and officers in relation to contracts, non-Cabinet councillors should be given the opportunity to attend – including opposition councillors.

Until the full story about the Bins contract comes out, the only thing we can be sure of is that there has not been transparency or opportunity to comment for back-bench councillors.

It is possible that the lowest price bidder could not deliver the bins on time or to quality. Clearly if Council procurement delays caused this then there is an issue, but if not, it is quite possible that on this occasion officers followed the correct procedures.

The cost of delaying this contract and therefore delaying the move to fortnightly collections is in the region of £90,000 a month. I await with interest the truth on this one as it may not be quite as bad as is being made out.

The lack of democracy and the way Labour runs our council will of course continue to be a problem until they lose control.

For anyone who hasn’t noticed, there is a huge row brewing over the placing of a £4.2m contract for new wheelie bins with a foreign company when a UK company bid £250,000 less.

Durham County Council has tendered this contract following European regulations. However, no councillors were involved at any stage in looking at the terms of this contract. This is very similar to the problem which occurred with the Park and Ride. At the time many councillors myself included called on the council to involve councillors in looking at the terms of contracts which are considered to be important – front facing, risk of embarassment to council etc. To date this has not happened. Officers are still carrying on, I presume with the Labour-run council cabinet approval, not involving back bench or opposition councillors in any way.

This is not about interference by councillors in the procurement process. This is about ensuring that things like scoring systems are discussed so that if something does go wrong, councillors can be called into question. After all, officers are not elected, councillors are. The trouble is that Durham County Council is so undemocratic that the whole system of accountability has collapsed to nothing more than rubber stamping.

When opposition councillors tried to call in the decision to close leisure centres – meaning to investigate it, we were refused by the Labour Chair of Scrutiny. The same happened with the closure of the Care Centres. At every step Labour seeks to run County Hall like a dictatorship. Even backbench Labour councillors are frustrated at this.

I have come to the conclusion that County Durham will never be able to move forward while Durham County Council is run by the Labour Party and urge every voter in this county to vote them out at the next local elections in 2013. I would prefer that to be by voting Lib Dem, but one way or the other we must get control of County Durham back into the hands of the people who live in it. We can’t have another 50 years of Labour control. It is no coincidence that our County is one of the poorest in England.

As for the Bin contract, I know that opposition councillors from various groups are seeking to get clarification on this issue and will be pushing to get much more information out into the public domain. Indeed if my requests for additional information are not forthcoming then I have asked that it is provided through a freedom of information request. Many residents will be surprised to learn that there are numerous occasions when the council refuse to provide information to me and I have to go down this avenue.

As the first proper snow of winter starts falling today, thought I would update with some contact details.

If you have an empty Grit Bin on your road, you can call 01913706000 the Highways Action line or email them at hal@durham.gov.uk

Bear in mind the council has around 2000 bins to fill and does this on a cycle so it is possible that they may be getting round.

Please also use these to report if you see anyone stealing the grit in large quantities as this happened last year in quite a few areas. If you can get a registration number the police may be able to work with the council to deal with grit thieves.

Finally our pressure to cut the Labour-run Councils publicity rag further have been listened to. Last year the council reduced numbers down to 6 from 10 copies a year following Lib Dem pressure. I pushed for this to be a maximum of 4 copies. Now it has been reduced down to four a year, saving several hundred thousand pounds more.  Just a pity they took so long to recognise that we were right – they would have had all that money in the bank.

Another Lib Dem success in cutting Labour waste.

Our press release last year on this:

Following on from opposition pressure to cut back on publicity by one of the North East’s largest councils, it looks like Durham County Council is set to do just that.

Councillor Nigel Martin, leader of the Lib Dem Group on Durham County Council, which called for issues of Durham County News to be cut back, commented “We have been pushing for some time now for Labour’s publicity magazine to be cut back and I am please to say that it looks like they may be about to reduce the number of copies from 10 to six a year, saving £439,680 over the next three years.

“This just goes to show that opposition pressure is paying off in County Durham, for the benefit of local residents. I only wish Durham County Council’s Labour administration would get to grips with our County instead of having to rely on opposition groups to show them the way. Having said that, given the mess their national colleagues have left the country in it’s hardly surprising.”

Councillor Mark Wilkes, Lib Dem for Framwellgate Moor, who uncovered the latest proposals commented “With every week that passes it becomes clearer that we can protect frontline services by rooting out Labour’s waste. They refused to listen earlier in the year to proposals to cut costs, but now they have had to admit they were wrong. I would go further and reduce the number of issues of County News to 4 a year, saving a further £219,840 over the next three years.”

Each copy of County News currently costs around £36,640 to deliver and print, and as in other councils, Durham County Council has in the past come under criticism for what many consider to be a publicity tool.”

Yuills were successful today in getting the planning application through for a large house at the entrance to PityMe on the site which they removed all the trees from a year or so ago.

The proposed building looks awful. Two and a half stories of glass at the end of a row of terraces – why on earth they couldn’t have put forward something more in keeping wit the area is beyond me.

I did manage to get conditions put on in relation to the times they are allowed to do the work and regarding drainage issues, but the planning committee, made up of 16 councillors, but only 4 from the former Durham City area, chose to approve this monstrosity.

It really is time that our planning committee was made up of councillors from the area, it would be more democratic and they have more local knowledge.