Below is the press release from the County Council about the closures planned for Milburngate Bridge. We did raise a variety of issues and suggestions with the Council about this asking that they do more to help reduce traffic in the City centre during the repair works and to look on this as a possible trial for longer term traffic reductions.

The council pretty much ignored us when we held a meeting with the Head of technical services a while ago. We asked for amongst other things:

Use of County Hall car park at weekends for free for visitors to the City.

Getting as many staff as possible to work from home at the Council and other large employers in the City.

Making the park and ride free for vehicles with multiple occupants.

Moving council meetings out of Durham City.

A huge number of other possible traffic reduction measures could have been looked at, but it was clear they didn’t want to listen to us.

Council press release:

People are advised of how they can help keep disruption to a minimum ahead of work starting on Milburngate Bridge in Durham.

The essential project, which will involve a major renovation of the bridge, gets underway on Sunday 12 July.

It will continue throughout the school summer holidays, when traffic using the route in peak hours usually falls by around 20 per cent, in order to minimise disruption as much as possible, although delays and congestion, particularly on other routes in and around the city, will be unavoidable.

Work will normally be carried out between 7am and 10pm, seven days a week, but working hours may be prolonged, if needed, to reduce the time it will take.

One lane will remain open at all times throughout the scheme and a footpath will also be provided.

The project will be delivered in three stages (see attached maps) – the first will see work carried out on the south lane and footpath, the second will be the north lane and footpath and the third will be the two centre lanes.

Start and end dates of each stage will be publicised as the scheme progresses.

The Claypath slip road will be closed throughout the works and the Walkergate slip road, which is off the south of the bridge on the same side as The Gates shopping centre, will be shut throughout the first stage of the project from Sunday 12 July until around 30 July. Diversions will be in place.

The footpath underneath the bridge between The Gates shopping centre and the Passport Office will be closed for part of the project – further updates will be provided closer to the time.

 

Access to Pimlico from Quarryheads Lane will be closed to all traffic for the duration of the works to prevent the road being used as a rat run. Local traffic will be able to access Pimlico via Grove Street and the parking bays will remain open.

It will also be necessary to close Milburngate Bridge completely for at least five nights, normally between 8pm and 6am – dates and alternative routes (see attached diversion map) will be publicised nearer the time but the first overnight closure will take place on 12 July.

The council is now advising motorists, public transport users and pedestrians of a number of steps they can take while the work is carried out.

John Reed, head of technical services, said: “We are doing our best to minimise disruption as much as we can by working from first thing in the morning to last thing at night as well as working overnight on some occasions.

“However, people need to be aware that there will unfortunately be delays in and around the city so we are urging everyone to help us keep this disruption to a minimum by only travelling if it is absolutely necessary.

“You can also consider alternative travel arrangements such as park and ride, avoiding peak times when travelling, thinking about changing working patterns, planning extra time for your journeys and planning any deliveries around peak times.

“We hugely appreciate the public’s understanding and cooperation in advance of this really important work.”

Cllr Brian Stephens, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, added: “This work is essential and has to be done in order to secure the future of this vital route through the city for both those who live and work here and visitors.

“We completely understand that delays and disruption on the roads can be frustrating and we would like to thank motorists for their patience and encourage them to think about what steps they can take during the project.”

The bridge, which is nearly 50 years old and carries about 48,000 vehicles every day, is still safe but the work is now needed as it has been nearly 20 years since its last major renovation.

The work will involve new drainage, parapets, resurfacing, concrete repairs and a replacement waterproofing system.

Once the project has been completed the bridge is not expected to need any further major maintenance for around 15 to 20 years.

The scheme is expected to take around seven weeks to complete and cost up to £1m in total.

To keep up-to-date with the work, including live webcam streams, visit www.durham.gov.uk/milburngate and use #milburngate on the council’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

Ends

It is increasingly annoying to see utility and other companies leaving our area looking a mess. They make huge profits, and as the example here on Dryburn Road shows, they are ruining grassed areas. The Council does’t seem to bother taking action until we intervene. Here, BT is parking regularly on the grass and has damaged it to such an extent that there is now standing water most of the time. I have asked our highways department to get them to fix this properly. If no other option is available they should create a hardstanding at this location so that when they access the broadband box they do not leave a mess. If you know of a similar location in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside or Newton Hall, please let us know.

I arrived at County hall with a bit of spare time this morning to reread some paperwork for a working group which is looking at Attendance Management and Sickness Absence.

15 minutes before the meeting was due to start the Labour councillor chairing the meeting found me and told me it was cancelled because none of the Labour councillors could attend because they were all in a Labour group meeting which had overrun. SO MUCH FOR ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT!!!

Surely the Labour councillors on the working group could have excused themselves? It makes a mockery of attempts to solve the crisis of sickness absence if 90% of the councillors on the committee decide they can’t turn up.

It also surely sends a wider message that ensuring we have a proper system in place for sickness absence and attendance management means less to Labour councillors than their own internal arguing.

Durham County Council has let down its staff for years by failing to address sickness absence. When the average number of sick days days off by staff each year is running at around two and a half weeks, and has done for decades, something must be seriously wrong with how the council is treating its staff.

This is not about cuts because sickness absence was as bad fifteen years ago. This is about mismanagement of the Council by Labour, and quite frankly with Labour in charge at County Hall I can’t see anything changing..

At the last meeting of the working group I suggested that we should find out about what training other organisations carry out in relation to managing sickness absence and attendance issues.

One Labour councillor responded that doing that would be like comparing CAMEMBERT with CHEDDER – a waste of time. What planet are these people on? Clearly the outcome of this working group is a FETA compli! No doubt we will be BRIEfed that it isn’t at the next meeting!

How can comparing how other councils, public sector bodies or private sector organisations manage sickness absence be a waste of time? Totally crackers!

 

Another five years of a Labour MP failing to properly challenge our terrible council is difficult to stomach. As your local councillors we will continue to fight against the worst of the Labour run council. We will seek as much investment for the area as we can, and continue to work all year round and report back to you all year round!!

Our candidate Craig put up a strong fight in the face of a national backlash against the Lib Dems. I am certain in the future it will be shown that the Lib Dems did an excellent job in government, both in helping to turn around the shattered economy, but also in reigning in the nastiness of the Conservative Party.

To what extent the Tories will govern with compassion now there is no restraining influence remains to be seen, but it is indeed a great worry. The lack of a coherent opposition in the short term will become apparent if we do not as Liberal Democrats get back on our feet, dust ourselves down and take the fight to Labour locally and the Conservatives nationally, which is just what I and others will do.

A big thank you to everyone who supported us in Durham at the general election!

 

Last autumn, the draft County Durham Plan (CDP) had its examination-in-public. There were a huge number of objections over development in the green belt and challenges on so many other issues.

Today the government inspector, Harold Stephens, delivered his DURHAM-COUNTY-COUNCIL-INSPECTORS-INTERIM-VIEWS-Stage-1-County-Durham-Plan-Examination-published-18.2.2015

The report essentially rips the plan to shreds. Mr Stephens says that he does not accept the Council’s population estimates. That the Council has not made a case for “exceptional circumstances” to justify building in the green belt. That the western and northern relief roads cannot be justified on traffic and environmental grounds. And that the council’s revised policy on student accommodation will not work.

It is clear that the current plan is unsound and needs major rewriting, something that cannot be done in a few months. Indeed in my view the County Plan is in so many areas not worth the paper it is written on and so many people have been vindicated.

The Council is probably going to have to start over on many key aspects.

I shadow Councillor Neil Foster on the council. He is the Regeneration and Economic development cabinet member. he was responsible for this plan. He and his colleagues completely ignored every submission we made. Their arrogance was nauseating. I fail to see how he can possibly hold on to his position.

As a travelled from Sacriston to Pity Me in the car today there was a beautiful rainbow over the greenbelt.

Perhaps a celestial nod to the people of Durham that for now at least our greenfields and world heritage City are protected from the evil machinations of the dictatorship which is County Hall.