CALL TO DELAY DLI CLOSURE

Next Wednesday I will propose at a meeting of the full council that the decision to close the DLI Museum is delayed to allow a full and proper consultation on all possible options.

I have found the council decision to close the museum without any consultation with the public to be one of the most heartless and unacceptable decisions the Labour-run Council has ever made. Many families of DLI veterans have had this decision dumped on them with out any say, despite having the ashes of loved ones spread around the memorial at the museum. Residents across the county have had no say at  all in this decision either.

In addition Local councillors and all backbench councillors have had no say in this decision and my attempt to call in the decision was insultingly rejected in a disgraceful manner by Councillor Joe Armstrong before he disappeared off for a months holiday in Australia.

I will try to convince all councillors that the Council should take a step back and reconsider this decision on Wednesday next week and urge any member of the public who isn’t at work that day to call along to the meeting which is held in public so they can see how Labour councillors act in public meetings.

The meeting starts at 10am prompt.

£220 million council reserves

We requested a review of Durham County Council reserves and at least £64.481m cash has been found not allocated to anything according to next weeks Cabinet papers. We believe it is even more.

I had asked for the review after reserves at the North East’s largest authority rocketed above £200m. The latest cabinet report for next week’s meeting shows an expected increase in reserves to £220m – an increase predicted by Liberal Democrat councillors back in March of this year.

The Authority’s Cabinet will approve transferring the surplus money into a £30m delivery reserve to help combat government cuts. A further £34m will go towards plans to build a new County Hall.

Councillor Amanda Hopgood said of this “We have consistently said the Council had more money available than it admitted. We have been proven right. The council now have £220m reserves and have had to admit that  tens of millions were available all along.”

I believe that millions of pounds more could be made available if the Council got its priorities right.

The council has still not made many of the sensible savings we have suggested. It still has six communications departments. It still spends a fortune on County News – its publicity magazine. It still has more directors than it needs.

I believes that Durham’s unitary authority is its own worst enemy. By failing to make these sensible savings, and holding huge amounts in reserve, they are giving ammunition to the Tory cuts.

The government is going to turn around and say the public sector still has piles of money. Look at Durham they can afford to build a new Council Palace and have piles of cash.

On the ground of course, local residents know that so much more could be done to improve County Durham. They also know that Labour politicians are ignoring their views. Poor quality roads and footpaths, leaking schools and the closing of the DLI museum without any consultation are prime examples.”

We believe that in addition to the reserves hike the council has further over estimated various elements of its budget including inflation (over 10 times the national rate), debt costs (no increase so far this year) and energy inflation (falling not rising). All this suggests reserves could hit a quarter of billion pounds by the end of the year.

DLI MUSEUM CLOSURE

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I submitted a call-in request today to the Council signed by members of all three main opposition groups at County Hall.

The Council plans to close the museum in April, but is doing so without in our view properly consulting with councillors, and without any public consultation. In addition it is felt that all possible alternatives have not been explored.

 

A petition has nearly 6000 names at the moment and can be found here:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-closure-of-the-dli-museum

Our call-in has been reported in the Northern Echo this evening, reprinted below:

OPPOSITION councillors are challenging the process by which a council decided to close a military museum.

Six Liberal Democrat, Conservative and independent members of Durham County Council have backed an attempt to have the closure of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum, in Aykley Heads, Durham City, “called in” for further scrutiny.

Lib Dem Mark Wilkes, who has led the effort, said there had been a complete lack of proper consultation with the public and opposition councillors and Labour members knew of the closure plan long before local members, who were only informed once there was no chance of any changes being made.

He also said there were concerns not all the possible alternatives to closure, such as asking volunteers to run the facility, had been considered.

“Whilst there may be elements of the proposals which are positive, it is felt that cabinet should consider our concerns and carry out a meaningful consultation with the general public,” he said.

“The way in which the council has gone about this process has left many people deeply upset and in some cases very angry. By not asking public views it has brought into question the democratic process. The council can address some of this by taking a step back and listening.”

Cllr Joe Armstrong, chair of the council’s overview and scrutiny wing, will consider the call in request with officers tomorrow (Friday, October 30).

He said: “We have an open mind about it. The request is about procedure so I’ll be looking at the procedure to ensure we’re right within our constitution. If we’re not, we’ll have to get it put right.”

The scrutiny committee could ask the cabinet to look again at the decision.

The council decided to close the 50-year-old museum and move the collection to the Spennymoor Sevenhills building, which has secure, environmentally-controlled facilities. Temporary loans and exhibitions are planned and talks have begun with Durham University over a display at Palace Green Library.

Incredible difference to path after work

A long time ago I asked the council to sort out a path on Newton Drive in Framwellgate Moor. It didn’t get done. This week I sent a photo pointing out it really needed some work doing.

The response was that it was not unsafe and work would’t be done but perhaps would be next year. I didn’t think that was the right answer and so questioned it again by email and then had a conversation with a head of service to double check. I got the same response.

At this point I thought I better run it past the Director of Neighbourhood Services, where common sense prevailed.  I wasn’t going to post this but they have done such a good job it deserves comment. As you can see, although there are a few repairs to do now, it is looking a bit better – and honestly this is the same path. Job well done by council workers today. And thank you to the Director too.

Before and after

Before path After path

UPDATE: CUTS TO SCHOOL TRANSPORT PROVISION

You may have read my post last week about our Labour-run council’s plan to cut school transport provision:

http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/10/01/council-cutting-home-to-school-transport-for-exam-students-the-disabled-and-those-with-no-viable-public-transport/

At Children’s Scrutiny today I challenged this. Pointing out:

– the same department seeking to make the cuts has just announced it has saved 10 times as much so far this year as the cuts required to school transport – £7.6m

– the same department has £9.4m in a cash limit reserve allocated to nothing.

– the council has over estimated inflation this year as 15 times its current rate.

– the council has over estimated the cost of its debt to the tune of millions of pounds.

– the council has placed £20m in a planned delivery reserve to stop cuts such as this.

– the council has £6m more in its insurance reserve than it needs

– the council has six communications departments. If they were merged it would save upto £1.5m a year

– the council has more directors than it needs and could save hundreds of thousands of pounds by just reducing by one.

– the council said it would cut mileage allowances for staff and councillros by 3p from 48p a mile to 45p a mile which would have saved £240,000 it has now stopped this.

In total the council has £80m to play with and loads of ways to find the money it needs so that it does not need to make this harsh cut.

The response from one Labour councillor was that if anyone had sensible ideas they would be listened to but when i sugested the committee could recommend any of these things, I was simply told it was a consultation and my views would be passed across. Some scrutiny that is. The committee could have collectively opposed this madness.

And one Labour county councillor actually said that we should manage these things better to make sure there wasn’t as much bad publicity. The only people creating bad publicity are the Labour-run Cabinet on Durham County Council for acting like a bunch of far-right, slash and burn Tories.

Abbey Leisure Centre price hikes thwarted and treadmills replaced

Attempts by the Council to hike some prices at Abbey Leisure Centre have been thwarted by your Lib Dem councillors.

After finding out that Table Tennis prices would rocket by almost 100%, we have secured an over 60’s concession to keep the price down.

A plan to hike soft play for infants by 66% have been scrapped completely after we challenged this with the Head of Service and Director.

And the two broken treadmills, one out of action for several months have been replaced/repaired after our intervention. Hopefully we will not see any more daft decisions on pricing or delays in repairs but please let us know if you do spot problems.

On a brighter note there is now a new tariff which also allows you to go swimming at Freeman’s Quay for just a pound a session if you sign up at Abbey!

Brasside flood alleviation plan moves a step closer

The ongoing work we have been doing for what seems like forever to protect Beech Close in Brasside from flooding moved a step closer last night at a public meeting for Beech Close Residents with council officers, your three councillors and representatives from the MOJ present.

After years of failings by so many agencies to address the issue we finally managed to get the Council to take this matter seriously over the last year or so, with a lot of work being done. Many years ago a meeting with the MP produced nothing and residents still vividly remember that Labour failure as was mentioned at last nights meeting.

The remaining hurdle to complete a long term solution is the lining of the main drain running through the estate, which would provide protection for up to 75 years. The cost is not so great, but more than half of the pipe is on Ministry of Justice land with the remainder under residents properties.

We have committed as Councillors to contribute towards the non-MoJ areas, to speed up the repair process from local budgets. Now a formal bid to the MoJ’s estates budget has been submitted by their regional estates officer, so we may be just a few months away from a final solution to this issue.

If this happens it will be fantastic news for those residents who have been flooded out as many as four times in the last 15 years. I am pleased to say, confidently, that without continuous Lib Dem councillor pressure this issue would never have been addressed.

The way in which residents were previously treated by the authorities was shameful. We were even told at one point we couldn’t bid for environmental agency funding when we could. Thankfully we are now closer than ever before to a final solution.

Thanks should be given to those Council officers who finally accepted Mamie, Amanda and I were not going away and got fully behind action.

 

 

Council cutting home to school transport for exam students, the disabled and those with no viable public transport

No I am not making this up. Here’s the link:

Consultation link: http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/6658/Home-to-schoolcollege-transport-consultation

The council has over £200million in reserves and says it wants to:

Remove the automatic entitlement to free home to school transport for:

  • pupils in years 10 and 11 who move house while in the middle of their exam years,
  • post-16 students who live in areas where there is no viable public transport system,
  • post-16 students who cannot travel independently due to a medical condition or disability.

Their justification is:

They say they need to find millions of pounds of savings and:

1. Removing these automatic entitlements will help us to target financial support to those households in greatest need.

2. The proposals include the option to set up a Hardship Fund to meet transport costs in exceptional circumstances where families need financial help.

A few of my concerns here are:

1. That whilst it is possible council officers will act in a proper manner and make sure those on the lowest income get assistance, that is by no means guaranteed as they will be under pressure to meet financial targets.

2. Who decides which families are in hardship and at what level. A parent could earn more than the threshold, but have lots of other bills to pay.

3. Why seek to disrupt a child in the middle of their exam period, just seems plain wrong.

4. Parents of children in rural areas may have higher costs already such as transport. This policy could disrupt parental work patterns and put at risk those living in more rural communities.

5. As for those with medical conditions being penalised – really what planet are this Labour-run Council on!

I wonder what Jeremy Corbyn would think of a Council paying a Chief Exec nearly £200k but not able to help a disabled child get to school so their parents can get to work.

I’m not even sure David Cameron would approve of this.

The Council has repeatedly refused Lib Dem calls to cut the number of directors earning £120,000-£200,000 a year.

They have delayed plans to reduce mileage allowances for councillors and staff from 48p a mile to 45p a mile which would save a third of the money.

The council has refused to scrap its publicity magazine or its SIX publicity departments which would save double the savings from these transport proposals.

Presumably our well paid execs and Labour councillors need as many means as possible of telling as many people as possible about which cuts to the vulnerable they are planning.

Which seems more important to them than school transport for a disabled child!

I for one do not support their proposals.

Consultation link:

http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/6658/Home-to-schoolcollege-transport-consultation

 

Article 4 Direction – Framwellgate Moor area

The Council is consulting on implementing an order to restrict the percentage of houses on any particular street which can be converted to houses of multiple occupation (HMO). This does not include Framwellgate Moor or Pity Me, but does cover most of the wider Durham City area.

In the City and surrounding areas many streets have such high levels of student occupancy that it impacts upon the sustainability of the area. HMO’s can also be non-student houses with more people living there than the property can sustain. Under Council plans, conversion to an HMO  would require planning permission when the number of HMO houses on a street exceeds 10%.

We asked for Framwellgate Moor & Pity Me to be included in the boundaries proposed for the Order, but the Council has not done this. Parts of Framwellgate Moor have very high percentages of HMO properties. This can cause problems due to lack of space for bins, insufficient parking, over-development, empty properties and in some cases, rogue landlords leaving properties in a poor condition or allowing overcrowding.

For this reason we are asking that you respond to this consultation. We are putting forward a proposal for the whole area to be included in the Order. In case this is not approved we are also asking that at the very least the Terraces in Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me are included.

This would not halt all conversions to multi-occupancy homes. However it would allow the Council to restrict such changes via the planning system where it was felt the balance had gone too far.

We already have problems on some streets. Our biggest concern is that if the rest of the City is included in the restrictions, developers will seek to concentrate future HMO development in our area – with no ability to stop it. This will lead to an increase in the problems we outline above.

We ask that you support our concerns by taking part in this consultation. The Council didn’t provide a consultation event in Framwellgate Moor so we have arranged one at the Community Centre on Mon 5th October from 3pm-6pm.

Please attend the event and/or email your views to spatialpolicy@durham.gov.uk and copy one of us in. Or you can write to: Spatial Policy, Rm 4/24-35, DCC, County Hall, DH1 5UL.

More information can be found on the Council website here:

http://durhamcc-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/planning/article4hmo