Flood risk gulleys only getting cleaned out every 24 months

Despite being on a main road, at the bottom of a dip in a location prone to flooding, the Bek Road traffic light drainage gullies are currently only down for clearing every TWO YEARS. Other drains in the COunty are cleaned out every three months.

I have now asked the Head of Technical Services to look into increasing the frequency of cleaning of these drains to make sure we do not get flooding at this location again.

I am more and more convinced that at least one of these drains hadn’t been touched for donkeys years.

It raises serious concerns about just how many of our County’s 80,000 gulleys are being cleaned out every two years, or being missed completely.

Please check the drainage guley outside your house or on your street. if it looks blocked please let us know so we can check it out and get action taken.

Dryburn House Demolition and New Accident and Emergency

At the Central and East planning committee today, the demolition of Dryburn House, which is a 19th Century Manor House in the grounds of the University Hospital was agreed.

This will allow for the expansion of the Accident and Emergency, which since the closing of Bishop Auckland A and E under Labour, has become busier and busier.

At the end of the meeting I raised with the senior representative from the NHS Trust the critical need for better parking provision at the hospital as part of any plans. There appears to be an acceptance that something needs to be done, and he suggested the possibility of a multi storey car park on the site.

The application for the expansion of the A and E may be upto a year off submission, but you can be sure that I will be pushing hard for a big expansion of parking and a proper travel plan and reconsideration of the current parking charges for staff.

Hospital staff are parking further and further away from the hospital to avoid parking charges and the lack of capacity and it continues to have an adverse affect to the wider community.

Dozens of highways defects reported by your Lib Dem councillors

We have been reporting pavement and road defects across our area over the last few weeks and will continue to do so until we care confident that the council is doing its job properly. The state of some of the pavements I have been checking has been truly appalling and I can confirm that a huge number of repairs are to take place as a result of our action. Here’s an example of one which has just been fixed:

BEFORE:

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AFTER:

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Clowns to the left of us jokers to the right

So first we hear about the Tories intending to scrap the Human Rights Act, and now we find that Teresa May is trying to censor TV programs. Didn’t take long for them to revert to their old ways and surely this shows just how hard the Lib Dems had to work to stop the rightwingers in the Tory party.

And locally, we have a Labour-run council with over £150m in reserves, setting a budget based on 1.5% inflation when inflation is zero, over estimating borrowing costs by £5m a year, and cooking up ways to stop work being tendered at a competitive price.

Proof if ever we needed it of the statement “Clowns to the left of us jokers to the right”.

Hardly surprising that over 13,000 people have already joined the Lib Dems since the General Election.

Being run locally by Labour and nationally by the Tories is more and more going to illustrate why we need a strong liberal voice in our country and our county.

Windlestone Hall back in the news – Remember Labour selling the million pound stately home sale for £241,000?

A few years back it was uncovered that our Labour-run council had sold off a stately home with acres of land for just £241,000 despite some estimates putting the value at £2.4m! Well its back in the news today:

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/12966486.Sale_of_historic_hall_set_to_collapse_amid_bitter_legal_dispute/?ref=mr&lp=1

Always worth a reminder of how our council wastes money.

Wolsingham Drive Drain – Can you spot another in a worse state?

 

UPDATE!! Reported one day, repaired the next! Job well done. As your local councillors  we should not have to keep reporting these things, but until the council gets its act together we will continue to do so, which is why we are continually going around the area reporting pavement and road defects. please let us know of any.

wolsingham drive drain2

 

 

 

 

If you find any gulley/drain in a worse state of repair around Newton Hall, Framwellgate Moor, Brasside or Pity Me, please email us a photo and we will do our best to get the council to repair it. This one has sunk down and driving over it is pretty dangerous now, so we are hoping our reporting of it will see it fixed pretty quickly.

wolsingham drive drain

Labour council road failure: Is your council owned road in as bad a state as Embleton Close?

embleton close road May 2015

This road is not included for resurfacing work this year.

It is quite frankly unbelievable and as your local councillors we are complaining right now about this. One way or another this road is going to get properly fixed in the near future. It is not the only one in a poor state but it is a fine example of why we think that the Council is failing in our area once again to address residents concerns about the state of our roads and footpaths.

There is quite clearly a serious issue which needs addressing as a matter of urgency, which is why starting this week we are inspecting personally every single road across our area.

So many roads are having poor quality pothole repairs done over and over again. It is a waste of taxpayers money.

The council says that they inspected this road at some point in the last six months or so and it didn’t make the program. If you spot a council owned road in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside or Newton Hall in a worse state of disrepair please let us know.

And if the Labour Party seeks to blame the cuts for their poor management of our road system, I politely remind them that having over £150m in reserves, and failing to listen to opposition councillors for a decade about investing in our road infrastructure is my response.

The Council must make an immediate and urgent additional investment into the road repairs department. And stop once and for all this repeat patchwork quilt pothole repair policy.

Cracking – Brasside Pressure Pays off for 800m of footpath resurfacing

Two years ago your Lib Dem councillors managed to get one side of the pavement through the village resurfaced.

Last year we managed to get the road into the village resurfaced following resident’s complaints.

Then we committed to starting regeneration of parking areas which will see work start soon.

Now we have secured work to resurface the whole 800m length of footpath from the Railway Bridge to Frankland Prison through the right hand side of the village.

We have been doing a great deal of work behind the scenes and to have secured such a large amount of work is fantastic for residents.

For so long when we had Labour councillors nothing got done in the village. Brasside was simply ignored. It is great to get improvements and report on the huge amount work which is to be done this year in the village.

Potholehouse Terrace repaired – for now – Update

We have succeeded in getting confirmation that a proper job will be done of repairing this road, and will update when the patching has been done.

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I once again had to ask for repairs to potholes on Potterhouse Terrace in Pity Me. Thankfully the council have been out and filled them in. However, this is not the first time the same holes have been filled in, in fact on my reckoning it may be half a dozen.

Given the extra cost of this, I do wonder why the council’s policy of fixing potholes properly is slipping. I have therefore asked if they are coming back out to do a proper patching job in the near future so we don’t waste any more money.