We have worked with a local supplier, RE consultants in Newton Hall and secured a big discount for our loc
al community centres to get solar panels installed.
Framwellgate Moor Community Centre, Newton Hall Community Centre and All Saint’s Church have had panels installed at a big discount.
The hard working volunteers at all the centres supported the project and it will help to significantly reduce running costs for the Centres for years to come.
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.
The work at Aykley Heads on resurfacing and repairing gullies is underway. I asked for action at th is location a number of times in the last year or so, so good to see that that work is being done. Hopefully it isn’t causing too much inconvenience and should be finished off soon.
I have for a long time been pushing for the Arnison site owners to improve safety. In recent months following a terrible accident, they finally listened to me and improved safety at the crossing point to the new food outlets – by fixing the crossing and removing a huge amount of undergrowth. They have also added additional lighting. I still feel that the area is unsafe, but compared to what it was like, it is an enormous improvement. I only wish they had done all this at any point over the six months I was asking prior to the accident!
Clearly as Christmas approaches, it is going to get even busier so please be extra careful walking and driving around the site. Northumbrian Water have kindly agreed to my request to allow staff working the site to park in their Abbey Road car park at all weekends and bank holidays until after new year, which should help with parking.
If you struggle with parking on Sundays or on Saturday after 2pm, there is spare parking at the Leisure Centre across the road with no restrictions on these dates/times. Take care crossing the road to the centre.
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.
In just one week, over 1000 jobs have been lost in the solar energy industry. This is entirely the fault of the Conservative government. They are cutting the tariffs for solar energy by nearly 90%.
When the Lib Dems were in government we helped to massively boost renewable energy across the UK, helping both the environment and our energy security. The Tories are now putting our energy security at risk. a further 1000 jobs across the North East are in danger of being lost and the figures could be even worse.
If the Conservatives suddenly announced they were scrapping subsidies for North Sea oil firms (which get billions), I am sure that their industry with all the power it has would be knocking on the government door with sledgehammers. Sadly solar and renewable energy firms do not have as much money or influence as the big oil companies.
The last government was the greenest ever because of the Lib Dems. This government is destroying all the good work which was started leaving us to continue to rely on unsafe, environmentally polluting foreign fuel supplies from unstable parts of the world.
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
You may have read my post last week about our Labour-run council’s plan to cut school transport provision:
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.
A few 
months back we called for the path at the corner of Newton Drive and Aykley Road to be fixed.
It was pretty bad. Thankfully Lib Dem pressure has paid off and it is now safe to walk on. Before and after below.
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!