Residents wrongly told they can vote in parish election, polling cards and postal votes issued

Residents of  Barrington Close have been included in the Parish Council election despite not being in the Parish.

When I was checking through the electoral roll for non parished parts of our area it suddenly dawned on me the Barrington Close wasn’t there.

I called the head of electoral services who ran a check only to discover the Council had registered the street over five years ago as part  of  Framwellgate Moor Parish area.

The Council must now issue new polling cards and notify residents, including those with postal votes that they can’t vote in the Parish election.

Had I not seen this the whole election might have needed to be run again. Thankfully I’m told these residents haven’t been billed for parish council tax, but I will still be checking to make sure.

Arnison Centre bus shelter

We have intervened over the replacement of the bus shelter at the Arnison Centre.

When it was taken out to carry out renovation works it was found to have rotted at the base of the posts.

We contacted the Council and a new, better shelter is being procured on behalf of the site owners and will be delivered in a month or so. I did ask if a temporary shelter could be provided but it looks like this is unlikely.

Confirmed: Ghyllfield, Flambard, Frankland and Brackenfield set for road resurfacing thanks to Lib Dem pressure

Our campaign to get roads in this part of Framwellgate Moor has been successful. The Council has confirmed that in the Spring/Summer this year all these roads will be resurfaced.

This is great news after our repeated requests for action including patching works.

We have asked for various areas to be checked to see if additional patching is required first and will be checking out if anything else should be done as well.

If the Labour-run council was investing properly in our roads we would have no doubt already seen these streets done, thankfully our continued pressure has ensured they stayed at the top of the list for action.

POST OFFICE UPDATE

Someone commented to me that the post office mobile service in Framwellgate Moor had stopped. I have checked and had it confirmed that it is still running.

The times are now 13.45-15.15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays outside the front of the Community Centre. There is parking at the rear of the community centre.

Please do use it. The Post Office and ourselves continue to try and find a permanent solution but so far no one has taken up the mantle.

LIB DEM SUCCESS AS SUPERFAST BROADBAND ARRIVES!

Houses in part of Pity Me which have been waiting a long time for better broadband are celebrating today after the BT cabinet we have fought so hard for finally went active!

Over the last two years as your Lib Dem councillors we have been battling to secure better broadband for residents on parts of Rosemount and Hag House.

We have had repeated meetings with BT Openreach and various County Council departments as well as conversations with Northern Powergrid. We even had to go the press over the issue.

We secured agreement for access to land at the Arnison Centre to install the electricity to the broadband box, negotiating, telephoning and repeatedly intervening with the owners of the Arnison Centre, their lawyers and site management.

We are convinced that without all of this intervention we would not have achieved this successful conclusion.

Residents can now contact their suppliers to upgrade/

Dryburn Hill footpath rebuild underway

The next part of Dryburn Hill footpath rebuild works has started. We have been working on getting the area done for many years and last year the first section was completed. This year after being told only part of what was left was being done we decided to provide some funding to get a bit more done.

After initially being given prices which were way over the top by the Labour-run council, we challenged the quotes and got the price halved, and now another stretch is to have the flagstones removed and get a full rebuild.

This leaves one more part which we will be pushing for action on in the coming year.

Teaching Assistants update – Labour caves in at last – Or so it appears

It would appear that the campaigning has paid off. A new deal may be on the cards for teaching assistants. Council officers will be visiting schools to determine what responsibilities TAs have in each school to find out if they are graded properly.

Something we suggested at the very beginning of this mess and which Labour flatly refused to do.

Well done to all those teaching assistants who have fought against labour’s dreadful attempts to cut their pay.

Of course this could just be Labour seeking to kill the story before the local elections, so as we have since the start Lib Dem councillors will continue to lead the political campaign until a fair deal is brought forward.