Take away takeaways? No – let’s just get some cajones and force them to respect our area

For the umpteenth time (as many of you will know) I found myself reporting problems with takeaways in Framwellgate Moor today. At least three of them had overflowing bins once again – with boxes and containers lying around or blowing down the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I seemed to sufficiently embarrass staff at the one shop for them to take action and clear up their mess – yet it will be the same again in a few days or weeks or months:

The owners need to properly train staff, have sufficient bins and have the common decency to respect our area. Its common sense that if a takeaway bin is overflowing it is a littering and vermin risk. If containers are outside with no lids on half-full of fat they are a fire risk. If packaging is blowing down the street it’s unacceptable.

I know from personal experience that the Council staff we have in various departments work really hard and really care about keeping our area tidy and improving it. I know wardens have been out many times.

However after over twelve months of banging on about it to officers and directors I am struggling to understand how with all the legislation out there we haven’t managed to hit these owners with fines. We need a properly resourced enforcement and legal team with every weapon available. And we need them to have cajones and use those weapons! Up the fines to highest levels possible and have a zero tolerance approach. Where necessary name and shame the offending businesses or shut them down.

If you spot any of the takeaway bins in our area overflowing or takeaway rubbish lying around please photograph it and email it to help@durham.gov.uk with the location/time of the infringement, copying me in. I figure that the only way the Council is going to get hard on these guys is if they are inundated with complaints and photos from the public. Perhaps then the rats in the area might go hungry and our streets will look clean and tidy.

I for one will not be using any of the businesses I see repeatedly leaving our area looking a mess.

Flytipping – cracking down across our area – Can you help?

Do you walk around our area a lot? Please help us spot flytipping and rubbish so we can get it cleared up.

On a  walkabout this week from Pity Me to Framwellgate Moor I found a fair bit of stuff dumped off the old Wagonway between Pity Me and Framwellgate Moor.

This has been reported and we expect the Council will sort it out fairly quickly.

Any potholes out there? Help us get them fixed

In the last week we have requested action at the Arnison Centre roundabout, on Carr House Drive, Bek Road and Rothbury Road in Newton Hall all for pothole repairs, and on Pity Me Front Street where the road is cracking up.

Of course we don’t think these are as bad as some we saw in another area of the County last week. See picture below of some pretty deep holes filled with rainwater. Needless to say the area has Labour councillors!

We think we are pretty proactive in chasing up road and footpath defects, so if you spot anything like this in our area we would be surprised, but please do let us know.

We think the Council needs to invest far more local funding into road and footpath repairs. It is one of the top complaints we get and as Lib Dem councillors we will continue to push for action.

Cracking down on illegal Framwellgate Moor Parking? Seems Council needs a huge shove!

Framwellgate Moor Front Street

I was pretty unimpressed this morning to find a council vehicle parked blocking the pavement, parked on double yellow lines with no loading markings. And they were’t doing any work – they were getting their dinner. How are we supposed to stop the illegal parking if the Council’s own staff are ignoring the rules. These markings were put down for very good reasons:

The main ones being to stop the obstruction of the pavement, to stop someone being knocked over by a vehicle mounting the pavement, to stop someone being knocked over walking between illegally parked vehicles, to cut congestion, stop damage to kerbs and the pavement, to name a few.

I have asked for more rigorous enforcement of the restrictions. And reported this and the other two vehicles I photographed.

Problem households causing major rubbish and vermin headache

There are a small number of problem households in the area causing real concern to residents.

As this picture shows it is pretty serious. One such property in Pity Me has been an issue for many months, with three residents taken to court and issued fines, yet the problem continues.

The Council is working hard to address problems at this and other properties following repeated requests from local residents and your Lib Dem councillors. This kind of behaviour cannot and will not be tolerated and we are chasing up the Council regularly where an issue is not dealt with.

If you are aware of any properties where there are similar problems please let us know asap. We need to make sure they are dealt with to avoid vermin issues and cost to the council of clearing up wind blown rubbish. Its also unacceptable to us to have any part of the area looking a mess like this.

Another Lib Dem success as Canterbury Road Bus Shelter installed next to Finchale Primary School

A new bus shelter has been installed outside Finchale Primary School in Newton Hall thanks to your local  Lib Dems.

We had to get agreement to use part of the land at the front of the school and also had to address various concerns of local residents about anti-social behaviour, but thankfully our perseverance has paid off.

The request for this work had originally come from local residents when we carried out our survey of residents last year. We hand delivered over 6200 leaflets across the area and got hundreds of responses. A number of people raised concerns about the lack of a bus stop at this location.

Concerns included residents getting wet when waiting for buses, but also the lack of space for people walking past when others were waiting for the bus, especially at school drop off times when it was dangerous with reports of people having to step into the road.

This is the fourth new or replacement bus shelter your Lib Dem councillors have secured in Newton Hall in the last year or so following the work carried out on Rothbury Road and Bek Road.

If there is another location where residents feel there are enough people using a bus stop to warrant a new shelter or if there are access problems to one, please let us know and we will do our best to sort it out.

 

Canterbury Road / Bek Road – new road surface failure – Lib Dem requests for action continue

We have now had to ask three times for the road and pavements to be swept following last years resurfacing by the Council’s contractor. Yet, still we have problems. The pavements especially on the Bek Road stretch are in a dreadful state, just a week or so after they were brushed.

The surface material has failed and the council are monitoring the situation. It is likely the contractor will have to come back on site and redo the work when winter is over, and if we don;t see such action we will of course be chasing up the council. At least one motorist has had to get a new windscreen as a result of the flying gravel from the surface, and in places the road is now rutting.

Lib Dem success – Brackenfield Road Driveway scheme set to start

A scheme by Durham City Homes to install driveways along Brackenfield Road is set to start in the next few weeks. This should help to reduce parking problems on the street.

We helped to secure this in talks with the housing provider over the last 2 years following our successful work to get similar schemes in Pity Me at Hudspeth Crescent and The Avenue, and at Lilac Avenue in  Framwellgate Moor.

We will continue to work with DCH to get further improvements across our area, which has also included the new houses set to be built on Folly Terrace in Pity Me, thanks to many years of pressure form ourselves. It took the transfer of ownership of the housing group out of Council hands to get any action. Labour-run Durham County Council had repeatedly rejected our calls for regeneration of the area.

Avant Homes and The Council need to get this path sorted!!! Council failing to address development issues.

wp_20170211_16_21_17_proThe footpath at the front of the new Aykley View development where the old fire station used to be has been dangerous for months now. Prone to flooding and uneven.

I have asked the council to intervene repeatedly. I have even contacted someone senior at Avant Homes.

It seems that the only way to get this sorted is to publish it here so the press and public can see it.

Today it is not only dangerous for pedestrians but also for cyclists and drivers as the whole of the pavement and part of the road are flooded.

The surface is uneven, the dropped kerbs just have a bit of bitmac slapped down, and for such a prestigious development it seems crazy to leave the front of it looking so bad.

I also fail to understand why Council officers haven’t forced action.

I have emailed the Corporate Director at the Council as well as the Asset manager of the company asking for urgent action.

LABOUR RUN COUNCIL RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANNING FAILURES?

The Council is looking at further slashing the number of posts in planning and enforcement in the budget later this month. With so many concerns about planning issues across the County and an increased workload for our staff this is simply going to add to the overwhelming pressures they are under. We need sufficient quality staff at the Council with the ability to intervene.

If Labour are to continue to cut in this area things are only going to get worse. The local environment is going to deteriorate further with poor planning decisions and developers able to get away with unacceptable development. There have been so many cases in the last few years of  such occurrences that I am convinced we need more capacity for environmental, highways, building regs, planning, ecology etc related to development.

Thedept is pulling in more and more income but has seen more and more cuts. It has gone too far and with nearly a quarter of a billion pounds in reserves and millions in reserves in this dept alone, it is not necessary to cut so many posts.

Arnison Centre works mess

Last year I pointed out to the owners that the old street lighting around the outside of the site had been dumped:

I did suggest that if they weren’t up for shifting them that I thought I could find a scrap man to collect them. They are still there looking an eyesore to anyone walking along the path behind the site – as is the litter on the path and in Premier Inns’ land which the Council and Premier Inn have been asked to sort out.

At the other side of the site, the rear of Costa is also a mess – badly designed, the lorries drive over the kerbs and its a muddy mess with all the new planting trashed. A real shame that they’ve spent all this money and don’t seem to want to get it sorted.