The new yellow lines and no waiting no loading markings we secured have now been installed on Framwellgate Moor Front St. This should help to reduce the dangerous parking which has been blocking the pavement.
New posts with signs are also being installed and enforcement of the restrictions will be starting. Hopefully this will make it safer for pedestrians and other road users.
Last week Lib Dem councillor Owen Temple (Consett) challenged the Council on a deal it is currently cooking up to re-finance £43 million still owing on three school buildings, here I have added some of his comments to my blog, as it is quite clear that once again we have a financial debacle at County Hall set to cost the taxpayer a fortune:
“Durham will have to pay eye-watering early redemption penalties of around £12 million to the banks to refinance the deal. That’s not a misprint. It’s not a mis-placed decimal point. It’s really £12 million. And despite that the county council still expects to save money on the new deal!
That begs the question. What sort of lousy deal was it that allowed the council (which says it is “common for this debt to be refinanced”) to be so badly stitched up that this common practice has turned out to be an ultra-expensive practice? What sort of a deal was it that allowed the county’s finance “partners” (who put the deal together) to write into the contract their share in any additional profit if they were subsequently to arrange a replacement deal?
An appalling deal in my view, and what adds insult to the injury is that now we’re paying lawyers and accountants at least another £68,000 to check out whether we should indeed hand this windfall to the banks and financiers.
I accept that this refinancing may be the right thing to do now because it may still save the council some small amount of money over the next twenty years. I’m pleased that the county’s political leadership agreed to the issue being discussed in public rather than behind closed doors. But I’m convinced that the complacency which I heard at cabinet this morning, the same complacency which allowed this deal to happen in the first place, remains a real threat to the financial well-being of County Durham.
If you want to read the report in full, you can find it here.“
Spot on Owen – once again it seems that Labour councillors may have been sleeping on the job to allow such a deal. The amount of waste at Durham County Council appears to have no upper limit!
The government is currently trying to change legislation so that local authorities would be banned from starting up bus companies.
The Lib Dem group will call for cross party support on Wednesday against these proposals. We will ask the Council to publicly challenge the plans and to write to the relevant government ministers in protest at these plans.
Any council at some point in the future could find that it has to set up services should there be no local private companies willing or able to run services. The remove this ability is clearly a political move by the Tory Government, and it is unacceptable. Indeed many rural areas of the Country could be aversely hit – ironically many of which are normally Conservative leaning in their views.
Private companies frequently find it difficult to set up bus services in rural areas, and if we remove the ability of a local council to do this then we in effect shut down localism – precisely the opposite of what this government professes to support.
The Link 2 service operated by the Council in County Durham offers a prime example of a service which has been set up to fill a gap in services. I would hate to think that in other areas, should a council wish to, services could not be set up, or become far more difficult to set up, leaving the vulnerable, disabled or the elderly stranded.
We hope all councillors will support our motion, which Cllr Richard Ormerod is proposing.
I’m please to be able to report that following our complaint about the new crossing near to Frankie and Bennies not having being completed, that the site owners moved very quickly and installed the raised crossing.
We remain concerned that many drivers haven’t got used to the new layout and ask pedestrians and particularly drivers to take extra care. I personally observed a driver go straight over the crossing without slowing down, with pedestrians waiting to cross.
There were no formal objections to our plans to put Double Yellow lines and no loading no waiting on the pavement/road opposite the shops in Framwellgate Moor.
As Lib Dem councillors we have listened to residents and acted to stop the pavement parking – there is no excuse for this as there are plenty of car parks and parking bays in the area now.
The single width pavement from near the doctors surgery down towards the bus gate will now get the new markings installed. New signs are being ordered and we hope this will all be in place very soon. We are chasing the Council to get this done asap.
Once in place it will reduce the amount of pavement parking and also allow for far better enforcement against offenders. Of course we will also be pushing for very regular enforcement once the new restrictions are in place.
For anyone doubting the parking provision, you can currently park:
In the club carpark, the business centre car park behind Sainsbury’s, King George’s Carpark (next to the play area), in the car park behind the Community Centre, in the parking bays running the entire length of Front St and in Coop (Salutation) car park – and of course you can always walk to the shops or take the bus too.
We are continuing to report the unacceptable practices of certain takeaways in Framwellgate Moor. Over the last few months not a week has gone by without overflowing bins or cardboard boxes lying around. We have now reported over a dozen times this problem and will continue to do so. The Council is now finally taking it seriously and some legal orders have been issued. If you notice any overflowing business waste bins or dumped commercial waste anywhere in the area please report it to us immediately.
Just when we thought we were getting somewhere with the broadband issue for the estate, along comes another blockage. We’ve had to battle to get a box installed for the equipment, then battle to get BT to agree to get the electric to it installed, and now there is a dispute over a licence to dig up and install the electricity supply to the box. This is apparently currently somewhere between the lawyers of the Arnison Centre and BT/Northern Powergrid. The Council and ourselves are pushing hard now to get this final hurdle dealt with. It sometimes feels as though someone hidden from view is deliberately seeking to stop residents getting a decent broadband supply. Whilst I’m sure that’s not the case, it is quite remarkable in this day and age that it can take literally years to get a working broadband box installed. I’m sure if this was a connection to the Prime Ministers house things would be moving much more quickly! We will continue to email, telephone and request meetings until this sorry saga has been fixed.
Have you got your tickets yet for the fireworks display?
It’s in the grounds of Framwellgate School Durham on Saturday 5th November – Display at 8pm, gates open at 6pm.
As your local councillors we have provided funding towards the cost of running the event so that it can go ahead in our area and so that ticket prices can be kept reasonable and some money raised for the hospice.
You can get tickets by calling the hospice on 0191 386 1170 Extension 5 or visit eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/st-cuthberts-hospice-family-fireworks-night-tickets-26919866044
Full details:
St Cuthbert’s Hospice Family Fireworks Night
5th November 2016
The skies of Durham will be brought to life with an explosion of colour as St Cuthbert’s Hospice celebrate Guy Fawkes Night on Saturday, 5th November 2016 with our second fireworks extravaganza. There will also be fairground rides and catering vans to ensure fun for all the family.
Event Timings:
6:00pm Gates and fun fair open
8.00pm Firework display
Ticket prices:
Adults (Aged 16 and over) £5
15 & Under £3
Family (2 Adults, 2 Children aged 3 to 15) £14.
*Please note children aged 2 years and under are free.
This event is sponsored by Ramside Hall Hotel Golf & Spa and kindly supported by County Councillors; Amanda Hopgood, Mamie Simmons and Mark Wilkes.
We have contacted the Arnison Centre management company a number of times since August over the new carpark. Whilst it is set to increase capacity and in many ways is much better for shoppers, we are concerned about the safety of the junctions opposite Frankie and Bennies as well as a few other issues.
Cars going towards M and S and coming off the main part of the road into the car park are going to fast.
The new crossing has not yet been installed to get to the restaurants and it seems that this is the cause for the speeding traffic. I have already noticed one accident here between two cars and another near miss. Once the raised crossing is in place this should reduce speeds – perhaps this should have been installed first – or even over a year ago when we first raised issues about safety on the old crossing – which subsequently someone was knocked over at.
Additionally the left turn/carriageway (in the photo) at this point is simply not wide enough. This can be seen clearly by the fact that almost every car ends up hitting the kerb. The kerbs are already cracked up after just a few weeks.
Finally the bollards protecting people who are walking through the carpark on the new pathway are not installed properly. We asked for the pathway from M and S into the car park to improve safety, however it seems as though just about every bollard has been installed using faulty materials and many are already very loose – the cement/concrete used has cracks all over the place. We mad them aware of this on the 22nd August and notified the council on 22nd September when nothing had been done about it.
If someone accidentally reverses quickly into one it could hit a pedestrian using the new path. We informed the Council’s relevant officers a week or so ago, as well as the owners of the Arnison Centre.
It is very clear to us that the new crossing should be installed immediately and the bollards repaired as a matter of urgency. I also think the turning into the carpark in the photo should be altered so that drivers can safety get round without hitting the kerb. Hopefully the Arnison Centre owners will take this matter seriously and the Council will put the necessary pressure on too.
If you are one of the majority who go for a walk each day with your dog and pick up after it, you can help us. There are a small number of dog owners letting everyone else down. If you spot anyone letting their dog foul and then leaving it, please let us know the name of the person or culprit, the time, location and type of dog. We are trying to find those who are spoiling it for everyone else in the area.
We have recently targeted Newton Hall and now are trying to do the same in Pity Me. Indeed if you spot anyone anywhere leaving dog waste let us know the details.
We have asked for large signs to go up as a deterrent. Ultimately, people can face a large fine.
The Council has agreed with us that stronger measures are needed. They have a consultation running until 5th December aimed at having stronger powers of enforcement. Please respond to it by visiting this link: