First hedge planting takes place in Framwellgate Moor

Your Lib Dem councillors have been working to make our area a nicer place to live. We arranged for 400 free hedgerow plants from the Woodlands Trust and have planted them near Framwellgate School on Finchale Rd. Students, councillors as well as police, school and council volunteers all mucked in to help.

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We are also in the process of planting an orchard for all residents of Newton Hall to enjoy. 60 trees are being planted near to Newton Hall allotments. Call us if you can help!

Pic of me getting a sore back and Amanda standing around holding a very small tree!!

Aykley Heads Roundabout work complete

The roundabout looks far better now that it has been resurfaced. We had asked for action and I am very pleased that this work has been done.

There is still an outstanding sunken drain cover which I have pointed out to officers who are checking it out to see if it can be replaced.

A resident has also commented about keep clear markings perhaps not being in the right place and officers are also checking this out.

New Solar Panels for three Centres

We have worked with a local supplier, RE consultants in Newton Hall and secured a big discount for our loccommunitycentrepanelsal 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.

Emergency weather contact

If you need assistance from the council call 03000 261000

If you don’t get a response or want councillor help please do call us.

There is extensive flooding across the County and the River Wear has burst its banks in Durham City. Weather warnings can be found at www.metoffice.gov.uk

Check your drains to make sure they are free of leaves. If there are any blocked drains on the road outside your house and it looks like there is a chance of water getting into your property call the council number.

CALL TO DELAY DLI CLOSURE

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.

Improving safety at the Arnison Centre and Parking issues

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!

arnison photoClearly 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.

£220 million council reserves

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.

DLI MUSEUM CLOSURE

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I submitted a call-in request today to the Council signed by members of all three main opposition groups at County Hall.

The Council plans to close the museum in April, but is doing so without in our view properly consulting with councillors, and without any public consultation. In addition it is felt that all possible alternatives have not been explored.

 

A petition has nearly 6000 names at the moment and can be found here:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-closure-of-the-dli-museum

Our call-in has been reported in the Northern Echo this evening, reprinted below:

OPPOSITION councillors are challenging the process by which a council decided to close a military museum.

Six Liberal Democrat, Conservative and independent members of Durham County Council have backed an attempt to have the closure of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum, in Aykley Heads, Durham City, “called in” for further scrutiny.

Lib Dem Mark Wilkes, who has led the effort, said there had been a complete lack of proper consultation with the public and opposition councillors and Labour members knew of the closure plan long before local members, who were only informed once there was no chance of any changes being made.

He also said there were concerns not all the possible alternatives to closure, such as asking volunteers to run the facility, had been considered.

“Whilst there may be elements of the proposals which are positive, it is felt that cabinet should consider our concerns and carry out a meaningful consultation with the general public,” he said.

“The way in which the council has gone about this process has left many people deeply upset and in some cases very angry. By not asking public views it has brought into question the democratic process. The council can address some of this by taking a step back and listening.”

Cllr Joe Armstrong, chair of the council’s overview and scrutiny wing, will consider the call in request with officers tomorrow (Friday, October 30).

He said: “We have an open mind about it. The request is about procedure so I’ll be looking at the procedure to ensure we’re right within our constitution. If we’re not, we’ll have to get it put right.”

The scrutiny committee could ask the cabinet to look again at the decision.

The council decided to close the 50-year-old museum and move the collection to the Spennymoor Sevenhills building, which has secure, environmentally-controlled facilities. Temporary loans and exhibitions are planned and talks have begun with Durham University over a display at Palace Green Library.

Conservative energy policy a disaster

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.

Incredible difference to path after work

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

Before path After path