I tried to log some issues with the Council’s highways action line yesterday only to receive a “Mailbox Full” email. If any resident have had similar bouncebacks try sending through again. Clearly as the main email address for residents reporting faults this shouldn’t happen. I received the following response from the council, so hopefully this will not happen again. The Highways email is hal@durham.gov.uk and you can use this for reporting faulty streetlights, potholes, pavement defects, flytipping, litter etc.

Council response:

Thanks for highlighting this issue, it is important that e-mails get through to the HAL address and as you say it is not acceptable for customers to receive a ‘mailbox full’ message. We have taken action this morning to remedy this.

The HAL address has been heavily used recently, which is normal when there are incidents of bad weather. Whilst we are up to date in terms of dealing with e-mails and there is currently no backlog (e.g. there were only 15 outstanding e-mails as at 5pm yesterday, all of which were received yesterday), the capacity of the mailbox is affected by a number of factors, not only the number of e-mails we receive. For example customers often send attachments to e-mails and we receive a lot of digital photographs (e.g. of pot holes, broken street furniture, overhanging trees etc.) which are often very useful, but do take up a significant amount of server space.

Administration of the HAL mailbox is carried out within Customer Services and practice up to now has been to archive the HAL e-mails once a month to maintain enough space to allow incoming messages. Your e-mail has shown that this may not be enough for the current workload so as of today this frequency has been increased to fortnightly to ensure that space is always available.

The issue of mailbox size is one that we will bring up with ICT, and a discussion has been arranged for later today. While unlimited space may not be practicable, an increase in size or a dedicated server may be and this will be explored. Additionally, as a result of this incident, the management team are looking at ways to improve the early warning system on all external mailboxes so that they are better able to take proactive action as customer facing mailboxes approach capacity.

Once again thank you for highlighting the issue, and I am sure that the actions taken today will help prevent a reoccurrence.

Over the last few months I have been working up a  proposal for the installation of four permanent speed visors around the area. These visors flash up a message, 30mph reminder or other things when a speeding car comes towards them. They  have a really positive effect on cutting speeding.

We already have some sites in the area where temporary visors are installed but this means that the visors are only in place for a few weeks a year at each location and so are not as effective.

The new permanent visors, if the AAP and Villages Committee agree to the proposal will be:

On the road into Brasside, between Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me on Front St near the electricity substation, on the main road through Witton Gilbert,  and on the main road through Bearpark. All these locations have evidence of speeding issues over many years, and the police and council officers support measures to reduce speeding in these locations.

Hopefully the AAP will support the application for funding, which will be matched with money from the local area budgets provided to myself and your other county councillor to improve the area.

If you feel that there is a particular road where there are speeding issues and are interested in working with the police and council to tackle this, it is possible to arrange for a Community Speedwatch where residents and the police carry out a survey at a particular location, and where drivers who are speeding can be written to to warn them. This then allows evidence to be built up to determine if enforcement action needs to be taken on a particular road.

I have carried out a number of these speedwatches in the last few years with residents and officers including on Abbey Road in Pity Me, Front St and High Carr Road Framwellgate Moor and Sacriston Lane in Witton Gilbert.

I attended Witton Gilbert Parish Council yesterday where a number of issues were discussed, including the improvement in grass cutting in the village since I raised serious issues with management. There are still strimming problems and overgrown areas around the village which are due to be attended to in the next week, but if anyone knows of any areas in Witton or the other villages I cover please let me know.

Following my complaint about the failure of the council to arrange an event in Framwellgate Moor on the County Plan, (see below) the council has now agreed to this, on 10th October from 4pm to 8pm at Framwellgate Moor Community Centre.

Shouldn’t have had to push for this, but good that they have realised the importance.

Once again the County Council has deliberately left out Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside and Newton Hall from a local consultation event on their final County Plan proposals despite holding THIRTY NINE EVENTS in other parts of the County.

My email to officers, councillors and the press says it all:

Dear Officers

The latest figures from Durham Police Authority show a continued fall in the crime rate in our area. This is very welcome news and also shows the good job being done by the police working with its partners. For the year end to July, crime is down 12%.

Youth related incidents are down 20% and antisocial behaviour is down 40%. This is great news and in our area, hopefully the continued improvements in facilities for young people at Abbey Leisure Centre will ensure that there is plenty for young people to do in our part of the area.

In the Durham City area thefts are down a huge 59% and public order offences down 28%. Well done Durham Police and everyone in the community for working with the police to acheive these improvements.

The only negative is the increase in car related crime, both damage to vehicles and theft from vehicles, though the rate of increase is slowing rapidly. Make sure you keep your car locaked and if you spot anything suspicious let the police know straight away. The none emergency police line is 0345 60 60 365.

Last year I started asking why we were not using brownfield sites in our area for housebuilding and particularly for affordable/social housing working with organisations such as Durham Villages Regeneration Company. I visited a couple of sites with a director and head of housing and have brought this up with various other councillors and officers.

Today I sent an email to the Director of Regeneration, Head of Housing and Head of Planning asking whether any of my requests have been taken on board. It seems crazy to be proposing to build in the greenbelt, when we are not using council owned brownfield land to build some housing and boost the economy. I await the reply.

Message from council:

Just to let you know that the Unc road 19.7 has been closed due to the condition of the side wall which supports woodland.

The emergency will be followed by an Order and the closure may be in place for some time.

The alternative route for vehicular traffic is shown on the plan attached.

CharlawPlan

I received the following email from Nick Clegg today:

Reform of the House of Lords is a key commitment in the Coalition Agreement – the contract that keeps the coalition parties working together in the national interest.

The Liberal Democrats have held to that contract even when it meant voting for things that we found difficult.

The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and, as a result, for the first time part of our contract has now been broken.

When part of a contract is broken, it is normal and necessary to amend that contract in order to then move on. So that is what we are doing.

I have told the Prime Minister that when Parliament votes on boundary changes for the 2015 election Liberal Democrats in Parliament will oppose them.

Coalition is a two-way street. I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like while Liberal Democrats are bound to the entire agreement.

The Liberal Democrats joined the Coalition, in good faith, in the national interest at a time of crisis. We will continue to work in the national interest.

We will continue to focus on the central task that brought the Coalition together: Rescuing, repairing and rebalancing our economy.

And we will continue fighting for and delivering the things we believe in – making the tax system fairer; the Pupil Premium; green energy; and jobs and opportunities for our young people.

In my discussions with the Labour Party leadership, they have made it clear that while they continue to back Lords reform in principle, they are set on blocking it in practice. Supporting the ends, but – when push comes to shove – obstructing the means.

I invited Ed Miliband to propose the number of days that Labour believe is necessary for consideration of the Bill. He declined to do so.

Instead he confirmed Labour would only support individual closure motions – which could bog down Parliament for months.

Regrettably Labour is allowing short-term political opportunism to thwart long-term democratic change.

So Liberal Democrats will continue to pursue our values in government and we will continue to campaign for democratic renewal.

My hope is that in the next Parliament we will return to it emboldened by the overwhelming vote in favour of our Bill at second reading and that Lords Reform will eventually be a reality.

I have been in Witton Gilbert today with officers to look at work already done and work required to be done to reduce the risk of future flooding. Officers have agreed to arrange for further work to be carried out on the Burn which caused so much trouble last month.

We also found more blocked drains and it is very clear to me that the regular maintenance work the old district council used to carry out on its sites and indeed which the county used to do around the area are no longer being done. Almost a dozen drains were blocked when the last flooding came and this clearly contributed to problems. The council should be ensuring regular checks are done, but until this happens, please report any blocked drains to 01913706000 or hal@durham.gov.uk

Let me now if work isn’t carried out so i can chase it up.