Have been issued for heavy rain across the county. Please check that the drains outside your house are cleared of debris. If you find any blocked drains or need sandbags let me know or call 01913706000 or email hal@durham.gov.uk
Most gulleys will always have some water sitting in them, so don’t automatically think that they are blocked unless the water level is up to the top of the gulley/road/pavement.
Residents trying to call the council’s benefits enquiry line are again being met with a “We are too busy to speak to you” message. I checked myself this morning and it is very clear that the problems which have been rumbling on for over a year now have still not been full addressed. If you have any serious, urgent issues please let me know and I will try and help.
I carried out a speedwatch with the local police in Pity Me last week and a nubmer of vehicles were recorded travelling over 30mph on the Front St. Letters are being sent out to some of these motorists and I am looking at what additional measures can be taken to address speeding issues both here and in other areas.
If anyone wants to carry out a speedwatch with the police, please let me know and I will pass on your details to the relevant officers.
Football training sessions are being held at Abbey Leisure Centre during the summer holidays.
The sessions, organised by Durham County Council, include On the Ball junior football coaching for young children and pay and play sessions for older kids.
On the Ball junior football coaching camps are for children aged six to 11.
The three-day courses, which cost £15, are aimed at helping youngsters – including the most inexperienced players – to learn football skills and build their confidence in a fun and exciting environment.
They are being held throughout August on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, at the following leisure centres:
• Abbey Leisure Centre – 3pm until 5pm (times may vary so please check in advance).
I again requested work to be done to improve the road surface on these roads yesterday. I have now been asking for over three years.
As you can see it really is beyond a joke now and the pavements aren’t much better.
Perhaps if the council had listened to Lib Dem proposals to increase the highways budget using unallocated funds, the majority of which have still not been allocated, then we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Click on the image – the close up shows how bad it is!
Work is well underway to modernise council bungalows on Woodbine Road in Pity Me. I had been pushing officers for three years to take action even having Head of Housing and other senior staff visit the area following repeated failures to upgrade boilers. Thankfully my pressure has paid off and two dozen bungalows are seeing major modernisation works, which will include new heating systems which should cut fuel bills.
I asked for a community speedwatch to be carried out to see what speeds vehicles are travelling at on High Carr road. this was carried out this afternoon with the police, myself and two local residents. Over 30 vehicles were recorded speeding and some will receive letters advising them of the dangers of speeding. The dfata will help in looking at isues including speeding, vibration from traffic and the state of the road surface.
I attended a meeting with council officers and employees/agents of National Power Grid this afternoon to discuss proposals for a mast at the substation between Fram Moor and Pity Me.
There is an explanation in a previous post about the reasoning for the mast, but following more than 10 objections, the following was agreed today:
– i confirmed that my request to send the application to committee would stand.
– it was agreed that images would be created showing the view from different directions of what the mast would look like.
– it was agreed to look at what could be done to improve the landscaping at the front of the site, both by the council and the owners of the site.
– I expect to see plans of proposals to improve the look of buildings on the site, includig the eyesore near the main road, and also to be notified of improvements to sound insulation around certain parts of the site to reduce the bussing sound many residents can hear, though this is not part of the planning application.
– Finally I was able to agree a drop in session being organised for local residents with concerns to discuss the application with planners and agents for the site.
Additional works which I asked to be done to fix sunken drainage gulleys are being carried out this and next week as well as hopefully resurfacing of the carriageway, so hopefully all the works will be completed in the next couple of weeks. Now we just need to try and find some money to do more work further up and down the street.
Last night councillors received an email from senior management to say that problems with grass cutting and strimming were as a result of the exceptional weather. This is not the whole truth.
Two weeks ago Cllr Hopgood and I in a meeting with the Head of Service and managers received an apology because in the Durham City area the Council started grass cutting three weeks later than elsewhere.
We were then told that in Coxhoe grass had been cut SIX times, yet in Bearpark and Newton Hall it was only 3 times. Asked why, we were told the machinery had broken down. Why didn’t management bring machinery from other areas of the county to ensure a balanced service? They have now after our complaints.
We have evidence of staff taking longer breaks than they are allowed, of rude staff, in fact as I write this I have another complaint from Framwellgate Moor from a resident on the phone.
We have areas left unstrimmed, in some places several feet high, in one place trees growing out of the side of a council house, yet were told in the council budget that grass cutting services had not been cut in the recent budget documents.
All of this says to me a complete breakdown of communication and management at all levels and a complete failure by Durham’s Labour cabinet to get control of this huge Unitary Authority. We need political change in County Durham urgently. This is not the only department where there are problems.
And whilst budget cuts do cause problems, it does not help when the council persists in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money on publicity rags, refuses to cut the cost of councillors, and seems to spend more time on press releases than dealing with day to day issues which matter to residents.
I recently asked how many press releases the council puts out here was the response:
July 2011 – 112
Aug 2011 – 75
Sept 2011 – 117
Oct 2011 – 56
Nov 2011 – 105
Dec 2011 – 82
Jan 2012 – 59
Feb 2012 – 96
Mar 2012 – 98
Apr 2012 – 77
May 2012 – 123
June 2012 – 88
TOTAL 1,088
And how many complaints have they received?
In the last fifteen months complaints to Durham County council have more than doubled:
509 – Last Quarter of 2010/11
578 – First Quarter of 2011/12
630 – Second Quarter of 2011/12
759 – Third Quarter of 2011/12
1138 – Fourth Quarter of 2011/12
It strikes me that because of the failures all over the place at DCC, Labour are fighting a media battle to put out as many press releases as possible to help cover up the problems. Staff across all departments have stories of things not being run properly. Council phone systems still have wrong phone numbers for contacting officers months after they have moved to new premises or changed their numbers.
Many staff are frustrated by the minority of colleagues taking advantage of poor or none existent monitoring of sickness absense which would see heads at all levels roll in private industry and many other councils across the country.
No one knows who is in County Hall at any particular moment because no one has to swipe into the building and record their presence – so no proper monitoring of who is and isn’t working, a health and safety nightmare in the event of a fire and a serious security risk.
Labour are losing any credibility they ever had in this county to run our local services.