MEMORIAL GARDEN

Having returned from holiday yesterday I found the rose beds at the Memorial Garden in Framwellgate Moor still had not been weeded and were several feet high in weeds in places making the whole area look a real mess.

Why this had really annoyed me is because I had asked for this to be done months ago, even though I shouldn’t have to because it should be on a cycle, and it wasn’t touched.

Then just before going on holiday two weeks ago I showed the area to the Head of Service along with numerous other areas of uncut grass, unstrimmed areas etc across the villages.

Having threatened to put the picture of the area on this blog yesterday morning, it was done yesterday afternoon. So thank you to the Head of Service, but must I become the adviser to the council on where it has to cut its grass, strim areas and cut back trees?

If there is anywhere in a poor condition which needs work doing please let me know, but be aware I can’t promise it will get done, unless perhaps you send me a photo of it!

Labour’s wonderful unitary Council!

LIBRARY OPENING HOURS

Labour plans to slash library opening hours is a disgrace. As I said in the Northern Echo this week on how Labour is running the Council:

“They refused to cut the cost of councillors, refused to scrap their publicity rag, are paying millions to directors and over £200,000 to the chief executive. Yet they can’t find the money to protect library opening hours – quite simply shameful.”

We must end decades of Labour running our County and Council into the ground.

Brasside – Beech Close Flooding

Have been out tonight helping in Brasside where a number of properties have been flooded, managed to get some sandbags out but there are clearly some long term issues which must be sorted out to do with water coming of fields. It was literally a river of water.

Head of Service gave the following update about the rest of the County earlier:

The extreme rainfall we experienced has affected a number of properties across the County (in particular the North- Consett, Chester le Street, Stanley), and has of course resulted in a large number of calls. We have had teams out on the ground throughout this period from across building, streetscene and highway services and are coordinating our activities with the Police and other emergency services through a silver command. The teams have been working hard to do drainage where possible, provide sandbags and advise motorists of unpassable roads. In some instances our own efforts have been hampered by the unpassable roads.

The only good news is that the rain has stopped, and the forecast is that it will clear. Our teams will be out right through the evening however, and are responding to requests prioritising where possible vulnerable people and property.

The public advice is to only journey if it is absolutely necessary, and to not attempt to take a vehicle through a flooded area if unsure about its depth. Furthermore, whilst we are responding to requests for sandbags we would ask residents and Members to focus on those areas where there is the immediate need, rather than purely as a precaution. This will help our teams to focus on the areas that most need it.

We will provide further updates to members, including information on the website. The overall summary of the position to date is as follows:

Weather Conditions
The rain has stopped for the time being and the water levels are receding fairly quickly. The radar shows that the heavy rain fall has cleared the County into the North Sea. No further rain is forecast until tomorrow morning and it appears to be light to moderate.

The North appears to have been affected the worse with particularly problems reported around Consett and Lanchester.

Highways
· Widespread problems many of which will have been attended to directly by Highway Inspectors and Emergency Action Team’s
· A689 East of Wolsingham has cars stuck in water, passable with care
· C75 west of Frosterley, land slip – road open half width
· Footpath collapsed on the approach into Lanchester
· Hole in road due to drain collapse – Lanchester Main St
· Footpath has lifted at Hillside Road (Gardens) Stanley
· A690 Stockley Grange was closed by floods producing tailbacks
· Landslide just outside of Burnhopefield from Busty Bank – obstructing the road.
· Highway inspector are reporting that floods have subsided very quickly once intense rain has passed but traffic still slow

Private Buildings
A number of private dwellings have been flooded in the North and the Durham area (Brasside).

Streetscene have responded to numerous requests for sandbags. There are still a number of outstanding service requests. If water levels continue to fall in the North area they will be able to get to the calls that are outstanding.

Council Buildings
Timothy Hackworth Primary school flooded – staff on site
Lanchester front street flooded with elderly and disabled people trapped – staff on site
Comelion House roof collapsed and building flooded – cleaners and staff on site to limit damage (note the building will be unusable tomorrow for ICT staff)
Consett CAP power outage but the building has been secured (NEEB have indicated 3 hours before power restored
County Hall several areas flooded including Occupational Health and the Boiler Room

Evacuation Centres

Clearly a number of these exist through the County, further information relating to these for residents in affected areas will follow.

PROPOSED TOWER AT PITY ME SUBSTATION

It has come to my attention today that an application for a tower at Potterhouse Substation (Actually on Pity Me Front St) will be submitted today by Northern Powergrid.

I am told that the tower is required because the modernisation of the telecoms network by BT is changing the way that data is communicated. Communication between substations  is required to ensure safety in the event of a need to shut down the electricity grid, with similar proposals at other sites around the County. The proposed tower would be 22m high in the middle of the site, so higher than the existing buildings but significantly lower than the existing tower. It will clearly will be visible from some of the properties around the site, though trees may hide the view in some directions.

I will post the planning details when available. I have made it clear to planners and to the applicant that I would expect consultation with the community by way of a drop in event to discuss concerns. I have also raised the fact that the site overall is currently an eyesore I need of serious improvement and that renovation is long overdue.

I have asked that if this application was granted a contribution towards the improvement of the local area should be considered if at all possible.

I have also said that in the event that there are objections, then it may be necessary to ask for the application to be referred to the planning committee rather than being determined by officers.

If anyone wishes to discuss it further please feel free to get in touch.

Framwellgate Moor Community Centre

I have had a number of meetings in the last week about Framwellgate Moor Community Centre. As many of you will be aware the council had decided not to invest any money in the centre which would have risked its closure, however, a valiant effort from the Community Centre Committee (All volunteers), managed to boost the centre enough to get it into the councils invest category.
Now, the committee is considering the possibility of taking over the centre from council control on a long term lease, which would allow us to seek external funding and receive funding from the council to improve the building.
This may take up to two years to complete, however the committee is also working with the council and a local charity to see if alternative proposals for the future of the building could be looked into including the possibility of rebuilding or expanding the centre. In the coming weeks a survey is expected to go out to local residents seeking their views, which I am also helping to put online and will provide the links when this is available.
In the meantime, if you are interested in joining the committee, which tends to meet normally once a month or interested in using the centre please do call in the centre and check out availability.”
I have contributed £3000 this year from local Neighbourhood funds to help the centre with staffing and energy bill costs for the next year as well as a small fund for any groups wanting to rent who may be eligible for a discount on room rents.

BIN COLLECTIONS – GRASS CUTTING – HOUSING

Been a few weeks since my last post, partly due to spending a lot of time dealing complaints about failed refuse and recycling collections and the appalling lack of grass cutting in some areas and issues with council housing and the council failure to answer the phone.

For the fourth year running of this unitary authority the path between Hudspeth Crescent and Front St in Pity Me and the path running across to Finchale/Old Pit have not been cut back despite repeated requests from residents and councillors to the council. This has now been raised with head of service and I have asked today for the third year in a row to see the cutting schedule for the area, which I have asked for each year and never been given, leading me to believe that there isn’t one and that actually the new council is simply responding when the number of complaints hits a certain level or not at all in this case so far.

It is strange that a department with so many tiers of management can’t deal with simple things like scheduling a path for cutting back. Once again I expect that there will be excuses like the weather, or agency staff shortages. What they can’t blame this on is cuts in their budget because they have already told me in the last few months that this is simply not the case.

Yes there used to be some problems with the old City Council but things did get done when you asked, and pretty quickly too. It is also clear that this is a TWO TIER COUNCIL. Up in Chester-le-Street or over in Langley Park, the grass is being cut properly, so why can’t we have the same service in Durham?

So much of Labour’s promise of raising service levels to the highest in the County with the new authority.

It is also clear that this isn’t just the council ganging up on Pity Me residents, the grass cutting in Witton Gilbert this year has been even worse and there are problems across Newton Hall too.

Time for a chat with the Director I think.

OK rant over, but on a different note if anyone is still having any issues with bin collections please do let me know as there have been a lot of changes of late and a lot of complaints about failed collections.

Finally, if anyone has  housing or council tax benefit issues let me know. In the last few weeks there have been days and even a full week according to one resident where it has simply been impossible to get through to the council. I checked this and it was true, simply a message saying “We are too busy and are going to hang up on you now” or words to that effect. So I called four other North East councils and got through to all of their benefits departments in less than a minute – so any excuses from our Labour-run Council are unacceptable.