Tomorrow the Labour  Cabinet at County Hall will agree to press ahead with a tendering exercise for subsidised bus services across the County.

The £3.3m contracts have never been shown to councillors. We have never had the opportunity to comment or put forward recommendations. Councillors should have been able to ask about conditions relating to quality and punctuality of bus services for these subsidised routes. It is completely unaccceptable when more than 10% of all bus services in the county are arriving late, not to have proper conditions in place to penalise the worst offending companies.

Over two years ago councillors were promised that when important contracts are being set up for council services that we would get some input. This followed on from past mistakes with procurement. Once again we don’t get a look in. Democracy is dead in County Durham until such time as Labour loses control of DCC.

On the subject of procurement – if anyone in the wider county has received their new recycling bin, please let me know if you think the quality is to the same standard as your general or garden waste bin.

Someone has told me that the new bins are poor quality, which is surprising given all the bad press about the award of the contract..

A traffic order to prohibit access to Aldin Grange Terrace from the C17 Main Bearpark Road is to be heard at Highways committee this Thursday following a couple of objections to the proposals. At the moment cars can enter and exit at the bottom end of the terrace, but concerns were raised that this wasn’t safe due to the sharpness of the bend.

Both myself and your other county councillor are supporting the proposal which will still allow cars to drive up and down the rest of the road. More details can be found here: http://democracy.durham.gov.uk/documents/s18302/Unc%20Aldin%20Grange.pdf

For the last four years I have been trying to get action on speed limit changes on the C17 road from Neville’s Cross through Beapark to Ushaw Moor.

The council has finally come up with proposals for a new 40 mph zone to be installed at either end of the village to help to reduce speeds. I am concerned about the start and end points of these newly proposed zones, and have asked that an officer attends the next meeting of Bearpark Parish Council (21st March – 3rd Wednesday of the month.)

You can view the proposals here by clicking on the links below. Residents affected should now have received a letter about the proposals and I am delivering a leaflet to the whole village which mentions the proposed speed limit changes too.

Aldin Grange end – pdf C17 Toll House Road to Bear Park Area 2 A4 Plan

Ushaw Moor end – pdf C17 Toll House Road to Bear Park Area 1 A4 Plan

Please let me know if you have any comments by emailing me or alternatively email the council at northernareatechnicalsupport@durham.gov.uk

The principle behind this is that having a buffer zone which is a 40mph stretch allows reminders along the road and reduces people’s speeds more gradually instead of going straight from 60mph to 30mph. The issue is that at the AldinGrange end, they are proposing to remove the 60mph zone altogether which may reduce the positive impact, however I look forward to seeing responses and listening to officers on this. We also need to consider if the the location of the start and finish points are correct.

Following on from the new outdoor gym being installed at Witton Gilbert, Fulforth Park, I have managed to get the County Council to agree to some repair work and full repainting of the existing play equipment on the site. The painting should be done within the next week and will make the site look great, a number of repairs including new swings may take a little longer.

A167 Pity Me to Sniperley Park and Ride, Durham
Temporary Prohibition of Driving Southbound Notice

The County Council intend to prohibit vehicular traffic, from 8.00am on Sunday 4 March 2012, from travelling southbound along a 1.56km length of A167 Pity Me to the A167 Sniperley Park and Ride Roundabout, Durham.

The closure, which is being effected by means of Notice under Section 14(2) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, is necessary to enable cats eye and white lining works which will probably take some 12 hours to complete, to be carried out to that length of road.

Throughout the period of closure an alternative route will be available to vehicular traffic from the northern side of the closure from A167 Pity Me Roundabout via C100 Front Street, Pity Me and Framwellgate Moor to Sniperley Roundabout to the southern side of the closure and vice versa.

Comrade Henig, your Labour council leader is set to benefit from the current austerity measures by getting three part time chauffeurs, each paid up to £15,000 plus pension costs, even if they do zero hours. Of course we are all in it together aren’t we? Given they also apparently have a new limousine, perhaps they can start to give residents a lift.  Last week Labour refused to reduce the amount councillors can claim for travel expenses and refused to cut special responsibility allowances that councillors also get. The day after the advert for 3 chauffeurs appeared – talk about making a sore point even more inflamed.

So last week labour refused to accept and changes to the Council budget put forward by three different opposition groups.

They refused to cut back on CountNews – the publicity rag.

They refused to cut the number of directors – but strangely implied they’d like to.

They refused to merge communications teams to save money.

They refused to spend the money they have lined up for election year on frontline services.

They refused to protect neighbourhood warden and other frontline jobs.

They refused to protect library opening hours or put more money into our roads and footpaths.

I know one thing for sure, residents would rather the council spent less on directors, publicity rags and councillros and more on protecting frontline services.

Shame on Labour at DCC for continuing to waste money.

The Community Buildings report of the County Council was released today. Cabinet will consider it next week. Fram Community Centre had previously not been in the invest category and there was the risk of closure.

The hard work put in by the community and the committee as well as the investment in the new carpark and windows in the last few years seems to have paid off . We have been moved up into the invest category with lower repair costs and higher usage the reasons.

BEARPARK COMMUNITY CENTRE

Bearpark Community Centre has also moved into the invest category with much lower costs compared to Fram for improvements of around £28,000 and more users.

FLAMBARD ROAD COMMUNAL HALL

Flambard Road is now being used by mental health charity Mind who have managed after a long wait to get a long lease on the building so they can improve it and allow it to be used by the community as well.

FYNDOUNE COMMUNAL HALL in Witton Gilbert is still in the do not invest category because of little use but it is possible this could be transfered to Durham City Homes to either be converted or protected for community use.

The same applies to BEAUREPAIRE COMMUNAL HALL in Beapark, though there are still discussions about the possibility of a community group taking it over.

WOODBINE ROAD COMMUNAL HALL in Pity Me is in the same situation as Fyndoune due to low use but we wait to see what will happen with Durham City Homes.

So right now it looks like Fram and Bearpark Community Centres are saved, Flambard is saved, and the remaining small centres are still up in the air but hope is not lost.

Not bad considering Labour wsas threatening to close all of them at one point. Amazing what a bit of community spirit and hard work can achieve.

Its the budget meeting tomorrow and we hope to get Labour to agree to investing in apprenticeships, protecting Libraries, protecting frontline neighbourhood jobs, investing in roads and putting in more money to save those community centres not currently safe.

Paid for by cutting directors, cutting councillor costs, reducing communications budgets and using the money we have in better ways.

So Labour run Council installs bus shelter in Framwellgate Moor that no buses stop at. Yet another example of our incompetent Labour-run council. Interesting though as both I and the Parish Council told them that no buses stopped here. In fact an officer even emailed me and told me that no buses stopped here. The sooner we get the control of this council out of Labour hands the better.