Over the last few months I have been working with the council, school, college and police to prepare for the new school term.

The lowest year at Fram school are being kept on site this year to help to reduce problems at lunchtimes. I was insistant that Council neighbourhood wardens patrol at the start of the new school and college terms and the police have also been carrying out patrols as well from today and will do so on a regular basis.

It appears that we have made major impact on littering with the improved bins I arranged earlier in the year and the patrols. Clearly this is an on going issue but the improvements in littering are significant compared to a couple of years ago. The school and college have been very proactive in assisting in tackling the anti-social behaviour issues.

Any problems please let me know.

The new parking scheme on Fram Front street appears to be a success, with far fewer cars parking on pavements and spaces available for passing trade. This took me quite some time to get arranged, but the wait is clearly worth the result.

If anyone sees any knock on effects anywhere please let me know.

The carpark at the rear of the community centre I arranged to be resurfaced last year is available for anyone needing to park for more than 3 hours and has lighting in the evening and spaces for over 30 cars.

It appears that the recycling bins haven’t turned up on Front St as promised by the County Council and I will be chasing up as to why.

I have been asked to look at replacing two seats on Fram Front St which are damaged and am looking for possible funding sources to keep the cost down. I asked the Parish Council to consider contributing which will be discussed at the next meeting

I am still conversing with the council and steering group in relation to Abbey Leisure Centre and am particularly annoyed at the failure of the council to announce the new opening hours we have been negotiating with them. They wanted to cut hours to only 37 a week and we are hopeful of this being increased but still have nothing to tell users officially. We are meeting again shortly but I have spoken to Directors demanding that we get answers now.

Having seen that Shildon Leisure Centre is getting a 250,000 pounds investment in new facilities this week, I expect to see some positive answers immediately from the Council! When you consider they are subsidising other centres to the tune of millions around the county its the least we can expect for Abbey, from this Labour Council.

A planning application has been passed to re build Unit A at the Arnison Centre to provide three new units (Currently Halfords). Hopefully this will provide new jobs in the area.

I confirmed at Witton Parish Council on Tuesday that the County Council will shortly be replacing bus shelters in Witton |Gilbert. I have made sure that these will be fully enclosed rather than the lean-toos we have seen in the past. The works will also include raising kerbs to improve disability access. Allthe shelters on Front St as well as the one outside the Primary School willbe replaced, along with an additional new shelter near the Travelers rest. The rest of the shelters in the village where necesary will be repainted and damaged glass/perspex replaced.

The Pedestrian Island I have been arranging to be installed near to the McColls on Sacriston lane is to go ahead with work expected in November subject to weather conditions. This will make it far safer to cross the road in the centre of the village.

The outdoor gym looks set to go ahead shortly on the playing fields behind Cooper Hall with funding from the AAP, Councillors Neighbourhood Budget and the Parish Council, the first of hopefully much more improvements to play facilities in the village.

I am also chasing up repairs to equipment at Findon Avenue which the Parish was promised would be carried out.

All the the footpaths along the whole length of Sacriston Lane allthe way to Sacriston have now been cut backand resurfaced following my requests last year. This means that every footpath on Front St and Sacriston Lane has now been resurfaced in the last year.

I am still pushing for resurfacing on Rose Lea and specifically an area going onto Findon Av which is in a terrible state.

The police have been dealing with some fire problems in the Witton area. If anyone sees anything please call the police immediately.

Following my complaints about work being done to resurface footpaths and then weeds growing through the following week, the whole of the top end of the footpaths in Witton Gilbert has started to be resurfaced after new weedkilling was tried out. Hopefully this will have worked. Although as the council doesn’t take away grass cuttings when cutting verges, I expect some growth to occur. Still Witton is looking much better.

I have passed on further reports for pothole repairs on the Brokside estate,specifically on Friarside. The full rebuilding of part of the road was completed a few weeks ago, but I believe that deteriation in the road surface on the whole state means that it should be considered for resurfacing next year. I have already been successful in getting all the fotpaths resurfaced.

Delays to quoting for the traffic island I have been working on on Sacriston lane in Witton Gilbert have ended. A quote for just over £8000 for the scheme has been proposed and I have asked for this to go ahead using funding from neighbourhood and highways monies.

This has long been a difficult place to cross the road, and apart from a couple of issues concerning location which have been dealt with, noone has objected to the scheme in Witton Gilbert. It was reported in both my Focus leaflet and the Parish NEwsletter.
Hopefully in a few months we can see work commence to make it safer to cross the road for local residents and to reduce speed of vehicles near the newsagents.

Following on from the resurfacing of Newton Drive and the inexplicable missing of one section, I reported various defects including five channels which were causing vibrations into bungalows when cars went past. Good to see that the Council has been and filled these in today. Will continue to push for full resurfacing of this part when the next round of works starts next year.

Durham has been awarded £7,790,000 funding from the coalition government towards improving broadband. This is clearly a huge vote of confidence in our County by the Coalition Government along with the £2m the County Council is investing we should be able to make a huge stride forward. I trust the council will be looking at getting additional funding from the private sector and that Durham can start to see the digital transformation we have been waiting so long for.

This is one area where the last Labour government failed to get a grip. This will really help to boost the County’s economy and help rural areas in particular.

Following on from some complaints yesterday about the commencement of piling for the foundations of the houses at miller Homes, I have arranged with the County Council and Miller homes for a meeting on site (In Miller’s meeting cabin), for residents to raise their concerns about the vibrations and noise and any additional issues including concerns about the tree line.

This is just for residents of Cross Row, Old Pit, The Carrs Caravan Site and anyone on the new estate. If there are other residents from further afield who have particular issues please let me know before Thursday so I can bring them up.

Meeting – Miller Homes Cabin, Hutton Way, 5pm Thursday 16 th August.

For the last two years or more I have been pushing the Labour Run Durham County Council to do what most other authorities do and allow advertising on the public highway.

Not American style twenty foot high boards, just small scale adverts on roundabouts paid for by for example local garden centres, with nice flower displays. Instead, they have spent two years arguing amongst themselves about the legalities of it all.

I could have had the flower displays in Pity Me paid for completely by a local nursery in return for a small advert on the roundabouts but DCC said no. In the end Pity Me Nurseries did the work for below cost – big thanks, stirling job – and hopefully, this week at the fifth time of asking DCC will honour its agreement to weed the displays.

Anyway, the point here is not about flowers, rather about the huge amount of money the council could be saving through allowing this advertising. By now they could have saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds. Yet another example of a go slow council wasting our money.

Last year I was told a report would be forthcoming on this. Today I get told it is on its way. Why with 20,000 employees does it take DCC so long to do sensible things recommended by the public or Councillors, or even by its own officers, perhaps it is because it is incompetently run by the Labour Party.