Article 4 Consultation – urgent

The council is consulting again on the proposals we secured to add our area into the Article 4 Direction.

This will make it easier to challenge the conversion of properties into Houses of Multiple Occupation. We need residents to back this proposal to make sure that we keep the sustainable community we need.

This is not just about student accommodation, there are properties being converted to four five or six beds which are basically terraced houses. The knock on effects are significant to local residents.

Please attend the consultations. Consultation dates:

  • Wednesday, 18 May, 1pm to 5pm – Framwellgate Moor Community Centre
  • Thursday, 2 June, 3pm to 7pm – All Saints Church, Newton Hall

Student accommodation/houses in multiple occupation (HMO) – Framwellgate Moor area – Council explanation

What are we doing? We are currently consulting on a proposal which will impact on student accommodation in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me and Newton Hall. This is an Article 4 Direction which would mean that all future changes of use from a residential property to a HMO would require planning consent in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me and Newton Hall.

Why are we doing it? The use of an Article 4 Direction would help the council maintain mixed and balanced communities in the area.

Where does it apply? It would apply to a defined area within Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me and Newton Hall.

The closing date for comments is Monday 6 June 2016.

More info from my previous posts below:

The council completed its first consultation on introducing new rules in the City on student/HMO housing earlier in the year. The aim of this is to protect areas from having too many houses of multiple occupation, to avoid the negative consequences. When we found out about this last year, we immediately asked for our area to be included as it had been ignored. An initial consultation was arranged by your Lib Dem councillors.

The council has now accepted that  the area should be considered for inclusion, and a final round of consultation will start soon, along with a couple of drop in events in our area which we have requested.

Our previous post on this can be found here:

http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/09/29/article-4-direction-framwellgate-moor-area/

Please do join in the consultation and help us ensure that our area retains a mixed community without any further increase in the problems which HMOs can cause in the wrong places.

Finally – Action on flooded path near Vets for Pets

As your local councillors, over the last nine months or so we have repeatedly asked for action to fix the waterlogging of the main footpath from Newton Hall to Framwellgate Moor near where the cut through to Vets 4 Pets is. Repeatedly I was told it was volume of water from heavy rain, and that it needed to be monitored. We knew it was more than that – a complete lack of proper drainage. Amanda also raised the issue. Finally today on viewing how deep the water was we contacted the Head of Service at the Council. We now have confirmation that they are looking at installing a pavement drain to sort this out once and for all. Which, from what I recall is what I suggested was needed in the first place. Now we just need to keep an eye on how long it is going to take to get the work done.

1000th Post! And still getting things done for our area

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog. This is my 1000th post. A few things we have done in the last few weeks.

Over the last few days we have arranged for a litter pick at Mere Drive and Bishops Way to clear in front and behind the hedgerow on the Front Road.

Also got two concrete blocks removed from the grass near the entrance to The Avenue.

And reported a number of damaged kerbs, potholes and footpath defects in Pity Me.

We are also taking up the issue of overgrown trees in the Parish Council run Pity Me Park on The Avenue where the conifers are huge and causing problems for householders.

Up in Framwellgate Moor we are working to get the paths near the Fire Station development cleared of mud and dirt from the site, having spoken to Avant homes and council officers about the mess.

Down in Brasside, the work to repair the main floodwater drain through Beech Close is starting after our intervention finally secured funding from the Home Office along with matched funding we have provided.

And across the area we are still delivering our survey to find out what residents think is important in our area. Please click the link here to have your say:

http://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9VNSSW8

At Abbey Leisure Centre we can report that all the extra investment we secured, and the hard work of staff has helped user numbers get back to the highest levels seen for years. Its a great time to join up. Call in to get shown around and to get details of the latest courses and activities.

On Newton Hall, two new bus shelters have been installed following our discussion with officers, meaning that on Bek Road three shelters are now replaced  and a new one has been installed following our intervention.

Eden Road is now on the maps after we got street signs for the road, and numerous other signs along Bek Road have been replaced or installed at our request. We continue to report broken paving and footpath defects across the estate and the wider area we represent.

400 new trees have been planted in the grassed area between Caterhouse Road and Bek Road running from Vets 4 Pets towards Aykley Heads after we were successful in getting them from the Woodland Trust. The Eddy project we helped set up at Framwellgate School arranged the planting with students from the school.

On Wednesday we will be supporting council plans to introduce restrictions on the spread of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) in Durham City after securing the extension of the plans to our area – this will start shortly in Durham City and in our area next year thanks to our intervention.

Also on Wednesday we will be putting a motion to Full Council illustrating the benefits to County Durham of European Union membership which brings huge amounts of additional funding to the County and the wider North East.

And we are also working on much more at the moment to improve the area.

Appalling treatment of teaching assistants by our Labour-run Council: TA: “I have never in my whole working life ever felt so undervalued, unsupported and unappreciated”

Durham Council has decided it wants to cut the pay of teaching assistants by thousands of pounds a year as well as increase work hours.

Over recent months councillors have received dozens of emails about this. I find myself wondering how it can be possible for Durham Council to be run by the Labour Party and for them to seek to slash the pay of some of the lowest paid members of the teaching profession.

We recently tried to get the plans thrown out at full council but Labour councillors first timed out the debate so they didn’t have to vote, and then when it came back a month later, changed the motion to render it unacceptable. The consultation on new terms has now concluded and we wait to see what our Labour Cabinet comes up with next. If it is anything like that recommended in the proposals, I for one will not be supporting it. It cannot be right to cut someone’s pay by thousands of pounds and increase their hours. It is simply unacceptable.

Across County Durham there are over 2700 teaching assistants. I imagine that the way this Labour-run council has been over this issue is going to have a huge impact on how TAs vote in next years local elections. When you take into account their partners, friends and relatives and all the other residents who will be looking at how TAs are being treated, this one issue alone has the potential to see Labour lose many seats in the May 2017 elections perhaps over 100 votes in every single Electoral Division.

I picked out some emails from TAs to give a feel for just how serious the impact of Labour’s proposals are. If I were a TA I would be very worried, very angry and very upset. We are currently waiting to see when this issue will come back to full council.

Just imagine if tomorrow your pension or salary was cut by 20%, your working ours increased. Then think – and most of this is because of the Labour Party! add in hikes in National Insurance/Pension contributions from the Tories, and other general price increases and these hard working people are really going to suffer…….. Utterly shameful.

Emails below from Tas.

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Flytipping and bin storage issues being worked on

We are currently working to get Flytipping behind Tindale Av removed which I have repeatedly asked to be dealt with. I am assured it will be gone by Tuesday.

We are also working on addressing various bin issues on South Terrace, Victoria Court, Middleham Road and Hamsterley Crescent (flats).

In addition, at our request, use of resident bins by takeaways is set to be tackled with possible enforcement action.

Labour’s Council tax hike comes into force

So from today we are all paying more council tax. The near 4% rise in council tax was conveniently split into two elements.

2% for adult social care – the Tory part of the rise. The council wasn’t forced to make this increase but given the pressures on the care budget and the increases in carers wages due to the living wage, I’m supportive of this element of the rise. Care workers are obscenely underpaid for such an important job. Of course that does not mean the council should not continue to look at ways to make things more efficient in the Adult and Children’s Services department.

The second part of the council tax hike – the 100% Labour-run council responsibility is the bit I have a real issue with.

If this money, being taken out of residents pockets, and therefore out of the economy, were being spent to protect frontline services which would otherwise be lost, I could be convinced to support it. However, it is simply not being spent on that.

Rather, the following is happening:

  1. WASTE: The council is still wasting millions on over management and which had it fixed years ago when we made recommendations would have saved many millions. It is still delaying further merging of departments, which would have allowed a delay at least in this tax rise.
  2. MISMANAGEMENT: Some departments still have crazy working practices. I know of one, where the checking and rechecking of forms for spending money on schemes is costing more than the schemes themselves – utter lunacy. In other areas the Council is letting everyone down – staff, residents, taxpayers. We are still not referring staff with mental health issues to occupational health immediately. One staff member wasn’t referred for 303 days! The average is around 50 days. This is appalling and it has been and is costing an absolute fortune in lost work hours. We have managed to get the Council to agree to change this, but half a year on since we put the proposals, we are still looking at many months before anything concrete on the ground. Sickness absence levels are running at crazyly high levels, which even Labour councillors lament. Any organisation which treats its staff in such an atrocious way will always have a pile of other problems lurking under the surface.
  3. RESERVES: The council has over £200 million in over 50 different reserves, and whilst some of this money is prudent to hold, most of it never gets spent from one year to the next, and with every year that passes we find we have even more in the bank. So no need for the Council tax hike this year.
  4. FLAWED PRIORITIES: Because of the reserves hikes and a flawed investment strategy some services really do suffer – such as the state of our roads and footpaths – when they simply do not have to. The Council can borrow at ridiculously low rates at the moment, and could then spend millions of pounds on improving our roads and footpaths with no risk to the balance sheet or simply use its reserves directly to put more into properly fixing this infrastructure. By getting the worst areas fixed properly, we would save money on short term useless slap and stick repairs. Equally, the Council could have delayed action on some savings. The closure of the DLI museum is a shocking indictment of the Labour Party’s desire to eliminate the history of the County. Had it held a consultation to listen to all alternative views, perhaps a solution which actually made money and protected this asset could have been found.
  5.  INACCURATE BUDGETTING: Having looked at the budget plans for the financial year starting this week, there is so much slack, over-estimating of costs and the like, that the whole council tax hike may end up sat in reserves rather than being productive in the County. One more or all of the following have occurred each year since the new authority was formed: Overestimates on energy, price or borrowing costs, underestimates on income or internal efficiency savings. When reserves go from the tens of millions to over £200 million, there isn’t a single Labour councillor can deny this fact and keep a straight face.

What is very clear is that with the Labour Party in charge at Durham County Council, waste, mismanagement, manipulation of the truth, and flawed priorities are only going to continue to let down the people of County Durham.

 

Be aware – possible opportunistic burglar in area

A number of people are reporting that someone tried their door in our area. I would suggest that all residents in Newton Hall, Framwellgate Moor, Pity and Brasside make sure their doors are on a catch or better still locked when they are in.

We have notified the police and they are looking at carrying out patrols where this has been reported. We have also asked the press to do something on this and asked some residents to spread this around Facebook and other sites as well as notifying Durham City Homes.

If this happens to you or any neighbour make sure it is reported immediately to the police. If you have any elderly neighbours who perhaps are not on the internet, a friendly remainder to them to be careful would be appreciated.

Article 4 – Student and HMO housing – Lib Dem success for our area

The council has completed its consultation on introducing new rules in the City on student/HMO housing. The aim of this is to protect areas from having too many houses of multiple occupation, to avoid the negative consequences. When we found out about this last year, we immediately asked for our area to be included as it had been ignored. An initial consultation was arranged by your Lib Dem councillors.

The council has now accepted that  the area should be considered for inclusion, and a final round of consultation will start soon, along with a couple of drop in events in our area which we have requested.

Our previous post on this can be found here:

http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2015/09/29/article-4-direction-framwellgate-moor-area/

Please do join in the consultation and help us ensure that our area retains a mixed community without any further increase in the problems which HMOs can cause in the wrong places. as soon as it is active we will post a link here and give details of the event dates.