New toddler swings have been installed on Abbey Playing field on Abbey Road by the Parish Council. I recommended this several months ago after residents asked for extra equipment here and it’s great to see the parish responding so well.

The full council today supported my motion, with additions from Labour, allowing the council to invest in renewable energy and sell electricity back to the national grid.

My speech is below as well as the motion. Read the rest of this entry.

Surprising thing wasps are. If you ask the Council to deal with a wasps nest in your eaves or other awkward place, it would appear that health and safety means you need to get scaffolding installed to do the job. If you ask a qualified, professional private contractor, a ladder and a few minutes of work and it’s done. No more to say!

Following on from opposition pressure to cut back on publicity by one of the North East’s largest councils, it looks like Durham County Council is set to do just that.

Councillor Nigel Martin, leader of the Lib Dem Group on Durham County Council, which called for issues of Durham County News to be cut back, commented “We have been pushing for some time now for Labour’s publicity magazine to be cut back and I am please to say that it looks like they may be about to reduce the number of copies from 10 to six a year, saving £439,680 over the next three years.

“This just goes to show that opposition pressure is paying off in County Durham, for the benefit of local residents. I only wish Durham County Council’s Labour administration would get to grips with our County instead of having to rely on opposition groups to show them the way. Having said that, given the mess their national colleagues have left the country in it’s hardly surprising.”

Councillor Mark Wilkes, Lib Dem for Framwellgate Moor, who uncovered the latest proposals commented “With every week that passes it becomes clearer that we can protect frontline services by rooting out Labour’s waste. They refused to listen earlier in the year to proposals to cut costs, but now they have had to admit they were wrong. I would go further and reduce the number of issues of County News to 4 a year, saving a further £219,840 over the next three years.”

Each copy of County News currently costs around £36,640 to deliver and print, and as in other councils, Durham County Council has in the past come under criticism for what many consider to be a publicity tool.”

Two new bush shelters are to be installed around the 20th September on Finchale Road.

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Time to celebrate as wheel clamping on private land is to be banned and all those nasty practices we have heard about for years will finally come to an end. Another Lib Dem success in government.

Read the rest of this entry.

For those who have been waiting what seems a lifetime for the parking zone to come into effect in the Dryburn area of Framwellgate Moor, just a couple more months left. Implementation will take place on 1st November, with permits being available from 11th October. Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.

Press release on Council Waste of taxpayers money

A North East council is being accused of failing to get to grips with spending after a local councillor discovered that it is paying for more than 6000 mobile phones and spending hundreds of thousands on land lines as well. Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.

Please let me know what you would like to see on this site to make it easier to find things or to keep people informed of what is going on in the area.

I have now received a number of replies to my request to residents for their views on the possible sale of land on Smithfield for office development. If anyone hasn’r responded or if there is anyone who doesn’t live on the estate who walks their dog through the field or has a view, please get in touch.