A County Councillor has unearthed information suggesting the cost of putting together a contract for street lighting in Durham and Stockton could be enormous and has been covered up.

Councillor Mark Wilkes, who is also Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Bishop Auckland has discovered that the Council estimated a cost of £4.7m for wages and consultants to set up a Public Finance Initiative. This could include as many as 6080 officer work days costing £2,925,274 and 1208 consultant days at a cost of £1481 per day (£1,790,198).

Mr Wilkes commented “This could be a disaster for taxpayers in County Durham. The Lib Dems are fully behind improving our street lighting but this contract could saddle County Durham with hundreds of millions of pounds of debt and push up council tax even further.”

The proposal suggests replacing the majority of streetlights in County Durham over a five year period. Estimates in the document sent to Dept of Transport suggest that changing streetlights would save £219.4m in accidents and £37.9m in crime, yet the report going to Cabinet next week contains none of this information or the information to back it up, indeed Mr Wilkes believes that an original document intended for Cabinet appears to have been changed, removing much of this information.

“For Labour to suggest savings on this scale without backing them up is irresponsible. To not involve elected councillors is a disgrace. We might be up to our ears in debt nationally because of Labour but I refuse to accept this happening in County Durham.

“We could find the Council doesn’t have the money in future for a vast range of services including improving road safety or crime reduction because of a document hardly anyone has seen.”

Mr Wilkes who says that he has been refused permission to see the whole document was even more surprised at who else hadn’t read it:

“I was shocked to be told by the Portfolio Holder for Finance that he hadn’t even read the Expression of Interest document sent to the Dept of Transport. You would expect senior politicians to have more input in a £125m contract.”

It was recently announced that Harrow Council in London has shelved plans to commit to a similar initiative citing it as being irresponsible in the current economic environment.

Mr Wilkes further added: “If this gets passed through Cabinet I will be asking for it to be referred to Scrutiny so that some serious questions can be asked and answered at this early stage. Like for example how on Earth it can cost £4.7m just find out whether we should go ahead with this.”

“I do wonder if this Labour Cabinet has a clue what it and its council is doing in the name of the people of County Durham. Residents can be assured that the Lib Dems are doing everything we can to bring Labour to account.“

Each April councillors receive an amount of £2000 which they can use on small schemes throughout their area. A maximum of £500 can be spent on any one particular group or project. Typically amounts ranging from £50 upwards can be given.

If you have a community group or project which you would like to be considered please feel free to get in touch and I will consider your request. Please get in touch as early as possible as there are a large number of groups applying for funding.

The long awaited parking schemes for Durham Moor area are now in the final stage of consultation. The legal notices have been displayed around the area.

In most cases, the wishes of the majority of residents on each street have been fully taken into account.

If anyone has any comments please feel free to get in touch. All residents in the affected areas should receive notification by post of the proposals.

Priorities for Newton Hall. Some priorities for Newton hall also apply to Pity Me

The current priorities for your neighbourhood are:

• Patrol area around the Newton Hall Community Centre and Abbey Sports Centre checking for Anti Social Behaviour and also the surrounding area around Bolton Close, Newton Hall Estate.

These are the policing priorities that local people have agreed with your policing team. You can have some influence on future policing priorities by attending your next PACT meeting.

Upcoming meetings:

28th March 2010
Newton Hall PACT Meeting

25th April 2010
Newton Hall PACT Meeting

23rd May 2010
Newton Hall PACT Meeting

20th June 2010
Newton Hall PACT Meeting

Priorities for Witton Gilbert

The current priorities for your neighbourhood are:

• Anti social use of Off Road Motor Cycles in the area around Green Lea, Rose Lea and Oak Lea.
• Speeding vehicles along Sacriston Lane. No particular times or days. Ongoing day and evening problem.
• Vehicles driving at inappropriate speeds for area between Waterson Crescent along Fyndon Avenue towards Rose Lea. Between 0600-0700hrs weekday mornings and 1700-2000hrs weekday evenings. Anytime on a weekend.

These are the policing priorities that local people have agreed with your policing team. You can have some influence on future policing priorities by attending your next PACT meeting.

Upcoming meetings:

9th March 2010
Witton Gilbert PACT Drop-in Session

14th March 2010
Witton Gilbert PACT Meeting

11th April 2010
Witton Gilbert PACT Meeting

9th May 2010
Witton Gilbert PACT Meeting

6th June 2010
Witton Gilbert PACT Meeting

Priorities for Bearpark

The current priorities for your neighbourhood are:

• Anti-Social Behaviour
• Off Road Motorbikes

These are the policing priorities that local people have agreed with your policing team. You can have some influence on future policing priorities by attending your next PACT meeting.

28th March 2010
Bearpark PACT Meeting

25th April 2010
Bearpark PACT Meeting

23rd May 2010
Bearpark PACT Meeting

20th June 2010
Bearpark PACT Meeting

18th July 2010
Bearpark PACT Meeting

Please come along to The Science Centre on Front Street Framwellgate Moor/Pity Me to view the proposals for a new science campus on the current Framwellgate School site. The proposal is for Framwellgate Moor Pirmary School, Framwellgate School and Trinity School to federate.

The new school will be a modern, efficient building and plans can be seen from 3.30pm to 6.30pm on Monday 8th March.. Just call in, I will be attending the event along with other governors and councillors.

Priorities for Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me

The current priorities for your neighbourhood are:

• Speeding Vehicles along Front Street, Framwellgate Moor/Pity Me and Abbey Road, Pity Me.
• Woodbine Road, Pity Me – elderly people concered about Rogue Tradesmen in the area. Regular patrols between 1000-1900hrs as reassurance for local elderly residents
• Anti Social Behaviour at the underpass and walkway from Arnison Centre along Oatlands Way leading to Rosemount usually between 1600-2200hrs on Friday/Saturday eveings
• Anti Social Behaviour in Garden Avenue, North and Newcastle Terrace, during college hours but mainly between 1100-1400hrs.

The next PACT meetings:

28th March 2010
Framwellgate Moor & Pity Me PACT Meeting

25th April 2010
Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me PACT Meeting

23rd May 2010
Framwellgate Moor & Pity Me PACT Meeting

20th June 2010
Framwellgate Moor & Pity Me PACT Meeting

After a considerable amount of pressure, I have finally managed to get a grit bin installed at the end of Woodbine Road/The Anvil. The council provides bins based on a scoring system which covers things such as severity of bend, distance from another bin, and closeness to priority areas like doctors surgeries. In this case I finally managed to convince them that this site met the 150 point target they use.

New dog waste bins are now in place in Brasside and Pity Me. An additional one is ordered for Alexandra Close in Framwellgate Moor and we are looking at placing one near Taylor Avenue in Bearpark.