The long standing problem of parking in Finchale Road may be alleviated for some residents soon. I am waiting for the drawing up of a scheme for 4-5 parking spaces. Hopefully this can finally be solved.

More info in a few weeks.

The government has approved Durham County’s bid for money to build 28 social homes in the Durham City area. One of the sites being considered is on half of the play area at Findon Avenue, Witton Giblert, for upto 8 houses. this is currently a contentious issue.

I will up date when I have more information.

The resurfacing of all the footpaths on Norburn Park, Witton Gilbert started this week. This also included the redoing of work we arranged for earlier in the year which we felt was not completed to a sufficient standard.

In the coming months I will be doing a full survey of the area (just like last year), drawing up a list of those roads and pavements which I would like to get surveyed to see if they should be prioritised for next years program.

Since being elected to the County Council  last year Rev Crooks and I have worked with officers to ensure one of the biggest resurfacing programs in recent memory across the Framwellgate Moor Division.

Roads resurfaced:

Rowan Drive, Brasside

Lund Avenue, St Aidans Avenue, Gray Avenue, Framwellgate Moor

Part of Abbey Road and part of Front Street, Pity Me (including drainage works)

The main road from Neville’s Cross  to Bearpark

Sacriston Lane and Hillside in Witton Gilbert

Dryburn Hill and Priory Road/Beech Road Framwellgate Moor

Footpaths Resurfaced:

Norburn Park (Including link paths), Brookside, Cragside, Friarside & Glebeside in Witton Gilbert

St Oswalds Square and part of Finchale Road (flag removal)

Part of Findon Avenue, Witton Gilbert

Part of Cook Avenue, Bearpark (Rebuilt)

Overall not bad going for the first year really. Still more to do though!

Pact meetings or Police and communities Together Meetings are an opportunity to come along and meet your local police, parish and county councillors and neighbourhood wardens (who deal with a variety of different issues including litter, dog fouling, environmental awareness campaigns, graffitti etc).

After requests from residents I have been working with the polcie to ensure that these meetings are more regular and better advertsied. We now have dates organised for the next three months:

Meetings take place from 5.30-6.30 in Framwellgate Moor Community Centre on the first Wednesday of Each month prior to the parish council meeting.

The next three meetings are:

7th October

4th November

2nd December

Alternatively please feel free to get in touch if you have anissue but can’t make the meetings.

There is also the opportunity to talk one to one with me, the neighbourhood wardens or the police if you have specific private issues.

After 18 months Gordon Brown could be about to do something good – no don’t mock – he may actually be proposing to change the voting system. The cynical amongst us would say that this is because he knows Labour are heading for defeat – etheir way, a more democratic system has to be welcomed.

EUROPEAN ELECTION AND BARNARD CASTLE EAST BY-ELECTION

After several weeks of electioneering it is good to be back to normal – for now at least. The Lib Dems scored their highest percent of the vote anywhere in the UK right here in the North East coming second only to Labour in County Durham. The high BNP vote shows just how disillusioned and frustrated the people of the North East are with government failures and politics in general. Whilst much of this blame must rest with the Labour Party, it is clear that a lot of hard work is required by all mainstream parties – actually on the ground getting the work done to improve the economy, housing etc, but also in re-building trust.

The first by-election of the new authority after the sad death of Cllr Jo Fergus, took place last Thursday, where we stood a local candidate Mike Newlands – the first time ever in that area, and picked up a very respectable 18% of the vote with just a few weeks work.

PARKING ISSUES

The parking issues in Brasside remain, but there has been movement towards improvements with extended white lines due to go down any time now in the road to Finchale Abbey,the yellow lines will take a little longer to process. The police have issued warning notices to those parking  causing obstructions and this is starting to reduce the problem.

MEMBERS INITIATIVE FUND

Cllr Crooks and I have made grants to the Aldin Grange Fishing Club for young people, the summer fair in Witton Gilbert, and the Deric Bus in Framwellgate Moor, which will help to provide outreach to all the villages and has already allowed the extension of the service in Bearpark following on from last years’ extended work in Witton Gilbert – we are working to make sure we have much better youth facilities.

IF you are interested in a small grant £25-£200 for a local event/organisation etc please get in touch asap.

FLOWER TUBS BLOOMING MARVELLOUS

The twenty new tubs I arranged with last years’ City Council money have all been placed now around the old City Council ward, in Fram, Pity Me and Brasside – one got vandalised on Fram Front St so has been relocated. Residents are helping to water them, as well as watering a few myself and the parish council and community centre are assisting with a couple. The County Council has helped with insurance, so all round after a fair amount of work things are looking brighter. Didn’t realise how heavy water was!

DROPPED KERBS AND RESURFACING ON NEWTON DRIVE

The dropped kerbs and resurfacing near the doctors and primary school on Newton Drive has been completed (finally) – thanks to the officers for putting up with my persistence. This was paid for out of part of the members highways budget.

BEARPARK TRAFFIC CALMING SCHEME

The traffic calming scheme for Kingston Av  is going to highways committee on 12th June and is recommended for approval. If approved this well make a huge difference on this stretch of road reducing speeds and improving safety. this is being paid for out of the Councillors Highways budget and the county councils general highways budget.

PITY ME FRONT STREET ROAD MARKING SCHEME

The re-lining scheme for Front St, designed to help reduce speeds and allow easier exit from junctions has been completed.  Whilst I am sure that this is going to have some positive effects, I am meeting with highways officers as I feel the scheme may be sufficient to bring down speeds to the acceptable level of 30mph, and may not have provided sufficient improved visibility  or moved traffic far enough away from the Terrace side of the road. I will now be requesting a speed survey to determine the effect of the changes.

The new sign for the entrance to Pity Me has arrived – not sure if it’s too close to the roundabout though for placing the new flower tub in front of it – investigating.

ST OSWALDS SQUARE AND DRYBURN HILL, SACRISTON LANE AND C17 BEARPARK

Most of the resurfacing work across the area for this year has been completed. After much of a todo, I can confirm that the remaining part of Dryburn Hill which was apparently “missed” was always due to be done, just using a different technique – no set date yet for this to be carried out.

Work on St Oswald’s Square footpath is booked in to be done in the next few months.

Sacriston Lane and the main road into Bearpark along Auton Stile have been pathced and are now awaiting a new surface dressing.

ALLOTMENTS IN BEARPARK

Now that the new authority is fully up and running, and after delays, we are working on getting an area in Bearpark for additional allotments. I have had a meeting with the Finance Portfolio holder at County Hall who is to discuss a location we have asked to be considered, however we expect it to take a considerable period of time before we move closer. The parish continues in its negotiations for the existing allotments.

FOLLY TERRACE  and WOODBINE ROAD POTHOLES REPORTED

The potholes on Folly Terrace  and the entrance to Woodbine Road have been reported – the previous work has unfortunately broken up – refilled potholes will always break up again. It’s high time the Utilities companies were made to pay a proper share of the bil for repairs as most of the damage is caused by their channels – like on Front St where it is starting to break up along some stretches. I hope all these areas will be repaired with full patching when resources are available but think it is about time the government changed the rules so Councils can claim more money from these companies

ENTRANCE TO HILLSIDE – WITTON GILBERT

I am hoping that after discussions with officers, new road markings at the entrance to Hillside will soon be in place to reduce dangerous and obstructive parking and to reduce the number of cars using the entrance as an exit.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS

After the council found that the planning committees did not have enough people from outside the areas they covered on them, they have had to move things round. This means that I am now on the South and West Committee which covers the former Sedgefield, Teesdale and Wear Valley districts, whilst my colleague Sam Zair (Bishop Auckland councillor) is now on the central committee for the whole county – the whole think is bonkers, we voted against this makeup, but now we just have to get on with it – until we have another opportunity to challege the Labour party on this issue.

KING GEORGE’S FIELD

Work continues to raise the additional funding for the King George’s Field upgrade, with over half of the money needed already confirmed. The parish had hoped to complete this by the end of the year, but this may be delayed a little.

BRASSIDE and FRAMWELLGATE MOOR/PITY ME PLAY AREA AND FOOTPATH UPGRADE

I held a meeting with groundworks, a company which works on community projects and helps with funding, a few weeks agoto ask them to look into possible funding to upgrade Brasside play area and the old wagon way from Front St (Back of Hudspeth Crescent) round to join the already surfaced path to New College and hope to get an idea of what can be done in a few months.

It was great on my trip round the area today to see that much of the resurfacing work has already been finished including Rowan Drive and The Avenues in Fram.

As well as this some of the areas of Pity Me which did not get garden waste bins have now received them – although many bungalows which did not want them also got some – still no one’s perfect.

Even better news is that the whole of Brasside is being delivered garden waste bins today after I worked with a number of people at County Hall – another Lib Dem success – thanks must go to the officers and Portfolio Member for taking time to arrange this as well.

Clearly all MPs are quite rightly under serious scrutiny over expenses, but waht is not being published is the hard work the Lib Dems have been doing for years to change the system: (Some of this is a bit technical, but overall it does show that we have been trying to stop the abuse.)

Background

 

A reminder of the Lib Dem record in pressing for greater openness and accountability for MPs

 

Resistance to MPs’ FOI exemption

 

Don’t forget – Liberal Democrat MPs have led the opposition to attempts by some Labour and Conservative MPs to exempt MPs from freedom of information laws.

 

In the 2006-7 session senior Conservative MP David Maclean, a former chief whip for the party, introduced a private member’s bill, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, which would have exempted both Houses of Parliament from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. The effect would have been to remove any obligation for details of MPs’ expenses to be made public. 

 

On 20^th April 2007 the Bill was ‘talked out’ by Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, with assistance from Simon Hughes and a handful of MPs from other parties. But on 18^th May 2007 it came back and was voted through by Labour and Conservative MPs. 96 MPs (plus two tellers) voted for the Bill at third reading – a majority of them Labour but with a significant number of Tories (and no Lib Dems). In addition to these 98, a further 21 backed (or were tellers at) the closure motion which enabled the third reading vote to take place before the Bill ran out of time.

 

You can find out if your MP voted to block the publication of MPs’ expenses details at the links below –

 

Vote to exempt MPs from FOI laws – ‘Aye’ vote is a vote for the FOI exemption –

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070518/debtext/70518-0012.htm#07051822001730

 

Vote on closure motion – ‘Aye’ vote is a vote to help the FOI exemption get through by curtailing debate and moving to a vote on it –

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070518/debtext/70518-0011.htm#07051822001729

 

Both the Labour minister and Conservative spokesman said they were neutral on the bill. All Lib Dem speakers, including spokesman Simon Hughes, spoke against the Bill and the party’s then leader, Ming Campbell urged MPs of all parties to reject it. (You can read a report on the debate at http://tinyurl.com/foibill.

 

Thankfully the high profile campaigning against the Bill paid dividends and the Bill ultimately fell because not one peer was willing to sponsor it in the House of Lords.

 

Attempts to strengthen FOI laws

 

Norman Baker, early in 2007, won a legal challenge to House of Commons secrecy. As a result, Parliament was forced to declare how much each MP has claimed in travel expenses broken down according to whether it was by car, rail, air or bicycle.

 

Tom Brake, then the party’s local government spokesman, introduced a ’10 minute rule’ bill in the 2006-7 session which would have –

(a)     removed the veto which allows ministers to overrule the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal on FOI requests

(b)     introduced a time limit for responses to public-interest FOI requests

(c)     brought school academies and large private contractors working for public authorities within the scope of  FOI legislation

 

The Bill did not get government support and failed to get through.

 

Support for toughening up expenses regime

 

On 3^rd July 2008 an unholy alliance of Labour and Conservative MPs voted down a number of proposals from the cross-party Members Estimates Committee (MEC) for tightening up MPs’ expenses and allowances.

 

Among the recommendations rejected were:

• Robust external audit by outside professional teams for quarter of MPs each year (replaced by internal audit proposal)
• Putting audit for MPs on same basis as for other public bodies
• Reducing the receipt threshold from £25 to zero so that all claims, however small, would have had to be backed by receipts

 

The MPs who voted to reject this toughening up the expenses regime were 146 Labour MPs (plus two tellers), 21 Conservatives and 2 independents. No Liberal Democrat MP voted against it. Details of how each MP voted can be found here: http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2008-07-03&number=253&display=allpossible&sort=name

(The ayes were voting for an amendment to the original motion which removed a number of the proposals. The noes were voting to keep the original robust proposals from the Members Estimate Committee intact.)

 

The following day Nick Clegg committed that the Liberal Democrats would unilaterally introduce the recommendations of the MEC, including independent spot checks of MPs expenses.

 

Nick Clegg’s proposals on expenses

 

On 9^th April 2009, Nick Clegg set out a series of proposals for urgent reform of the rules on MP expenses.

 

These are based on the following principles:

 

1) Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent

2) All expenses have to be justified on the basis of enabling MPs to do their job

3) Reform should not increase, and should ideally reduce, the total cost of politics to the taxpayer.

 

They include –

• Personal additional accommodation expenditure should be restricted to rental agreements (no help with house purchases), utility bills, and council tax.
• Payment of personal accommodation expenditure should be on the basis of the production of bills and rental agreement only.
• Designation of first and second homes should be independently approved to ensure that payments reflect the necessary circumstances of Members in fulfilling their parliamentary duties and value for money to the tax payer.

 

You can find more details of Nick’s proposals here –

http://www.nickclegg.com/2009/04/mps-expenses-reform/

After working with officers to get more garden waste bins I can report that parts of Pity Me which were not covered by the initial roll out have now been delivered.

Parts of Woodbine Road, Folly Terrace, The Anvil and the Forge and Red Briar Walk should now have received their garden waste bins if you have still been missed please let me know.

I will continue to push to get Brasside included.