County Plan – Henig to waste even more money

Councillor Simon Henig has decided that having already wasted a lot of our money on fighting various challenges to the County Plan, that it is time to throw a few hundred thousand pounds more at it.

The Council has refused to accept that the Plan is flawed and is now seeking a judicial review. Your Lib Dem councillors are extremely concerned about the complete lack of any acceptance by the Council that they may simply be wrong. We will be meeting with officers soon to voice our serious concerns once again.

At the following link you can find the next steps the Council plans to take, although a word of caution, some of what is stated by the Council is very clearly biased.

http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/6013/County-Durham-Plan-next-steps

For many years now we have challenged as Lib Dem councillors some of the key elements of the plan: Building so many houses on the greenbelt, indeed building on greenbelt at all; population predictions; over development at Aykley Heads; issues surrounding student housing development; lack of a proper strategy for the villages around Durham City; and an over emphasis on Durham City itself to the detriment of other parts of the County.

These issues were challenged by the Inspector, and rather than making some amendments to the Plan, the Council walks blindly towards the cliff-face.

The definition of repeating the same error over and over again, ignoring local residents views, ignoring councillors views, ignoring an independent inspectors views?

Take your pick – arrogance, ignorance, stupidity……. this time one thing is absolutely certain, having refused to sack his Regeneration and Economic Development portfolio holder, having refused to be contrite in any way, having failed to listen to the people of Durham, the blame for all of this now well and truly lies with Cllr Simon Henig.

This is another Henig folly – remember the Chester-le-Street archway? Cost – hundreds of thousands, knocked down after a few years at further cost.

Remember the £12000 a year labour clothing allowance?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287347/Council-branded-ludicrous-handing-12-000-year-CLOTHING-allowance-authoritys-chairwomen.html

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10262731.Row_over_councillors____12k__clothing_allowance_/

Selling a multimillion pound stately home, Windlestone Hall for £240,000?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/479523/Police-to-probe-sale-of-Eden-birthplace-by-cash-strapped-Council

Building a bus stop where no buses stop? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100912/Durham-County-Council-blasted-wasting-money-5-000-bus-stop.html

Cllr Henig quite clearly likes to waste taxpayers money.

I wonder how much more he will waste on the County Plan before it dawns on Labour councillors that Henig isn’t fit to lead this great County? And the County Plan isn’t fit for purpose.

 

Labour council road failure: Is your council owned road in as bad a state as Embleton Close?

embleton close road May 2015

This road is not included for resurfacing work this year.

It is quite frankly unbelievable and as your local councillors we are complaining right now about this. One way or another this road is going to get properly fixed in the near future. It is not the only one in a poor state but it is a fine example of why we think that the Council is failing in our area once again to address residents concerns about the state of our roads and footpaths.

There is quite clearly a serious issue which needs addressing as a matter of urgency, which is why starting this week we are inspecting personally every single road across our area.

So many roads are having poor quality pothole repairs done over and over again. It is a waste of taxpayers money.

The council says that they inspected this road at some point in the last six months or so and it didn’t make the program. If you spot a council owned road in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside or Newton Hall in a worse state of disrepair please let us know.

And if the Labour Party seeks to blame the cuts for their poor management of our road system, I politely remind them that having over £150m in reserves, and failing to listen to opposition councillors for a decade about investing in our road infrastructure is my response.

The Council must make an immediate and urgent additional investment into the road repairs department. And stop once and for all this repeat patchwork quilt pothole repair policy.

Cracking – Brasside Pressure Pays off for 800m of footpath resurfacing

Two years ago your Lib Dem councillors managed to get one side of the pavement through the village resurfaced.

Last year we managed to get the road into the village resurfaced following resident’s complaints.

Then we committed to starting regeneration of parking areas which will see work start soon.

Now we have secured work to resurface the whole 800m length of footpath from the Railway Bridge to Frankland Prison through the right hand side of the village.

We have been doing a great deal of work behind the scenes and to have secured such a large amount of work is fantastic for residents.

For so long when we had Labour councillors nothing got done in the village. Brasside was simply ignored. It is great to get improvements and report on the huge amount work which is to be done this year in the village.

Potholehouse Terrace repaired – for now – Update

We have succeeded in getting confirmation that a proper job will be done of repairing this road, and will update when the patching has been done.

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I once again had to ask for repairs to potholes on Potterhouse Terrace in Pity Me. Thankfully the council have been out and filled them in. However, this is not the first time the same holes have been filled in, in fact on my reckoning it may be half a dozen.

Given the extra cost of this, I do wonder why the council’s policy of fixing potholes properly is slipping. I have therefore asked if they are coming back out to do a proper patching job in the near future so we don’t waste any more money.

And so the Tories start to dismantle all that is good – Human Rights Act under threat

There is a list of the contents of the Human Rights Act which the Tories want to scrap.

The Liberal Democrats stopped them from doing this in the Coalition.

I wonder what else they will try to do that the Lib Dems stopped them from doing before.

There is something rather sick about announcing this on VE day.

I personally quite like: The right to life.  The right not to be tortured.  The right to a fair trial. The right not to be forced into slavery and the right not to be discriminated against.

Now we start to see what the Tories are really like.

 

Human Rights Act:

LABOUR MP RE-ELECTED IN DURHAM

Another five years of a Labour MP failing to properly challenge our terrible council is difficult to stomach. As your local councillors we will continue to fight against the worst of the Labour run council. We will seek as much investment for the area as we can, and continue to work all year round and report back to you all year round!!

Our candidate Craig put up a strong fight in the face of a national backlash against the Lib Dems. I am certain in the future it will be shown that the Lib Dems did an excellent job in government, both in helping to turn around the shattered economy, but also in reigning in the nastiness of the Conservative Party.

To what extent the Tories will govern with compassion now there is no restraining influence remains to be seen, but it is indeed a great worry. The lack of a coherent opposition in the short term will become apparent if we do not as Liberal Democrats get back on our feet, dust ourselves down and take the fight to Labour locally and the Conservatives nationally, which is just what I and others will do.

A big thank you to everyone who supported us in Durham at the general election!

 

Here is Nick Clegg’s resignation speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats in full:

Here is Nick Clegg’s resignation speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats in full:

“I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult for the Liberal Democrats given the heavy responsibilities we’ve had to bear in government in the most challenging of circumstances. Clearly the results have been immeasurably more crushing and unkind than I could ever have feared.

“For that, of course, I must take responsibility, and therefore I announce that I will be resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats. A leadership election will now take place according to the party’s rules.

“For the last seven years it’s been a privilege, a huge privilege, an unlimited honour, to lead a party of the most resilient, courageous, and remarkable people. The Liberal Democrats are a family and I will always be extremely proud of the warmth, good grace, and good humour which our political family has shown through the ups and downs of recent years. I want to thank every member, ever campaigner, every councillor, and every parliamentarian for the commitment you have shown to our country and to our party.

“It is simply heartbreaking to see so many friends and colleagues who have served their constituents so diligently over so many years abruptly lose their seats because of forces entirely beyond their control.

“In 2007 after a night of disappointing election results for our party in Edinburgh, Alex Cole Hamilton said this: if his defeat was part-payment for the ending of child detention, then he accepted it with all his heart.

“Those words revealed a selfless dignity which is very rare in politics but common amongst Liberal Democrats. If our losses today are part payment for every family that is more secure because of a job we helped to create, every person with depression who is treated with a compassion they deserve, every child who does a little better in school, every apprentice with a long and rewarding career to look forward to, every gay couple who know that their love is worth no less than anyone else’s and every pensioner with a little more freedom and dignity in retirement then I hope at least our losses can be endured with a little selfless dignity too.

“We will never know how many lives we changed for the better because we had the courage to step up at a time of crisis. But we have done something that cannot be undone because there can be no doubt that we government with Britain a far stronger, fairer, greener, and more liberal country than it was five years ago.

“However unforgiving the judgement has been at the ballot box, I believe the history books will judge our party kindly for the service we sought to provide to the nation at a time of great economic difficulty and for the policies and values which we brought to bear in government.

“Opportunity, fairness, and liberty, which I believe will stand the test of time. To have served my country at a time of crisis is an honour that will stay with me forever. I hope those who are granted the opportunity to serve our country in government now and in the future will recognise the privilege and responsibility that they’ve been given. It’s the greatest thing they’ll ever do.

“It is of course too early to give a considered account of why we have suffered catastrophic losses we have, and the party will have to reflect on these in the time ahead. One thing seems to me is clear: liberalism, here, as well as across Europe, is not faring well against the politics of fear.

“Years of remorseless economic and social hardship following the crash in 2008 and the grinding insecurities of globalisation have led for people to reach to new certainties: the politics of identity, of nationalism, of us versus them is now on the rise.

“It is clear that in constituency after constituency north of the border the beguiling appeal of Scottish Nationalism has swept all before it and south of the border a fear about what that means for the United Kingdom has strengthened English conservatism too. This now brings our country to a very perilous point in our history where grievance and fear combine to drive our different communities apart.

“I hope that our leaders across the United Kingdom realise the disastrous consequences for our way of life and the integrity of our United Kingdom if they continue to appeal to grievance rather than generosity and fear rather than hope. It’s not exaggeration to say that in the absence of strong and statesmanlike leadership Britain’s place in Europe and the world and the continued existence of our United Kingdom itself is now in grave jeopardy. The cruellest irony of all is that it is exactly at this time that British liberalism, that fine, noble tradition that believes we are stronger together and weaker apart is needed more than ever before.

“Fear and grievance have won, liberalism has lost. But it is more precious than ever and we must keep fighting for it. That is both the great challenge and the great cause that my successor will have to face. I will always give my unstinting support for all those who continue to keep the flame of British liberalism alive.

“On the morning of the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats since our party was founded it is easy to imagine that there is no road back, but there is – because there is no path to a fairer, greener, freer Britain without British liberalism showing the way. This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and will not allow decent liberal values to be extinguished overnight.

“Our party will come back, our party will win again, it will take patience, resilience and grit. That is what has built our party before and will rebuild it again. Thank you.”

Councillors Meet with Arnison Centre Owners over site issues

Cllr Mamie Simmons and I met today with a manager from the company which owns/manages the Arnison Centre.

We have had a number of concerns going back to last year over various issues at the centre and were pleased that someone from London was willing to come up to discuss these issues.

Briefly, we raised issues about:

1. The state of the road and carpark surface within the site, including the dreadful bumps in the road near McDonalds, which have been reported for over 6 months.

2. The problems with access to the Mercia site near Pets at Home where almost everyone ends up driving over the edge of the kerb. Also about the lack of safe crossings from the KFC side to the Pets side.

3. Litter on the path down to the underpass and the fact it is rarely tidied, and the wider failure to keep the whole site and the tree line around it in a litter free condition. In recent weeks it has looked appalling.

4. We also raised concerns about the layout and state of the car park from Marks and Spencer right across to Sainsbury’s where landscaping is poor in places. The surface of the car park is in need of renewal, but the car park layout itself near M&S/Boots is bizarre. Many residents are not happy with the lack of a safe way through the parking area near M&S with their trollies.

5. We further raised general concerns about the capacity of the car park to cope especially given the expected new pod set to be built. New 4 hour parking has been introduced from this week which was a previous request from previous planning consents. This is aimed at cutting the number of staff using the public car park instead of their parking spaces at the back of the units  – which we have previously also pointed out are not sufficient. A private company will monitor the parking going forward throughout the site.

We are pushing forcefully for changes to make sure that the site does not grind to a halt, and that parking and the access and egress is made easier.

6. Discussion about the current planning application for a change of use on the new pods which we have concerns about in terms of the potential for additional takeaways and the resultant littering issues. We can’t justify any more A5 full takeaway licenses on this site.

7. Probably the most important immediate concern however is the lack of proper crossing points within the site. I have been asking for many many months for the crossing near the new units to be upgraded and have to say that I remain very unhappy that these units have opened without safe, working crossings.

When I raised similar concerns with Sainsbury’s before Christmas about their car park – it took a while for action, but the result has been excellent. All the crossings in the Sainsbury’s car park have now been upgraded with new posts, lights and solar panels. Well done Sainsbury’s!

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The chats with the Arnison centre official were constructive and we feel that many if not all of our concerns inside the site will now be addressed. That said, I will continue to chase up on the crossings as I feel it is absolutely critical they are improved before someone is injured and more than 6 months is far far too long to have to wait for action.

We are holding further talks in the coming weeks about the site by which time we hope there will be a timetable for all of these issues to be addressed and expect other possible proposals will be discussed.

Labour’s School Budget Shame

Durham Council has invested just £2.5m of council money in council owned schools since 2010. This year it budgeted NOTHING! The Coalition Government on the other hand provided County Durham schools with £139m for school maintenance and repair since 2010. Labour insulted our children in their council budget by failing to invest in repairs.

We put forward a proposal to provide £13m of investment to make sure our children could be taught in safe, draught free, leak free schools.

The Lib Dem plan was fully costed and included reducing the council’s six publicity departments. Council officers confirmed our plans. Labour refused. So do Labour think 6 PR departments are more important than fixing leaking school buildings??

Labour councillors even voted against allowing schools to have loans to do work, right after saying they agreed with us. We are going to fight back against this Labour failure. Our children’s education must come first.