Changes to collections over Christmas and New Year

Bin collections will be emptied as normal up to and including Thursday 24 December.

Only the following Friday collections are affected over Christmas and New Year:

Normal collection day	Revised collection day
Friday 25 December 2020	Monday 28 December 2020
Friday 1 January 2021	Monday 4 January 2021

Collections will go back to normal on Tuesday, 5 January. 

If you have to much recycling waste and place it in clear plastic bags or carrier bags it will be taken, but it will NOT be taken if it’s in a black back as the operatives need to see what they are collecting. If possible only put out on the morning of the collection especially if it’s windy.

The Covid rate in our area has fallen back form the really high rates seen a few weeks ago. the most up to ate figures show Newton Hall at 170 per 100k and Pity Me/Framwellgate Moor at 268 per 100k. That equates to 17 new cases in Pity Me/Fram week ending 16th Dec and 14 in Newton Hall/Brasside.

This is a significant fall from the levels being seen but we know that the rate could spike back up again if we don’t all act as carefully as possible.

I believe we should continue to wear masks in public shopping areas, not just inside the shops. The sooner we get our rates down the sooner we can see the measures relaxed.

Today saw a new low for Labour in our county.

First they refused to carry out an internal review into the transfer of Covid positive patients into our care homes. We have the highest death rate in care homes in the whole country.

Then they refused to carry out an independent review into the impact of covid on our care homes. Families have lost hundreds of relatives in our care homes.

And then, they submitted and voted on a motion completely undermining the efforts of our health services in our county with a vote of no confidence in our test and trace system, with not a single recommendation of how to improve it.

Do not listen to Labour: Testing is essential to getting this pandemic under control.

I urge everyone if they feel ill and think they may have Covid symptoms to get a test. We have a serious problem right now in our area and we must all do all we can to make sure we get the case numbers down. We must not allow Labour to undermine our health professionals and NHS.

I raised concerns about our area in the public meeting today directly with the Director of Public Health and with Mamie and Amanda continue to push for more direct action in our area including far better communication from authorities and action on the ground.

Figures for Covid in our area have spiked considerably in the last two weeks. Rates in Newton Hall and Brasside are over 800 per 100k. This is exceptionally high.

In Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me the rates are around 400 per 100k.

These rates are as much as 20 TIMES higher than other parts of the County.

We have been in close discussion with the Director of Public Health about these issues and have personally spoken with large businesses, the college and prison and schools.

The County Council has deployed 7 community champions to visit businesses, shops, schools and the college to check on Covid measures.

Everyone needs to make sure they are following the rules and being as careful as possible.

THERE WILL BE PEOPLE IN OUR AREA TAKEN TO HOSPITAL.

IT COULD BE SOMEONE YOU KNOW.

PLEASE wear a mask. PLEASE don’t visit other people’s homes.

PLEASE wash / disinfect your hands regularly, especially when out and about

PLEASE keep your distance from others.

If you are out shopping or walking near our shopping areas please keep your mask on when you are on the pavement not just inside the shops you visit.

IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS GET A TEST and if asked to, isolate.

The council has created some links to additional information and help:

www.durham.gov.uk/coronavirus

If you have concerns about a business not following the rules tell us. If you are concerned about someone who is vulnerable/living on their own, tell us and we can get someone to check they are OK.

Final Update – all houses are expected to be back on with gas by this afternoon. If anyone has ongoing issues and isn’t able to solve them with NGN then please do get in touch as we have direct contact.

9th December update

I have spoken with our Civil Contingencies officer today and it is looking like it could take another 24 hours before the households on Caterhouse, Franklin, Priory, Ghyllfield, Brackenfield and Flambard Roads get gas supplies back.

I have raised a concern that the cost of heating using electric heaters is very high and for anyone using a prepayment meter there may be cashflow issues for those on low incomes.

I have been given assurances that compensation will be paid but clearly the immediate concern is to make sure that all householders are able to heat their homes and get hot food.

Northern Gas Networks continue to work hard to help people across this part of Framwellgate Moor and are delivering meals to the vulnerable and elderly and providing vouchers for residents to visit catering vans.

8th December

We have been notified of a major gas incident affecting up to 300 houses in the Caterhouse Road area of Framwellgate Moor. The Council is working closely with Northern Gas Networks to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Bede Lodge on Finchale Road is being used as a drop in centre with warm refreshments. Social distancing measures in place.

Extra support can be obtained at 0800 040 7766.

9th December update

The rates for our area are currently the highest in the County, and after discussion with Public Health, we are told this is not entirely down to a spike in local prisons.

PLEASE COULD EVERYONE WEAR A MASK IN SHOPPING AREAS.

There have been complaints that on Framwellgate Moor Front Street, where there can be heavy footfall at lunchtimes people are not wearing masks outside shops.

We need to get Covid cases down to save lives. Please wear a mask outside in shopping areas and follow all government guidance.

We have contacted New College to ask if they can emphasise to students not to congregate on the Front Street and to wear masks and head back towards the college as soon as they have bought their lunches.

WEARING MASKS ON BUSES

We have received complaints that some bus users are not wearing masks, nor siting in designated seats. Bus companies have been contacted to ask that they ensure there is compliance.

SOME BUSINESSES FLOUTING RULES

We have also been told of at least one business not making sure people wear masks in their premises. This has been reported and action is being taken. If you know of any business not following the rules please do let us know.

8th December

Residents are asking why our figures are still very high (Newton Hall Brasside area).

We are investigating this to find out if this is a community issue or related to the number of cases at Franklin and Low Newton which are also included in our local numbers.

What is clear is that we all need to continue to take care and follow the rules.

The Council’s dashboard where you can view Covid data can be found at:

https://www.durhaminsight.info/covid-19/

Page 10 shows the number by local area and you can select the header (7 day rate by 100,000) to put them in order for the county or MSOA Area for alphabetical order.

The rates are updated regularly but not at a specific time each day.

We have been working hard to get the path improvement works commenced at the Carrs Nature Reserve.

Over just a few months we managed to raise £60,000 from numerous different sources including: All three of our neighbourhood budgets, the AAP budget, Parish Paths fund, Parish Council, Northumbrian Water, Local Transport Plan, money we recovered from a maintenance reserve which had disappeared in the County Council’s budgets and s106 money which Story Homes agreed to bring forward so we could start work early.

Work will involve clearing out overgrown areas to re-create a dried up pond area, putting in some viewing areas with disabled suitable seating, and creating and resurfacing a kilometre of pathway around the outside of the site. We will also be getting some dropped kerbs installed near NWL HQ and amending the access gates so that they are disabled accessible.

The whole project is going to take a few months to complete and we are chasing all the time to make sure that timescales do not slip.

We have had reports again about congestion at the Arnison Centre getting worse.

To update, for many months now we have been liaising with the site owners and businesses, and can confirm that proposals to improve access are being drawn up.

This would potentially see an additional exit lane provided. We are regularly asking for updates. Years ago we said that if the site was expanded, there would be gridlock and we have been proven right. The council should not have allowed the expansion of the site without addressing the onsite congestion, however we are hopeful that working with the owners and council we can get a long term solution.

In the meantime, McDonalds have confirmed they will have staff outside to move people on during busy times and the site owners have asked for additional security staff to assist during December too.

We have asked NWL if site staff can use their car parks again this year, and are also working to get signs up at the Leisure Centre so that people know it can be used as an overflow when the centre is not operating.

We have also asked the Council’s transport teams to add their pressure on and bus companies are also raising concerns.

From October 1st the Household Waste sites in the County will be closing at 3.30pm. Given the continued queues and the risk of a significant increase in fly tipping and other problems, it seems mad to be operating with regular opening times. Sunset is currently 18:41. To close at 3.30pm makes no sense, even allowing for the management to do the necessary things after closing.

Indeed for most sites, especially given that new LED lighting need not cause wider light pollution issues, we should be in the 20th Century with sufficient site lighting to operate later.

With the Covid queuing, its likely the site queues will close well before 3.30, so the real closing time will be even earlier.

The extra cost of dealing with all the knock on effects of these sites operating at reduced capacity, including clearing up fly tipping and dealing with other problems could to an extent be reduced by simply extending household waste opening times.

I’ve tried behind the scenes to get some movement on this, today I copied in all councillors to my suggestions, hopefully some commen sense will prevail.

As your local councillors we are regularly reporting blocked gullies and drains across our area to make sure that we don’t see severe flooding which is currently happening in so many places.

Its never possible to protect against flooding everywhere. (Although not building a headquarters on a flood plain would help – Take note Labour!)

Last week I had to deal with a blocked drain in Newton Hall after a resident complained that repeated requests for action to the Council had failed, since well before lockdown.

The site on Canterbury Road is prone to flooding so this was critical. All credit to the Tech Services team at DCC who responded very quickly and are also checking why this fell thorugh the cracks.

If you spot anywhere where drains are blocked please report them straight away to the council on help@durham.gov.uk .

Last nights flooding on Abbey Road has also been reported. We have asked for details of when the gullies are cleaned out across our area. The council reduced clearing out for most drains to every 24 months, which we feel is way too long, especially for areas with trees and flood risks, so we are reviewing our area to make sure that flood prone areas get gullies cleaned more frequently.

The ones in the dip of Canterbury Road for example are only done once every two years, at the moment to the best of our knowledge leaves fall off most trees each year, not every other year!

Cutting back cleaning to every two years ends up costing the council more money in the long term as compacted blocked gullies take far far longer to clean out and flooding costs the Council, Fire brigade and householders an enormous amount.