Last year when the weather was, well slightly colder than today, I was being inundated with winter probelms.

Over the last few years I have campaigned for changes to the way in which the council allocates grit (salt) bins. Fortunately changes were made, and after a lot of pressure I have managed to get additional grit bins. In total there are now 8 more grit bins across our area than before.

The council has still refused bins at the following locations following my reissuing of requests from past failed attempts.

Durham Tce – Fail, no bin to be placed
Hartside View – Fail, no bin to be placed
Oatlands Way – Fail, no bin to be placed
Potterhouse Tce – Fail, no bin to be placed

I am particularly annoyed that the council has again refused a bin at Hartside View given the distance from the nearest one, the number of households on the estate and the fact that there are elderly residents bungalows in this area too. I have asked for a copy of the scoring for this one.

I am waiting for answers on a few other locations, but to avoid the risk of theft from them I will not list them at this point. If you strongly feel  that you are too far away from a grit bin, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

The Bin contract issue has made the national press today – see the Express for example.

What has made me so furious about this whole debacle is the lack of any transparency for councillors. When we are not given the chance to look at such issues by the Labour-run council it can hardly be our fault. When we ask for transparency and it is denied, that is Labour’s fault.

Having considered the Bin issue today, I think that to ensure that the council is seen to be democratic, and is democratic, where there are working groups involving councillors and officers in relation to contracts, non-Cabinet councillors should be given the opportunity to attend – including opposition councillors.

Until the full story about the Bins contract comes out, the only thing we can be sure of is that there has not been transparency or opportunity to comment for back-bench councillors.

It is possible that the lowest price bidder could not deliver the bins on time or to quality. Clearly if Council procurement delays caused this then there is an issue, but if not, it is quite possible that on this occasion officers followed the correct procedures.

The cost of delaying this contract and therefore delaying the move to fortnightly collections is in the region of £90,000 a month. I await with interest the truth on this one as it may not be quite as bad as is being made out.

The lack of democracy and the way Labour runs our council will of course continue to be a problem until they lose control.

For anyone who hasn’t noticed, there is a huge row brewing over the placing of a £4.2m contract for new wheelie bins with a foreign company when a UK company bid £250,000 less.

Durham County Council has tendered this contract following European regulations. However, no councillors were involved at any stage in looking at the terms of this contract. This is very similar to the problem which occurred with the Park and Ride. At the time many councillors myself included called on the council to involve councillors in looking at the terms of contracts which are considered to be important – front facing, risk of embarassment to council etc. To date this has not happened. Officers are still carrying on, I presume with the Labour-run council cabinet approval, not involving back bench or opposition councillors in any way.

This is not about interference by councillors in the procurement process. This is about ensuring that things like scoring systems are discussed so that if something does go wrong, councillors can be called into question. After all, officers are not elected, councillors are. The trouble is that Durham County Council is so undemocratic that the whole system of accountability has collapsed to nothing more than rubber stamping.

When opposition councillors tried to call in the decision to close leisure centres – meaning to investigate it, we were refused by the Labour Chair of Scrutiny. The same happened with the closure of the Care Centres. At every step Labour seeks to run County Hall like a dictatorship. Even backbench Labour councillors are frustrated at this.

I have come to the conclusion that County Durham will never be able to move forward while Durham County Council is run by the Labour Party and urge every voter in this county to vote them out at the next local elections in 2013. I would prefer that to be by voting Lib Dem, but one way or the other we must get control of County Durham back into the hands of the people who live in it. We can’t have another 50 years of Labour control. It is no coincidence that our County is one of the poorest in England.

As for the Bin contract, I know that opposition councillors from various groups are seeking to get clarification on this issue and will be pushing to get much more information out into the public domain. Indeed if my requests for additional information are not forthcoming then I have asked that it is provided through a freedom of information request. Many residents will be surprised to learn that there are numerous occasions when the council refuse to provide information to me and I have to go down this avenue.

As the first proper snow of winter starts falling today, thought I would update with some contact details.

If you have an empty Grit Bin on your road, you can call 01913706000 the Highways Action line or email them at hal@durham.gov.uk

Bear in mind the council has around 2000 bins to fill and does this on a cycle so it is possible that they may be getting round.

Please also use these to report if you see anyone stealing the grit in large quantities as this happened last year in quite a few areas. If you can get a registration number the police may be able to work with the council to deal with grit thieves.

Finally our pressure to cut the Labour-run Councils publicity rag further have been listened to. Last year the council reduced numbers down to 6 from 10 copies a year following Lib Dem pressure. I pushed for this to be a maximum of 4 copies. Now it has been reduced down to four a year, saving several hundred thousand pounds more.  Just a pity they took so long to recognise that we were right – they would have had all that money in the bank.

Another Lib Dem success in cutting Labour waste.

Our press release last year on this:

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.”

Yuills were successful today in getting the planning application through for a large house at the entrance to PityMe on the site which they removed all the trees from a year or so ago.

The proposed building looks awful. Two and a half stories of glass at the end of a row of terraces – why on earth they couldn’t have put forward something more in keeping wit the area is beyond me.

I did manage to get conditions put on in relation to the times they are allowed to do the work and regarding drainage issues, but the planning committee, made up of 16 councillors, but only 4 from the former Durham City area, chose to approve this monstrosity.

It really is time that our planning committee was made up of councillors from the area, it would be more democratic and they have more local knowledge.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be proposing a motion at full council calling on the Government to reverse its decision to cut feed-in tariffs for solar pv panels.

Back in August 2010 due to the Lib Dems in government, Council’s wre granted permission to sell elecricity. This allowed them to start installing energy production such as Solar panels. Sixteen months on and Durham’s Labour-run council hasn’t installed any solar panels on its existing council house stock. A complete and utter catastrophic failure to act which means thousands of residents who could have had solar panels by now do not.

The money initially allocated for the scheme has been used up because elsewhere in the country people have been far more proactive than the Council here.

However, the Government has only given six weeks warning of the changes, which is clearly wrong. This means that almost 500 days since the announcement, with Durham Council not having started work, it is losing the chance to get the higher rate rebate, making it far more difficult if not financially unaffordable to start the program.

So I am furious with the Council for taking so long to take advantage of this excellent Lib Dem policy, but also very unhappy with the government for changing the rules with such short notice.

Hopefully if enough councils do the same around the county and pile on the pressure, we can get some changes in government policy.

In Durham we clearly need a change at the top – if our County is ever to progress from one of the poorest in England, we must get rid of decades of Labour control.

Last months neighourhood wardens update can be seen here:  ZONE 1-051211.

Includes details of flytipping problems reported by me and others on Potterhouse Lane, walkabout I attended with police, housing and warden in Bearpark and a large number of dog fouling operations in Witton Gilbert, Newton Hall and Pity Me. Also clearing of accumulations of rubbish and flytipping at Rowan Drive.

Next PACT meetings in area where you can discuss local policing and related issues with the police, council and councillors are:

8th Dec – Newton Hall PACT – Newton Hall Community Centre (Behind Abbey Leisure Centre) – 1830

14th Dec – Witton Gilbert PACT – Fyndoune House – 1830

22nd Dec – Fram PACT – Fram Moor Community Centre – 1830

22nd Dec – Bearpark PACT – Bearpark Community Centre – 1800

For many weeks the outside lights haven’t been working in Abbey Leisure Centre car park despite requests to get them fixed. This is a health and safety issue and as a last resort I have contacted senior officers to complain. They have now confirmed that the work will be carried out on the 14th December.

The school transferred to Academy status today. This means that it now runs all its own affairs rather than through the County Council.  It also receives its funding directly from Government rather than via the County. On the ground there should be no visible changes for students.