Nigel Martin

Over recent months we have been told there is some demand for ward surgeries for Neville’s Cross. Avid readers of the local papers will hva seen the first of these announced for this coming Saturday, 16 January, 10.30 am-12 noon at Neville’s Cross Primary School.

We are also using the opportuity to link with the local Police Neighbourhood Team, and PCSO Debbie Sadler-Watson will be present to listen to any local concerns you may have on policing maters.

Our idea is to hold these meetings every month on the second or third Saturday alternating between the north and south ends of the division. The actual date will depend on Debbie’s shift pattern.

I have set up a separate web page with the details - click on the link on the left column of this page.

I do wish to emphasise, however, that if you have any issue you can ring or e-mail me. You do not have to wait until the next surgery.

Sunday 10 January

I have been getting many comments and queries (often highly critical of the Council) about things such as bins not being collected, the state of pavments and the need to refil local salt bins.

Personally I am not going to have a go at the staff, many of whom have been working all hours to try to keep things going, but the issues have been fed back by me and other councillors and we are being heard.

The latest bulletin on the state of things from County Hall makes specific mention of actions over rubbish collections and salt bin re-filling. I reprint it below verbatim:

Forecast for today Sun 10th Jan

Whilst snow is still expected to spread across the region from the south during Sunday night the severe weather warning has been lifted. Near to the coast, and even elsewhere at times, it could fall as sleet or even rain. The rain, sleet and snow will continue  for most of Monday before slowly dying out by Tuesday morning. So amounts of new snow for the whole event will range from very little near to the coast, just 1-2cms at low levels but still 5-10cms on ground above about 600 or 700ft. Over the very highest ground , above about 1000ft, there is still a possibility of 15-20cms, especially where it drifts around in the strong and cold easterly wind.

Road surface temperatures are expected to fall below freezing but not to the extent of recent nights.

Proposed Actions

Shifts to continue and all routes to be patrolled/ploughed as necessary with salt treatment only on class A & B roads.  The 24hrs shifts to be reviewed on Monday

Salt bins

40 men in teams will be filling salt bins throughout the day and will continue for the foreseeable future enabling residents to help themselves.  This additional resource should mean all bins will be filled within a week.

Footpaths Teams have been out on Saturday  on a wide range of high priority locations clearing footpaths right across the County. Tractors also assisted along side this for example clearing snow around bus stations and car parks. A presence is being maintained today although focusing on main town centres for Monday morning.Refuse Collection

Work in housing estates yesterday was really successful and a major operation is underway across the County using tractor gritters and other machinery to clear access to (and into where possible) estates to improve access along Monday’s scheduled collection routes. This is continuing again today.  Please note that snow does accumulate in the wake of the ploughs, in some instances causing local inconvenience. It is essential work however if a safe and determined effort in picking up refuse is to be made.

Starting from Monday morning, and dependent on ground conditions, a substantial deployment of grounds staff will be made, working along side refuse crews. A fleet of wagons will be used to get to the nearest safe access points, and bins and side waste can be taken by staff to these locations. Even with this massive deployment, ground conditions or difficult access are likely to mean that we cannot pick up all the bins on their set day, and if safety considerations dictate there may be need for suspension. Be assured however that we are making a determined effort to do our utmost, with the aim of clearing as many bins on their scheduled collection days this week. We are also, where possible deploying some mopping up from additional areas, subject to progress.

Forecast for the 2 -5 days ahead

As for the rest of the week: The extreme low temperatures have probably now gone but it will stay cold and windy with the possibility of some light sleet or snow on Wednesday into Thursday. Daytime temperatures will just get above freezing in places, with a slight thaw at low levels, but there will be a frost at night, with ice continuing to be a problem.

Beyond that it still looks like somewhat less cold conditions will try to push in from the southwest but any thaw will continue to be gradual.

Salt

Reducing the treated network to Class A & B roads has had a positive impact on salt usage and preserving salt stocks.  Nationally all local authorities have now been asked to reduce their salt usage by 25% to preserve stocks.  In Durham, the measures taken earlier in the week means that we have already achieved this.  Further reductions may be called for next week.

Emergency Services

We are in constant contact with the emergency services regarding access difficulties and up to present there have been few of these.

[Later information is available in the comments to this post.] 

The snow and ice has been causing havoc as we all know. In particular today’s (Monday 4 Jan) refuse and recycling collections have been called off for safety reasons and will be resumed a day late tomorrow.

As the first heavy snow started to thaw between Christmas and New Year, I passed on some individual requests to deal with footpath and minor road issues. Unfortunately we then had another heavy fall over the last few days which has set everything back.

 The Council is concentrating on keeping the main roads open at the moment and with plummeting temperatures plus further heavy snow predicted, I am sure there will be considerable pressure on resources.

Nonetheless, if there are particularly difficult problems in Neville’s Cross, Crossgate and Framwelgate, do let me know and I will see what can be done.

The County Council has a web page on  Winter Weather Information as well as an RSS feed at www.durham.gov.uk/Pages/RssFeed.aspx?Feed=WinterWeather

Happy New Year!

Information on the schedule of bins has just been circulated to councillors in the following statement from the Council

Keeping Green at Christmas

To help residents stay green this Christmas Durham County Council is publishing festive refuse and recycling collection dates.

In the Derwentside, Durham City and Sedgefield areas, there is no change to the collection day.  Bins will still be collected on Monday 28 December, even though it is a Bank Holiday.

In Easington the day is as normal apart from Friday, when collections will change from Friday 25 December to Monday 28 December and from Friday 1 January to Monday 4 January 2010.

In the Chester le Street, Teesdale and Wear Valley areas, collection dates will be the same as usual up to and including Christmas Eve. From Friday 25 December until Wednesday 30 December, bins will be collected one working weekday later than usual, including Monday 28 December even though it s a Bank Holiday.  Bins that would usually be collected on Thursday 31 December will be emptied on Saturday 2 January 2010, and a usual collection on Friday 1 January will move to Monday 4 January 2010.

All collections throughout the county will be back to normal from Monday 4 January 2010.

Residents with any queries should contact their local council office.

Did you know that Rotary Clubs around the world have raised over $700M towards the eradication of poliomyelitis world wide?

 In addition, they are currently raising another $200M as a matched-funding challenge by the Bill Gates Foundation.

 Clubs in County Durham, including my own, Durham Bede Rotary Club, are part of this project and one of them has come up with a clever fund-raising scheme. So …

… do you have an old mobile phone that you wish to dispose of in a beneficial way?

The Barnard Castle Rotary Club has got together with the envirocharities scheme which allows you to dispose of your old mobile phone, and if it has value, to sell it. Envirocharities will give £3 to your charity and you can receive the remaining value or can donate all or part of it to your charity.

So if you have an old mobile phone to get rid of, go to the  www.endpolionow.co.uk web site (or click on the link in the left sidebar) where you can find out how the scheme works. It is amazingly easy to do something that will really make a difference.

Polio is now endemic in only four countries in the world thanks mainly to the efforts of Rotary International.

The County Council has just launched a new area on its web site called ‘My Durham’. It is designed to give information relevant to the house where you live.

So, for instance, you can find out who your local elected representatives are, where your nearest schools are and what day your bins are emptied all by putting in your postcode and house number or name.

Eventually it is hoped to develop it to the point where you can monitor your council tax payments and any other transactions that you have with the council.

At the moment it is still at an early stage of development, but why not try it out and let me know what you think. You can access the site from the main council we page.

Regular readers of this site will be aware of my long-standing campaign to open up the working of the Durham Admission Forum to public scrutiny. Now things have taken a serious turn.

Earlier this year, the Council passed unanimously a Lib Dem motion urging the Forum to open up its meeting to the public.

On 24 September, the Forum met and debated the issue and decided to reject the council’s plea and tyo continue to meet in private.

The minutes of the meeting make interesting reading as on the second page is the statement “Some research has been undertaken to find out how other Admission Forums in the country manage these matters and so far we have not been able to identify any Admission Forum which meets in public.”

This is somewhat strange, as I have just googled the phrase “admission forum public meeting” and within 10 minutes established three authorities, Leeds, Redcar and Cleveland, and Slough, that do indeed have their meetings in public (I stopped looking after I had found these three so I am sure there must be more).

This is unacceptable, and I have now written to the Council to ask for the whole issue to be revisited as the Forum has clearly been materially misled.

If you look at the minutes, you will also see that the members of the Forum were concerned about being intimidated (my word) by meeting in public. I have to say that as they mostly consist of senior professionals in the education sector, I am not much impressed by that argument either.

The issue rumbles on…

I have just received notice that there is to be a significant period of riverbank footpath closures from 14 December through to the end of March so that a number of dangerous trees can be dealt with.

Here is a map of the riverbank footpaths affected.

The notification seems to imply that paths will be closed as and when needed, but I still need to check that out.

[Added the day after the initial posting] I can confirm that closures of particular footpaths will only take place as and when necessary for the work being carried out.

I have just heard (via a press reporter) that the attempt at a Judicial Review of the Admissions Adjudictor’s decision on admissions in Durham City has failed. It seems that the application was refused permissions to go to a full hearing. This will be a great disappointment to many living in the vicinity of Bowburn and Shincliffe.

My reaction is that this just shows how crazy a system we now have for school admissions.

Both Conservative and Labour Governments have spent the last 25 years promoting the idea of ‘choice’ in school admissions, when deep down we all know that there is no such thing and they have been selling a pup. There is only ‘preference’ and when a school is over-subscribed, somebody will lose out.

That might not be so bad if local councillors were then permitted to decide on what they think is best in there area (and suffer the consequence at the ballot box if they get it wrong).

We are, however, in a crazy situation, where a non-democratic unaccountable body (the County Admissions Forum) can take decisions in secret behind closed doors and when elected councillors have the temerity to disagree the Forum gets its way by appealing to someone unconnected with the County.

The least the Government can do now is to require Admissions Forums to meet in public and allow affected parents to make direct in-person representation to them.

But I am not holding my breath…

The next Durham AAP meeting is one of the six monthly ‘big-tent’ Forum meetings and will be held on Wednesday 11 November at County Hall, 6 pm - 8 pm.

The meeting will discuss the proposals that have been emerging from the AAP Board meetings over recent months in the areas of

• Activities for young people

• Development of the city centre

• Increased support for the voluntary sector

• Clean and green environment.

which were the priorities determined by the previous Forum meeting in May.

This is the opportunity for you to have your say on projects and services in the Durham AAP area. We want the whole community to be involved.

If you wish to attend, you should book your place by visiting www.durham.gov.uk/aap or by contacting 0191 301 8718.