Nigel Martin

Regular readers will know of my long-standing campaign to open up the County Admission Forum to public scrutiny.

I have just received a letter from the Chair of the Forum reiterating its refusal to meet in public.

This follows a unanimous motion by the full county council last year calling on them to open up their proceedings, and a meeting of the Forum after that which was told that council officers were unable to discover any other Fora that did meet openly.

When I spent less than 10 minutes on the web discovering three others that did so, they had to reconsider.

The letter from the Forum Chair tells me that they surveyed over 150 other authorities and from 90 replies found that 20 always met in public and another 3 sometimes did.

So while the majority meet in secret, there are many that have the confidence to do their work in public.

So why not the Durham Admission Forum? What have they to hide? What is it that they are frightened of us knowing?

The minutes of their latest meeting have not yet been published on the council web site, but I shall be interested to know how they justify their position.

School admissions policy is one of the most important issues for families with children in County Durham and yet policy is formulated in secret by an unrepresentative body. This cannot be right.

Whatever the government after the coming general election, it should overturn this secrecy rule so that everyone can know how and why things are decided.

Unfortunately, the March surgery scheduled for 13MArch has had to be cancelled as both Grenville and I will be out of Durham that day.

Many apologies, but please remember that  we can both be contacted easily by e-mail or by phone.

The April surgery will go ahead irrespective of the general election unless council rules forbid it.

Speaking of phones, I have just discovered that the phone number 0191 372 5880 which is is given for me on the County Council web site  has had a glitch - I don’t know for how long - and would probably just have appeared to ring continuously. I think I have this now sorted and it should now be diverting properly to my personal mobile phone as I am not using the council provided one.

If, like me, you were bowled over by last November’s Lumiere event, there is to be an exhibition of photographs taken by local photographer, Peter Jackson, in Clayport Library, running until mid-April.

For more information about the exhibition call Clayport Library on 0191 386 1282.

On Page 3, the Durham Times today (the day after the Cabinet came to Durham) reported that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, had “officially opened Durham Johnston’s new building”.

After reading this, and before going ballistic about governors not being invited to the official opening of the school, I made a couple of phone calls and discovered that this report was totally wrong. A few minutes later I received an e-mail form the headteacher to confirm that no oficial opening had taken place.

Durham Times readers will indeed see the PM beside a plaque but that is just to commemorate the visit of the Cabinet to the school, not any kind of official opening.

Which all goes to show that you should not believe everything you read in the press, but given the importance to the local community of the official opening of the school whenever it happens, it makes one wonder who gave the Durham Times reporter the idea in the first place.

On a more mundane note, the taxpayer has probably spent getting on for a quarter of a million pounds ferrying the Cabinet plus around 40 civil servants up to Durham. Can anyone tell me what actual government business was done?

If the answer is what I expect, then the residents of Durham may quite rightly ask why such large sum has been spent trying to shore up the reputation of the Labour Government in a marginal seat just a few weeks before the general election.

It seems that Gordon Brown is bringing his whole Cabinet to Durham for a series of  meetings today.

As I write,  just  after 11 am, I understand that they will be meeting at Durham Johnston, although as a  senior Governor of the school and one of the local elected representative for the area, I am rather dismayed that no-one has officially told me about the visit.

Having said that, it has been clear that something was happening today as I have become aware over the past couple of weeks of several ‘public discussion’ sessions with  mysterious people who could not be identified (for security reasons).

One of these was related to how the AAPs are progressing and all the AAPs were asked to nominate a couple of people to be involved. Given the short notice, the Durham AAP was only able to nominate myself and one of the public members of the AAP Board, although it did not really surprise me when we were both turned down as we are both known to be Liberal Democrats and presumably not the right kind of person for the exercise.

So at one level this is all just a stunt. The Cabinet will come, then it will go and not much will have changed.

So should we feel privileged that Durham is honoured by our visitors? Perhaps, but another explanation for the choice of Durham is the fear that Labour has of losing the City of Durham seat at the forthcoming general election. That’s the city that has been at the centre of a Labour controlled County Durham for the past 90 years, but also the city that rejected Labour at the last two elections for the old City Council.

So, thanks Gordon, for confirming that the Lib Dems have more than a fighting chance of winning in a few weeks time.

And you really are welcome to visit our fair City any time you like, especially if it is to feast on what Bill Bryson called our “perfect little city” has to offer rather then contrived public debates.

The next wards surgery is at 10.30 am on Saturday 13 February at St Leonard’s School. The local Police Community Support Offcier will also be present to help with any police-realted issues that residents may have.

The County Council has a small grants sceme for artists and community groups.

Community, voluntary and arts organisations, social enterprises, town and parish councils and professional artists can apply for up to £500 through the scheme, with some match funding expected from the projects themselves.

The closing date for the latest round of applications is Monday 15 March but anyone needing help to apply is being invited to book a 20-minute slot at one of the advice surgeries that are being held around the County. The one in Durham is at the Gala Theatre on Tuesday 23 February 4pm - 7 pm

To book a 20 minute session, contact Michael Farlow on 013888 816 166 or email michael.farlow@durham.gov.uk.

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!