Local Council elections take place on 1st May. This will be your opportunity to vote for two representatives on the new unitary council for County
Durham.

You can only vote in elections if your name is on the Register of Electors and I am aware that there are a lot of houses in the area with no-one registered.

In addition, some residents may have moved into the area since the new register came into force on 1 December last year.

Moved home? Coming up to 18? Just not on the register?

If you’ve moved since the Register was compiled or have been missed off, you can get your details amended. All you have to do is to fill in a Voter Registration Form which you must sign yourself, someone else cannot do it for you.

Registration forms are available from the City Council’s office at 17 Claypath. Alternatively, print off the registration form below:-

Voter Registration Form

Applications must be signed by the elector and returned to the Electoral Registration Office, Durham City Council, 17 Claypath, Durham DH1 1RH.

Anyone may apply for a postal vote at an election. Or you can apply for someone else to vote for you if, for example, you are blind or disabled, or if you will be away from home during an election. Contact the Electoral Registration Office at 17 Claypath for the forms (or see below).

There is a deadline of 5 pm. eleven working days before the day of an election for the receipt of new postal vote applications and six working days before the day of election for the receipt of new proxy vote applications.

Forms to apply for a Postal Vote or a Proxy Vote can be downloaded from the following links:-

Postal Vote Application Form

Proxy Vote Application Form

Again they must be returned to the 17 Claypath address.

After what appears much behind-the-scenes negotiation, the Police Authority set its council tax rate yesterday evening.

It came in at £142.47 for a Band D property, a rise of 4.97%.

this means that the total Band D council tax for people in Neville’s Cross will be £1,436.09, a rise of just under 3% from last year.

I received on Wednesday to tell me that I had been re-elected to the Governing Council of the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Foundation Trust for a three year term.

Many thanks to those who supported me.

The voting figures were:

I remain very concerned about the small number of residents who have ‘joined’ the trust and so are able to take part in the election.

I do encourage as many people to join as possible to make public accountability more effective.

Details of how to do this are in my earlier “manifesto” posting on the subject.

The County and City Councils both held their budget meetings yesterday.

In the morning at County Hall, the controlling Labour group pushed through a 2.9% increase. As Leader of the Lib Dem opposition I moved an amendment to reduce the increase to 1.9%, but we naturally lost the vote.

The County seems awash with cash this year. It had a much larger than expected increase in Government grant (over 7% up) and also failed to spend the money it raised last year (otherwise known as savings). Our lower proposal was eminently affordable without any cuts in services.

On the other hand the Lib Dem controlled City Council , later the same day, voted for a 1.9% increase in spite of having a miserly increase in Government grant (just over 1% up). When I look back to the parlous state of the City finances that we inherited from the previous Labour administration in 2003, we have done a really good job to get things so well under control (well I would say that I suppose…)

So the headline Band D rate for the County will be £1,024.38 next year, and for the City £186.62.

The Fire Authority met last week and have agreed a rate of £82.62 (a 2.9% increase).

The Police authority also met last week but failed to agreed a rate. The situation is peculiar since it is necessary both for a majority of the members to vote for it and a majority of the Councillor members. It seems that the overall majority wanted one thing but the Labour Councillors (excluding the member from Darlington) wanted something else and blocked will of the majority.

They meet again tonight (Wednesday) - more fun and games in the Labour Group at County Hall no doubt.

There is a public meeting on THURSDAY 28 FEBRUARY to hear about what a Town Council for Durham City might mean for our area.

The meeting is in the Alington House Community Centre on North Bailey at 7pm and should last about an hour. The mayor will chair the meeting.

I believe that with the new, very big, unitary County Council looming, we need a really local council in Durham. So come along and find out what is involved - and make your own mind up.

I have just received a letter from the Planning Department to let me know that Banks are going to appeal on their planning application for Mount Oswald.

This will mean that a public inquiry will take place later this year.

From the letter, it looks like all those who formally objected have been notified, but if you did object and have not heard from the Planning Department, do let me know.

The details of the appeal are deposited at Byland Lodge. any further representations have to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate (details later) by 21 March.

I want to consult with colleagues first, but objectors will need to get together to organise the opposition as effectively as possible.

I will post some suggestions for co-ordinating our action in a few days.

Residents may have read a piece in the local papers about the Miners’ Heritage Group that has an exhibition above the Neville’s Cross Club on Crossgate Peth. While the Group are having some problems over the future of their collection, what was less clear was the good work they are doing to create an educational resource for local schools on Durham’s mining heritage.

While it is difficult for me to support the group financially in regard to their accommodation problems, I am going to give a small grant to them to help with the educational work as it is important that the young people in our schools are aware of what the mining industry meant for County Durham.

I was expecting a decision from the City Licensing Committee yesterday on the Buzz Barr application (see other posts on this subject on 11 Jan and 6 Feb), but the hearing was abandoned when it turned out that the application for the stop at Rainton Gate had not been properly advertised.

This has some good and some bad aspects. It is good that the people who live nearby as well as the County Scout and Guide Association are now aware and can make representations in time if a new application comes in.

Not so good is the prospect of the applications being renewed for sites at stops along the A167 through Neville’s Cross.

I have had a number of people contact me over this issue in the last month, and no-one has anything good to say about the idea. needless to say I shall be keeping a weather eye out for this one if it rears its head again.

One other issue has arisen out of this affair - the inadequacy of the process for consulting the public over licence applications, particularly the way in which people living nearby are not notified directly (as is the case with planning applications).

I have done some checking and the current procedure operated by the Council is what is recommended by Government (an advert in the press together with a notice on site). From what I can tell, most other councils operate in the same way, but there are a small number that go against Government advice and also send a letter to neighbouring residents.

Clearly this would be an added cost, but personally, I think that most residents would see that as being a good use of their local taxes (although please do feel free to disagree). It is an issue I shall be taking up with the Council in the coming weeks.

Do let me know whether or not you agree.

With the end of the financial year approaching I have been allocating my remaining “local initiative” money from County Hall and have ben pleased to make a grant of £300 to the Friends of Flass Vale to help purchase nesting boxes for the Vale.

This is a good present for them and will add to their celebration of the creation of the formal nature reserve in the area in 10 days time.

The Welfare Rights Section at County Hall is running a campaign on Free School Meals and Family Tax Credits.

There is information here on the County Council web site.

I also have leaflets available. E-mail me and I will send you one.

Flass Vale will be formally declared an official Nature Reserve on Monday 25 February in the presence of local councillor and Mayor Boy Wynn.

This is a great tribute to the efforts of the Friend of Flass Vale over the years to improve the area and preserve it as a natural place for the enjoyment of the public.

I have just discovered that The Friends have a web site (www.fofv.org.uk) , which at the moment is just s photograph of the area. They are asking for help with developing the site, so if anyone is prepared to volunteer to assist, do drop an e-mail to them at contact@fofv.org.uk

I am up for re-election as a Public Governor of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) to represent the Durham City District.

It is very difficult to communicate with the (500 or so) electors as candidates only had 100 words to promote themselves on the ballot information that is being sent out today.

So if you are an elector and are reading this, I hope you will see from this web site that I am a campaigning local councillor who knows how to call people to account. [For details about how to become an elector, se the end of this posting.]

I was elected as the third of three representatives for Durham City a year ago. Since then I have attended every meeting of the Governors and of the two committees I am on. I have been Chair of the Audit Committee which is responsible for appointing the Trust Auditors and for reporting back to Governors on the financial arrangements of the Trust.

I have also been a member of the Advisory Committee, which has done a lot of work in the first year of the Foundation Trust in sorting out important (if not very exciting) procedural issues.

Foundation trusts have a very different relationship with local communities and with government compared to non-foundation trusts. They have to operate in a more ‘commercial’ fashion and are more susceptible to changing relationships with primary care trusts (PCTs) and GP services.

The new Chief Executive has started a new initiative called “Seizing the Future” which will do a fundamental review of services. There is information about this at a link on the web page http://www.cddft.nhs.uk/. Governors will be fully involved in the process.

In my view we have to ensure that hospital services remain accessible to the communities they serve. That will be my main focus if I am re-elected.

We all know that public transport services have deteriorated over the past 20 years, so I will aim to use my links with the County Council to lobby for a joined up approach by the Trust and the Council to provide the sort of service we all expect.

My other focus will be on the financial side where my long experience of holding to account those who spend public money will be valuable.

I am particularly concerned to look closely at the various privatised services to see whether they do the job we expect and whether we get value for money. I hope that if you are able to vote, you will give me your support.

Joining the trust

If you are not an elector (or ‘member of the Trust’ as it is properly described) but are over 16 and live within the area served by the trust, may I encourage you and your family members to join. Here is a membership application form.

Click on http://www.cddft.nhs.uk/About+Us/FoundationTrustStatus/Home.htm to find out more - you cannot vote in this election, but if you join, you will be able to vote or stand as a candidate in your area in the future.

I was notified today that work is to start very soon (possibly next week) to install crash barriers on the central reservation of the A167 north and south of the Cock of the North roundabout where there have beeen several fatal accidents over the past three years.

North of the roundabout there will be a barrier only on the southbound side (where the accidents have been).  The work will take around 8 weeks or so.

This work will not stop accidents, however. If people drive too fast, the danger will persist, although we can hope that the outcomes may be less severe.

Thanks to everyone who contacted me to express their concern (which I share) about the proposed Buzz Barr that would have had a series of Neville’s Cross bus stops licenced for drinking alcohol!

 The parts of the application that refer to the bus stops on the A167 have now been withdrawn (for now) leaving only the lay by on the A690 Sunderland Road on the left just below Rainton Gate.

The law that specifies how licence applications are to be advertised leaves much to be desired - neither the residents next to the lay-by nor the County Scout and Guides who have their main camp site adjacent to the lay-by knew anything of the matter until after the period for representations was over.

In the event that the licence is granted, the application for the A167 bus stops may re-appear. I shall be vigilant.