An interesting news item appeared in today’s Northern Echo about the chaos there has been in Easington with the selection of candidates for the elections on 1 May.

A representative of the local Labour party was openly discussing the prospect of losing control of the County Council if things went pear-shaped in that part of the County.

Three years ago at the last county elections, this would have been unthinkable.

Now it is thinkable - for the first time in 90 years the tectonic plates of politics in County Durham are starting to shift - there can be a political earthquake on 1 May, all the electors have to do is vote for it!

A meeting is being held on Monday morning (31 March) with the Director of Children’s Services, Councillor Vasey (Cabinet member with the education portfolio) and several Durham City County Councillors (including yours truly) to discuss the way forward. I will report back after.

In the meantime I have been doing some research on the issue of whether Shincliffe and Bowburn are closer (by road) to the Crossgate Moor DJ site or to Gilesgate Comp.

Logically, as all shortest journeys would have to pass the junction on the A177 just along from The Rose Tree, the answer to which is the shorter will be the same for everyone irrespective of the particular house they live in.

So try the following: go to the AA journey planner web site and find the distance between DH1 2YJ (Telford Close in High Shincliffe) and DH1 4SU (Crossgate Moor DJ site) and the distance from DH1 2YJ to DH1 1HN (Gilesgate Comp).

When I did this they both came to 4.03 miles! [But please tell me if I got this wrong - although I did do it twice]

Now I have to issue a word of caution here, since the AA routes may not be the ’shortest safe route’ as defined by the County Council, but this does explain why families in both Bowburn and Shincliffe are confused and upset over the future admissions arrangements.

The current county bussing policy talks about conveying children to the closest appropriate school, and no-one at County Hall has bothered to tell people in that area which this is, even though all that has to be done is to measure the shortest difference from the junction mentioned above.

Forgive me if I go on further about this. Suppose, for the sake of argument that it turns out that Gilesgate is closer and that the County sticks to its policy as stated. Then families can still apply to DJ and may well get a place on the final distance criteria, but then they will have either to drive their children over (great for the environment!) or to pay for bus fares. Either way this disadvantages familes with fewer resources to spare.

DJ Governors repeated their view yesterday at their latest governing body meeting that they wish to maintain their commitment and association with the villages concerned, and indeed this was promised by Councillor Vasey’s Labour Cabinet predecessor in public less than nine months before approval for the new building was finally given. 

There is a way out for the Council, though. The actual admissions criteria that the Cabinet want to adopt also mentions a phrase like ‘economic efficiency’ in relation to bussing arrangements, so they have the chance to decide to retain the existing bus arrangements on economic grounds.

But this all shows how useless Labour are at getting things right. One reason this has blown up is because the local county council members have not been properly consulted as the decision making process has gone on. Now, at the eleventh hour, after a massive rumpus, at last we are.

Do they deserve to be relected in May?

The new green recycling bags have been distributed around much of the area and if yours has not arrived it should do so soon. The new scheme starts next week (1 April), so please do not try to use them before that.

There are some answers to “frequently asked questions” in the following file (which also appeared in a posting on this subject on 3 March):

Recycling Questions and Answers

A copy of the recycling scheme leaflet (which should be inside the bag when delivered) which explains what you can and can’t put in the new green bags (paper, cardboard and plastic) and also what can go in the green box (glass and cans) is here:

Recycling Scheme Leaflet

I’m sure the collection teams will be working hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Please let me know if any issues arise. Hopefully we can double recycling rates on the back of this scheme.

The Neville’s Cross Community Centre steering committee met this evening and agreed to move forward with a feasibility study for building a Centre at Neville’s Cross Primary School.

The study, which should be under way within a few weeks, is being funded by a grant from the Durham City Council Flourishing Communities Fund for which the Committee was very grateful.

I received an e-mail yesterday from the public transport co-ordinator at County Hall to say that the District Councils should have posted out all the new national bus passes by last night.

Mine did not arrive today, so I guess they are going out second class!

Remember - unless you have told the City Council otherwise, your replacement will be sent out to the address you gave when you first got yours.

Also, the new bus pass is only valid from 1 April, so keep using the existing one until then.

The row over post office closures rumbles on with  many rural offices identified for closure in spite of loud local protests.

Not so long ago, the Neville’ Cross County Division had two, one on Neville’s Cross Bank and the other on Fieldhouse Lane. Both are now closed leaving us as one of the only county divisions in the whole of County Durham without a post office.

In fact I suspect we are the only such division, although we won’t be for long as things stand.

At Cabinet on Thursday, there was a small detail on one report about the closures in the south of the County, with a recommendation to look at ways of using County Council facilities to fill the gap.

This sees to be an approach that lots of councils around the UK are now looking at and I welcome it and hope that the Post Office as an organisation will co-operate.

Another small note in the press on the subject - our Labour MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods, voted against a motion in parliament condemning post office closures, so I guess we can assume she doesn’t mind them happening.

Governors of DJ have just had a progress note on the new building. Apparently the high winds have slowed some things, but construction is still well on target.

Residents can also expect the Orange mast to be removed during the Easter holiday.

Many will remember the Durham Cobbler who helped expose the Labour administration of the City councils prior to 2001 [when the Lib Dems won and took over].

Now a web site has appeared with equally acid comments about the County Council. The ‘cobblers’ name is there, but it is not clear who is behind the site.

Take a look at cobblers2dcc.blogspot.com.

At the monthly Cabinet meeting at County Hall yesterday, the decision on the admissions criteria for Durham Johnston was deferred to a special meeting to be held early next month.

In a somewhat acrimonious debate, the Labour portfolio holder for Children’s Services, Claire Vasey, asked the Cabinet to make the admissions criteria the same for Durham Johnston as everywhere else.

This would mean that children living more than 2 miles away who were assigned to the school by the County bussing policy would take priority over local Neville’s Cross children living closer to the school.

I pointed out that in the mid 1990s this approach had led to a position where children living perhaps a few hundred yards from the school were in real danger of being denied a place, and that if the criteria reverted to the old ones, then there was a real risk of this happening again.

I also pointed out the the ’sibling link’ criterion which gives preference to brothers and sisters of children already in the school had also created anomalies because of the popularity and success of the DJ sixth form [Durham Johnston is in the best literal handful of true comprehensives in the country for A-level results].

There had been occasions in the past when students had come into the school just for the sixth form from up to 20 miles away and the families had then claimed priority for an eleven year old on the basis of sibling link.

This is clearly unfair to local children. The governors got a special rule inserted into the DJ criteria some years ago to prevent this, but the proposals on the table would take that protection away.

Add to the mix the fact that the Mac Williams, Labour councillor for the area covering Shincliffe and Bowburn, complained bitterly that he had not been consulted at any stage (neither had I, although I contributed to the debates on the school governing body), and the Cabinet suddenly split on the issue.

Claire Vasey was supported by the Deputy Leader Clive Robson, only for the Leader, Albert Nugent, to move that the decision be deferred for further discussion.

There was a vote and for the first time in public in my 23 years at County Hall, the ruling Labour leadership split. The vote went 7 - 3 in favour of deferring the issue for more consultation with the interested parties.

What is more, the Deputy Leader voted against the Leader!

So, if you have got this far, you will perhaps agree with me that it is a good job there are elections in 6 weeks time so we can get rid of this divided and ineffective lot.

County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Foundation Trust, for which I was recently elected a public governor,  is carrying out a review of its services to help develop a strategic vision for the next five years called “Seizing The Future”.

Public involvement is being actively encouraged, so if you want to know more about the process and/or feed in your own views, then click on seizingthefuture.hub.uk.com to get to the web pages dedicated to the process.

The University produces an information leaflet for residents (students and otherwise) that should be widely distributed in areas where there is a significant student population.

From discussion at a meeting of the University City Liaison Committee last week, it appears that it did not get out as much as it should have. So if you either did not receive it or have lost it, here it is (courtesy of the University):

University Community Liaison Leaflet 

One important piece of information contained in it is the Community Hotline number, Durham 334 2222, where residents can ring in to report student-related issues or problems that are affecting their area.

The University Community Patrol is willing to investigate nuisance issues and try to resolve them amicably - they are usually successful. Remember though that serious incidents involving crime or public disorder should always be reported to the police.

[The University City Liaison Committee meets once each term to look at issues involving students in the community. Around the table are university officials, local councillors, representatives of community associations, students and the police.]

A paper is going to the County Council Cabinet on 20 March proposing to change the admissions criteria for Durham Johnston.

Many local residents will remember the crisis around 12 years ago when children being bussed in from Bowburn and Brandon were taking priority over those living a few hundred metres from the school.

After a concerted campaign by parents, supported by me, the then Education Committee agreed to change the criteria to give priority to “pupils for whom Durham Johnston is the nearest suitable school”. Distance was measured from the closer of the Whinney Hill and Crossgate Moor sites.

This sorted the problem with most children from the villages still getting a place, but as the school is moving to a single site next year (another successful campaign) things had to be reviewed as the “closest school” for Shincliffe, for example, will no longer be Durham Johnston.

The proposal on 20 March is to revert to the previous regime where bussing arrangements take priority over sibling links with distance last.

The argument is that the criteria for all schools in the County should be the same, but I am really concerned that the problems that we had 12 years ago might return.

There is another issue to do with sibling links.

Durham Johnston has a fantastic sixth form with recent results placing it in the top handful (literally) of truly comprehensive schools in the whole of the England. Many students choose to come to its sixth form from other schools, often from a considerable distance.

The sibling link criterion means that a family living 25 miles away can get a child into the sixth form and then claim priority over a local family for a second child at age 11.

This did indeed happen a few times in the past and the governors asked for this loophole to be closed - and it was. Now it is going to be re-opened again.

Maybe falling numbers of children will mean that the risks to local families of not getting a place are very low, but we are told that the birthrate is now rising again, so the risks will also rise.

There are questions that need to be answered here. How over-subscribed is Durham Johnston? What are the risks? How have they been assessed?

Perhaps the main question is - why does it have to be “one size fits all”?

A new telephone service to deal with the full range of Revenues and Benefits enquiries (e.g. council tax, housing benefit, business rates) goes live on Friday 14 March. It will be available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The number will be

0845 9400 820

The new service will be quicker (no waiting- it is supposed to respond in less than three rings).

Leaflets on it will be available in all city info units in the near future; a copy of the Leaflet can be seen here.

On Friday evening last, BBC North East put out a programme making allegations against Premier Waste in relation to the disposal of Compost Like Waste (CLO) at the Todhills Landfill Site and the operations of the company’s aerobic digestors at Thornley.

I had been sent an e-mail by Councillor Albert Nugent, Leader of the Council earlier last week alerting me to the fact that the programme was to be screened adn responding to some of the allegations, although at that point the Council had not seen what the BBC was to screen on Friday.

Now Premier Waste is an arms-length company owned by the County Council. The Council is its one and only shareholder and I think that as its shareholder, the Council should investigate these allegations properly, and there is a formal way to do this using the Overview and Scrutiny (O & S) Committee.

So I am writing today to the Chair of O & S Committee, and the Chair and Vice Chair of the “Looking after the Environment” Scrutiny Subcommittee asking for an investigative panel to be set up as a matter of urgency to deal with this.

I will let you know their response as soon as I have it.

There is to be a new (and I hope much improved) recycling scheme from 1 April. Durham City Council has gone into partnership with Chester-le-Street, Easington and Sedgefield Councils for a new contract which will make it easier for residents to recycle a much wider range of items in future.

A leaflet explaining the changes will drop through residents’ letterboxes in the next week or ten days.

The current green box scheme allows  everyone to recycle newspapers, bottles and cans; some areas can also have  purple plastic sacks for carboard and plastic, but not everywhere.

The new contract (with a firm called Greencycle) will given everyone a sturdy large sack for cardboard and plastic.

In the meantime here is a file of kerbside recycling Frequently Asked Questions which should help residents get an idea of what is involved and the scope of the scheme.

The English National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme comes into force on 1 April 2008.

The County Council has produced a leaflet which I have managed to manufacture as a pdf-file and can be viewed below.

County Durham Travel - National Bus Pass Leaflet

Some key points are:

• Existing passholders will automatically be sent a new pass in the post before 1 April (so if you do not get one by then contact the City Council straight away - you should not use the old one after 1 April).
• It follows that anyone who has changed address since they got their current pass may need to contact the City Council now to ensure their replacement gets to them in time.
• Travel rules with the County remain the same, but elsewhere the new pass cannot be used before 9.30 am or after 11 pm Monday - Friday, nor in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
• Similarly the new pass cannot be used on long distance coach services such as National Express or private coach excursions and tours.

The contact telephone number for Durham City Council is 0191 301 8499 or you can do so on the City web site via www.durhamcity.gov.uk/ContactUs