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.

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

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.

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.