Just when I’d got the old “Non Urgent” police number stored in my head it’s been changed by one digit.
The 60(seconds)60(minutes)365(days per year) bit has stayed the same. It’s the 0345 bit that’s new. It remains a lo-cost local call rate.
I hope you don’t need the number, but if you do it helps to get it right first time.
Derwentside doesn’t have much longer to exist, but it seems a real pity if it goes down without ever having had a question asked to a member of the executive and answered under this heading: http://www.derwentside.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4570
Idly looking at the page I thought I’d go to Councillors FAQs - only to find it completely blank.
I just can’t imagine that there’s no-one in Derwentside who wants to know how the decision was made as to who got offered “brown-lidded” garden waste bins, and who didn’t. I can’t believe that no-one is interested in how many people have been fined for dog-fouling or fly-tipping. I can’t believe that no-one has wanted to know why Belle Vue Swim Centre needs to be replaced.
The reason why I can’t believe it is because I’ve heard all these questions asked myself!
So rather than let Derwentside go down with its executive thinking that no-one is interested in what it is, and has been, doing, why not ask the question you’ve always wanted to?
I never used to miss “Have I Got News for you?” - until I became a councillor and stopped having time for TV.
There was always a “Guest Publication” from which they had selected an unlikely headline. My chosen publication this week is Pharmaceuticals Online.
And the headline?
UK Biotech Company Launches New High-Efficiency Disposable Chromatography Column Technology
If you’re wondering about the point of this, it turns out that the headline concerns a local Consett firm which is trialling new high tech products which it has developed here in the town. In my book that’s fantastic. I don’t pretend to understand the precise nature of what they’re doing but I’m delighted to celebrate local success. If you want to know more just log on to http://www.pharmaceuticalonline.com/article.mvc/Disposable-Chromatography-Column-Technology-0001?atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a
Trading Standards have issued reports of a couple of scams, both involving cold callers and difficulties which arose. In their response they added one or two things I didn’t know - so possibly you don’t either - and which may be useful to you or older friends and relatives:
Remember anyone over 60 in County Durham or Darlington can get a free door chain from Help the Aged. Contact Help the Aged HandyVan on 01255 473999.
Also, please remember to tell older/vulnerable adults about our Registered Trader Scheme. We can send them a full list of Traders on our scheme or specific trader types (ie builders, plumbers) in specific areas if they wish. Simply ring 0191 - 3833589 or contact www.countydurhamrts.org.uk www.countydurhamrts.org.uk
OK, so you probably guessed right that the Labour Group would not suspend normal party politics and so allow my motion for meetings of the Member Area Panels (see below) to be called. I think the vote was something like 65 - 35.
Sure, the constitution goes by the board. Sure, many members voted “against” even though they probably actually favoured the motion for local councillors to have some say in local issues. But no doubt they’re proud to display that “they” have more votes than “us”. It’s just a pity to have good aguments ignored because they come from the “wrong side”.
Just in case you’re not sure what the MAPs were meant to do, here’s their role as defined in the constitution:
• to deliberate issues of a local nature and promote members’ participation and involvement in local community activity;
• to feed back to Cabinet issues of local concern;
• to facilitate partnership working at the local level with other public and voluntary agencies and to provide a political input by local County Councillors into Local Strategic Partnerships on the basis of County Council policy, planning and strategy;
• to maintain an overview of Community Development in the District area and in particular to advise on priorities and provide County Councillor support into local community regeneration partnerships;
• to inform the expenditure of budgets delegated to chief officers for area-based initiatives.
So if you can see that those things aren’t happening in your area, you know who to blame. All the guilty parties will be named in the Council Minute Book.
The most absurd thing, however, was to watch the Conservatives. I’m beginning to wonder what motivates them since they seem to have abstained on almost every issue raised at council. Fortunately no-one in Derwentside has to worry since none were elected here, but if I had voted for them I’d be worrying about exactly what I was getting for my money. I may be doing them an injustice, of course. Perhaps they really didn’t know whether they supported the constitutional right to local democracy!
I won’t let it rest here. In my book you can only ignore the constitution in a dictatorship - and the people of County Durham won’t stand for that.
You may spot the literary illusion - OK, I used to be an English teacher - but the title of Graham Greene’s book is a fitting description for the current Durham County Council.
For years the Member Area Panels (MAPs for short) have met to give the chance for county councillors from each district to meet together, discuss issues, allocate resources and plan within their districts. It’s been an essential part of keeping the “local” in local government, so important that it’s enshrined in the constitution of the county council.
Since the last county election, however, none of the MAPs have met. There’s been no official announcement, no change to the constitution, just a deafening silence.
That’s why I’m moving a motion at the county council meeting tomorrow for the MAPs to be re-convened. And I’ve taken the unusual step of writing to every county councillor in Derwentside to ask them to support the motion because there are things we need to be doing, important issues to decide, and not the least important of those is the issue of Consett Sports Centre. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the Derwentside MAP to meet and hammer out any differences we may have in the interests of ensuring decent sports facilities for Consett?
There are other things to decide, too. Road repairs and the programme for the next financial year could be discussed. Car Parking policy will need to be sorted out by the new authority because it’s too late now for the District Council to face up to it, and the sooner we start talking realistically about that future, the better the chance that we get some action before the town centres in Consett and Stanley are finally strangled to death.
That’s why I hope that every councillor in Derwentside will back the re-formation of the member area panels. And by tomorrow night I’ll know if I’m just a born optimist, or whether most councillors are actually in it to achieve the best for their area just as I am.
My recent stories about the danger to trees in Consett have aroused considerable interest, and at least four letters to the council.
One Focus reader has provided me with some interesting historical information which I reproduce here with acknowledgements to the late lamented Consett Guardian (we didn’t realise how good it was till we lost it!).
The story starts in March 1980 with Primrose Patrol of the 1st Consett Guides who won two silver birches and planted them - you’ve guessed it - opposite Consett Parish Church:
The Consett Guardian takes up the story:
Unfortunately, the best efforts of the girl guides were to be thwarted by Derwentside District Council. Only months later, in August 1980, the guides were rocked by the Guardian’s “Tree chop shock” headline and the following story:
Eagle-eyed readers can supply confirmation of exactly where that site was from ”All’s well that ends well” story when Derwentside made good its gaffe.
Let’s hope that this time there is no chance of a repeat performance by the council. The responses to date should mean that there is no risk of the council again failing to consult people with an interest in the land.
I’ve been contacted by a resident asking my views on the name for the new county.
My response was that on a personal level (rather than any party agreement that we may reach in the future) I prefer County Durham Council because I’d prefer that the new authority doesn’t start with the old name tag.
There’s a real risk of the new council mistakenly thinking it’s “business as usual” – which it isn’t.
The resident then sent back this very interesting response: “Well, its a really interesting argument if you are sad like me. I agree with you actually. All the other councils going through reorganisation have followed the same pattern - the name of the county followed by the word “Council”. So we have Northumberland Council, Wiltshire Council, Shropshire Council and Cornwall Council. Following the same pattern, that would make us County Durham Council.
We are the only county in Egland that use the prefix “County” and I am proud of that so that would rule out one of the choices in the consultation which is Durham Council.
Some of the original county council (Members and Officers) want to keep Durham County Council. They have been putting misinformation about that it would save £2 million if nothing changed. This figure comes from their original bid and like most of the financials in the bid, it is just made up.
Besides, even if they kep the same name, everything arising from the previous district councils will need to be re-branded anyway.
The “old guard” argue that re-branding all county council things would cost a fortune. They cite the 600 buildings that they own. However, nearly 400 of these are schools which are not branded as Durham County Council anyway.
They also argue that Durham County Council is a historical name that we should preserve. Well, it might be, but two things stand out. 1) the new authority will not be a county council and 2) Durham County Council is hardly historical at all. The current boundaries only go back to 1997 when Darlington formed a unitary council. Before 1974, the county council also included Stockton, Hartlepool, Sunderland and Gateshead.
I suppose that, in medieval times, Durham also included large parts of Northumberland too. So which historical county or county council are they referring to?
The worrying thing is that the misinformation that they are putting out is having an effect on the public, and the larger percentage so far have voted for Durham County Council. However, I suspect that, like you, the new Leader and Chief Executive want to start with a clean sheet and will go for a re-branding anyway.
Please feel free to add your comments.
Last month this blog was heading for a record number of hits - and then the servers went down so I’ll never find out whether it would have made the 6,000 mark.
I got a couple of contacts, however, that made me think, and which led to my three targets.
One was a comment saying that one reason why people wouldn’t make contact was a fear of having political capital made at their expense. That’s a very reasonable comment - a website/blog like this is very one-sided because I control what goes on it and people who comment are therefore at my mercy/discretion. At the same time, however, I’m sure that readers recognise that this is not a forum but a website designed to promote what I and my party are doing, inform people about things which they might otherwise never hear about, and provide some space for debate and contact.
Target One: To achieve a position where people are confident that if they respond with a comment they’ll get a fair hearing/say.
Other contacts I got were were in the nature of “tip-offs” letting me know stuff that I might otherwise not hear, but which it could be useful for the people of Consett if I knew. Obviously people may feel that these need to be anonymous (though I’m bound to treat more cautiously an anonymous contact than a named one where I can check out details) but anyone who choses to contact me using their own name and marks it “confidential” can be sure that I will not disclose anything without their agreement.
Target 2. To achieve a position where people think it’s worth letting me know things they hear that could affect the well-being of where we live, and trust me to keep confidential anything that they tell me in confidence (where it’s legal to do so!).
And the third target? That’s easy
Target 3. 6,000 hits in August
With local government change going on across large areas of the country, Consett is not alone in finding its plans put under threat by the need to get approval from from Big Brother at County Hall. Students of these things may be interested in the following link: http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED28%20Jul%202008%2020%3A36%3A13%3A657
What this means is that those who want the proposed Consett Sports Centre to go ahead will be well advised to exert maximum pressure as soon as possible. Delay is the enemy in this matter.
I have been told that all the the information about the proposals has now been submitted to the county by the district council, and that Hilary Armstrong MP is supporting the district council’s position (and getting a pressurising post-bag from constituents). I hope that last bit is true, though I’ve yet to hear anything in public to corroborate it. Can I ask that you write to Hilary Armstrong MP to ask her position, and that she goes public on it? http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ is an effective way to get your message through and have it monitored.
I know that not everyone is convinced that the proposed Consett Sports Centre is the best that can be achieved. I can only say that the status quo is not an option because the swim centre in particular will not last long - and that a £15m bird in the local hand is a whole lot better than a a flock of as yet unthought of birds in a distant bush.
