Details are now out for the “Information Event” to let people know about the refurbishment of Middle Street, Nelson Street and the  junction outside the Parish Church.

You may see these posters about the town (click the image to get an enlarged version on your screen) but in any case, as a reader of this website you will be amongst the first to know that the event will be held in St. Patrick’s Church Hall” on Fiday July 4th from 3.00 - 6.00 p.m.

Get yorselves along to see what is planned. Plans are so far on that it would not be appropriate to describe this as a “consultation”, but it is important that you take a look and feedback any issues that you can see.

I’m sure that, like me, you’ll be glad to see the county council putting some money into Consett.

I like elections, but even I am concerned at the prospect of yet another election in 2010. Sadly it seems to be becoming more and more likely as the Boundary Commission sets out on a review of County Durham.

If it carries out its intention it will mean that we’ve had District elections in 2007, County elections in 2008 and County again in 2010.

Yes, theBoundary Commision does have a point that the current two members per ward has produced too big a county council to work well. 126 councillors is too unwieldy. Yes the Boundary Commision does have a point that the numbers don’t add up, with some wards having many more voters than others. But what’s wrong with the idea is that we’re supposed to be working together to create a new unitary council to begin in 2009, and holding another election in 2010 means that:

• Nothing will be properly “bedded in” and it will be impossible for anyone to judge the new county’s performance so soon
• Another election will have big financial costs
• The worst thing, though, is that councillors will have their eyes on the coming election instead of making the new council work. Political in-fighting and back-stabbing could irreparably damage the new council even before it’s out of the blocks

If that’s the way its got to be, however, that’s the way it will be. And if elections come in 2010, local Lib Dems will be up for it.

Anyone who has heard me sing would run two thousand miles from this competition. But they’d be wrong.

The CD is, of course, not of me singing but the celebrated Owen Temple of Austin Texas.

That more famous Owen Temple (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Temple ) contacted me after the election to wish me well. I was so chuffed I bought some of his CDs at Amazon only to be taken by surprise when the great man himself sent me the same CDs. So with his permission I offer his excellent “Two Thousand Miles” album to entrants of this easy to win competition.

All you need to do is correctly predict the number of Derwentside District councillors who will attend Monday Night’s Special Council Meeting to decide, amongst other things, the outline of what is to be provided in Consett’s proposed new Sport Centre.

In the case of a tie, the prize will go to the entrant who offers the best anagram of “Owen Temple.”

To get you off to a good start, there are currently 54 councillors on Derwentside District Council.

Just email me through the link on the front page of the website with your email address, your name, the number of councillors you think will be there and, if you like, an anagram of “Owen Temple” . Entries limited to the UK (sorry Owen, I’m not sending it back!).

The county, funded by the Urban Renewal and Renaissance Initiative (URRI) is to carry out a bit of a facelift of Middle Street.

There’s not enough money for a complete re-vamp, but there will be replacement of some of the trees which have failed to thrive - partly because of our harsh climate, but also possibly through insufficent space for water penetration and/or salt used to de-ice the paving.

There will also be some replacement of “tired” street furniture, improved paving at the Parish Church end, together with some works to improve the access from Nile Street.

The scheme, which was approved and budgeted before I arrived at County Hall is well advanced, and intended for later this summer. There will be a display and information day, the date and venue of which is still to be decided. As soon as I know anything more, so will you.

I went to a meeting of the Young People’s Forum tonight at the Civic Centre. What a pleasure it was - even though they weren’t expecting any visitors.

They were putting together some ideas for the July 21st meeting with councillors. Unfortunately I can’t get to that one, but it was really encouraging to hear the things they wanted to promote. Of course there was plenty of banter, but underneath it were some very positive ideas.

I won’t spoil their thunder by mentioning any of their ideas here, because that’s for them to do on July 21st, but I hope they get a good turnout of councillors on the day.

It just reminds me that we’ve got to keep fighting the anti-youth culture which exists across Britain. The culture that brands youngsters as anti-social. The culture that thinks it’s impossible to get young people interested in anything important, because all they want is to be out binge drinking. The culture that will end up with us getting the young people we deserve if we’re not very careful.

The sooner we start listening to young people, the sooner we’ll start hearing what they think really is important. And we might just learn something from them!

I first knew I was a nerd when I was the only one of the 27 Lib Dem Councillors on Durham County Council to ask to go on the audit committee. I’ll certainly know it on Thursday when I spend the morning on the Audit Committee at the County Council, and the afternoon at the Audit Committee of the District Council.

The result of this nerdiness was about four hours spent going through accounts. And did I come up with anything? Well actually, yes I did. Nothing earth shattering, but one  question I raised was how the number of allotments had risen from 68 to 84. This produced the answer that actually they hadn’t. The original figure of 64 was just plain wrong, as was 84. It should have been 87!

Was it for this that I entered local politics. Not really. Except that taking the job seriously, looking at the detail, asking the questions, is the absolutely necessary part of councillors making sure that the administration is doing the job right. And of course, there were more interesting questions.

I was particularly taken by the answer to my question about how much land had been transferred to Project Genesis this year, and for what price? The answer apparently is 27.39 hectares (which you will instantly know to be 67.68 acres) for £2 “as specified in the Genesis Project agreement”. Now that did interest me because although I’ve heard this figure before, I’ve never seen it written in any of the original agreement papers. In fact, if the papers I’ve been provided with are accurate copies, the figure in the supervision agreement is actually blank!

When you link that to the fact that the original deed setting up the Genesis Trust specified that the leader of the largest opposition party on the council should be represented on the trustees ex officio, but the current one was unaware of it, you wonder exactly what control our council has been exerting over the trust.

Sniffer Owen is hoping for answers to that on Wednesday’s meeting. Let me know if you’re interested too.

I’m sure you are familiar with the mushroom principle. “Keep them in the dark and feed them manure”. Well, that’s not quite the phrase, but this is a respectable website.

Unfortunately the mushroom principle has been applied to Consett’s proposed new sports facilities  for far too long. And it’s about to be applied again.

The next full council meeting of Derwentside District Council is due to discuss, and decide on, what goes into the new sports centre. There are some very hard decisions to be made. With a limited budget it simply will not be possible to provide everything that people want and some people are going to be angry and disappointed.

That makes it all the more important that people are able to watch the process and read the papers. They need to know what the choices are, why the decisions are made the way they are, and they have the right to know who argued for what.

Last time misrepresentation was rife. It’s easy to blame the other guy when there are no witnesses. I fear that may be the motive again.

I shall be seeking to persuade the people who hold power in Derwentside to ditch this secrecy before the meeting. Please join me by emailing your own councillor, the leader of the council and the chief executive urging them to open this meeting to press and public.

All councillor’s email addresses are on the Derwentside website at http://www.derwentside.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=379 . For your convenience you may wish to know that the council leader, Councillor Alex Watson, can be contacted via a.watson@derwentside.gov.uk and the Chief Executive, Mike Clark, via m.clark@derwentside.gov.uk . Let them know that you are no mushrooms.

I have to admit I am only a very occasional bus user - my bus pass is still a few years away - and so I am no judge in this area. Some of you may be.

According to Go North East they have made a number of improvements locally which you can view on their website. http://www.simplygo.com/enews/West_Durham_Bus_Briefing.html#summer

I would be seriously interested in the views of any readers on these changes. I like to give credit where credit is due (and blame in the same circumstances) so if you can be bothered to comment (by using the comment link above this item, or emailing me) I’d be really grateful.

You’ll be pleased to know that painting of the bridge over the bypass must now be complete, and since the digging up of Newmarket Street for utilities work is the only item in the ward this week I have not posted the usual pdf file.

Happy Motoring.

Today the Development Control Committee of Derwentside District Council unanimously turned down the latest variation of the CVS’s many applications for Glenroyd House - and I’m pleased about it. I should be. I went to argue the case for refusal.

I have never believed that the outdated and delapidated building was the right place to house the Citizens Advice Bureau and CVS. It’s too large, access is too difficult, it’s the wrong design for the purpose - but despite all that because I value the work of the two organisations I have sought to accommodate a compromise. I suppose you could say, though, that I finally lost patience with the latest sloppy application (for the second time they applied for 24 hour working “by mistake” and the revised application was only necessary because they had applied for permission through an access that they had not actually negotiated a firm agreement on). If you’re going to bend over backwards for applicants you want to be sure they are going to be good neighbours. I stopped being convinced of that as I watched these applications pile in because good neighbours take care - and good neighbours talk to each other.

I was also mindful of the fact that in nine month’s time, when Derwentside District Council ends, there will potentially be some vacant space in the Civic Centre with proper access and extensive parking, in a building designed for a variety of office based functions.

In the event, though, the two things that finally persuaded me to speak against acceptance of the application were these;

1) the extra entrance which would have been needed next to Rosemount would have meant pedestrians (many of them children on their way to school, and others elderly) having to negotiate a width equivalent to a dual carriageway with vehicles potentially entering and leaving in different directions around them.

2) Decades ago the road was busy enough to have three side-roads blocked off to prevent entrance onto Medomsley Road. Now conditions are worse, and at this point of the road there is often double parking outside the shops, and delivery wagons abandoned in the carriageway whilst unloading.

Of course, that may not be the end of it. The applicants could appeal, though which of their three applications they’d be seeking to get approved only they could tell us. Or pehaps it will be yet another new one.

For five years we’ve been waiting for a resolution of this. I just hope this latest refusal will lead to the County Council making the hard decision. The building and its access are past their sell-by date. The site needs redeveloping in a way that enhances the area, and that means selling it and redeveloping.

I’m passionate about consultation - talking to people, listening to people. It’s vital in politics - not because you’ll always end up doing what everyone wants, but if you don’t know what people really need and want you’re going to make a lot of lousy decisions.

I’m not having a go at the NHS staff who ran tonight’s consultation at County Hall; they were doing what they have to. That was clear from the opening sentence “it’s a requirement” rapidly followed by “we have had to do a twelve week consultation…” 

The basis of the meeting was to tell us that they have decided to locate the one new “super-surgery” that government has decided to give County Durham in Easington. So where’s the “consultation” in that?

I wasn’t angry that Easington was getting the new facility (even if paranoia suggests that they get everything these days), just weary that I’d turned out on a wet night in the vain hope that my presence might make a difference only to find that I was taking part in a pointless game that younger and wiser heads have learnt to avoid.

What we don’t need is more consultation. We need different, and probably less, consultation reserved for important (or really local) issues, and entered into seriously with the intention that it shapes decisions. When we get consultation like that we’ll fill the meeting halls. We’ll also raise the turn-out in elections. Those are both prizes worth striving for.

In case you missed the other publicity for the Mad Alice Theatre Company I thought I’d give it a plug here. There’s something for everyone in performances which will be anything but stuffy, and at a fraction of the price you’d pay in town.

 At 7.oo p.m. on each of June 26, 27 & 28 they’re performing Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (though I’m not sure he’d have expected the Teddy Boys, conga and live music that are included in this production).

On June 28th Saturday afternoon, ideal for the family, they’re performing Aesop’s fables (he wrote the story of the tortoise and the hare, the dog in the manger, the boy who cried wolf and hundreds more). It’s designed for children aged 4-7 and will be followed by a fancy dress competition and a mask-making competition.

Both productions are in the park, but there will be a marquee in case the weather’s bad. At £5 a ticket (£4 for concessions) it’s a bargain so why not ring 01207 218171 for tickets or more information. And I’m not even on commission!

On Saturday I went to the North East Regional Conference of the Liberal Democrats. Like most people I treasure my Saturdays, so it felt like quite a sacrifice but in the event I was really pleased to have gone.

Everyone was pleased to hear about the progress we’ve made in County Durham, but it was even better to hear from Northumberland where our group has established itself as the biggest group on the county council, and has started to run a minority administration.

Best of all, however, was a truly inspirational address from David Faulkner, Deputy Leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrat Council. He talkes such common sense - we need to be a safe pair of hands so people don’t think they’ve made a mistake in putting us in charge, but we need to be much more than that. People need to see the real difference a Lib Dem Council makes. He talked about making Newcastle a greener city (it has achieved fantastic improvements in recycling rates) and making it a leader in Democracy, getting decision making down to as local a basis as possible. I was particularly impressed to hear that one of the first actions the Liberal Democrat administration took when it swept to power was to give the chairmanship of all five scrutiny committees to Labour. Yes, that’s right, to the opposition. David argued that good administration means that you have to separate the executive function - the wielding of power - from the function of checking up that power is being wielded effectively and policy is being delivered. It’s common sense.

It’s also a million miles away from what is happening in County Durham where the Labour Party is so timid that it’s hugging power and the job of scrutiny to itself in the hope that no-one will find out what’s really going on.

I was so impressed by what I heard that I had a look at Newcastle’s website on the dull topic of corporate governance http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/corpgovernance?opendocument . It’s just so refreshing to see the principles of good governance set out - accompanied by an appraisal of what has been achieved and what is still to do. Bring on the day when Liberal Democrats take charge in County Durham and start the revolution here.

Here’s the latest road report for next week. roadworks-14-june-08.pdf (click to view).

As you’ll see the Consett bypass overbridge is still being painted. Perhaps of more interest to most people, work on Newmarket Street will result in temporary traffic lights and therefore some delays.

I’m expecting a surge in readership in the next twenty-four hours as people log in to see what Project Genesis was designed to do to our townscape!

I’m not sure about the precise dates of these two maps, but the print and low tech black and white design of this one B&W Genesis Map (click to open) and the detail makes it clear that it is the earliest. The Consett bypass still looks to be under construction, and certainly there is no idea that Consett is to have so much housing developed. Nor is there any suggestion that the heart of Consett should become skewed towards the Berry Edge site which many people see as the result of moving the Technical College, Sports Centre and proposed retail park there.

The second map project-genesis-trust-map.pdf (click to open) is later with the Consett bypass constructed and the earliest buildings on the Hownsgill Industrial Estate. A little bit of extra housing has just sneaked into the plan, too, down at Templetown.

The original plan was never meant to be set in tablets of stone, and that is made clear in the documents of the time, but what was meant to happen was clear from the article printed yesterday. Any change had to be approved by the trustees, upon which the Council is represented. The upshot of that should clearly have been that changes were reported back to the council , together with their justification. That’s the argument which is still going on - and it also shows the biggest weakness of the scheme.

A primary motivation of the scheme appears to have been to enable access to government grants, particularly Derelict Land Grant, on favourable terms which would not have been available to the council. There’s nothing wrong with that - except that in giving away control of the land to a development company (whose ownership has changed) and a charity (whose trustees have changed out of all recognition in a decade and a half) true accountability for this legacy from Consett’s past was also given away for all time.

All I’m interested now is in recovering as much of that accountability as is possible, through pressure and publicity, and through the active involvement of the Derwentside District Council Audit Committee. This is vital before we move into the new unitary authority which will lack knowledge of the history of the project, and may lack the will to influence the future of the project.

Readers of this blog are likely to be aware that I have had an interest in Project Genesis for some time, and have attempted to get the Audit Committee of Derwentside District Council to evaluate the project to date as well as looking at its future as we move into a unitary authority. I haven’t succeeded so far, but have sought again to have it included in the June meeting so watch this space!

Some people may think I am a bit one sided in my view which is that anything which is not naturally transparent needs to be held up to the light if you’re to see through it. So just to show how keen I am to see things from all sides I attach a file 2008_06_11_22_00_04.pdf with the official story of the project up to 2003 which you can also view at http://www.derwentside.gov.uk/getmedia.cfm?mediaid=1023 pages 10 & 11.

It’s worth reading because it sets out clearly what the council saw as the achievements of the project back in 2003 - and also reminds us that it hasn’t noticeably kept its promise in the last paragraph; “the Council will - as always - keep the public informed.”

In the interests of keeping you informed, tomorrow I’ll be publishing the map of the original master plan. I know you’ll look forward to that. And no doubt you’ll make your own judgements about how effectively the Trust, on which the Council has been represented, has supervised the amendments to the Master Plan.

It happened again this morning - policy veering like the wind. It was only last year that government introduced “Contextual Value Added” (CVA) to school league tables, but today it ditched any continuing interest in CVA by declaring that any school where fewer than 30% of children are getting five A-C GCSE grades would have to improve or face closure and replacement.

CVA isn’t a perfect judgement of a school (for fuller information look at the BBC on  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7176947.stm ) but it does offer a real attempt to evaluate the principle that we all know - Loamshire Grammar School should get better exam results that Oil Drum Lane Secondary Modern. Exam results alone, therefore, do not prove which school does more for its puils in relation to their ability, domestic circumstances, previous attainment etc.

The 2007 tables told an interesting story. The School which scored most highly on CVA had only 17% of its pupils getting getting 5 GCSEs at grades A-C. Clearly it is an excellent school with a lot of disadvantage to make up. Conversely, amongst the schools listed with the lowest CVA were two where 54% of the children got 5 GCSEs at grades A-C.

All this goes to show is that making simple judgements on the back of exam results will lead to bad policy making. And it’s not just an academic question for us here in Consett. Amongst the schools listed on the BBC website as below the required standard ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7444822.stm) is Moorside Community Technology College.

Because Moorside Community Technical College is not in this ward I don’t know it as well as the other local comprehensive school, but I’ve spoken to enough parents and pupils to know that they don’t see it as a failing school. Their view is endorsed by its CVA score which at 1012 is well above average. Their view is also endorsed by Ofsted which describes it overall as a “good” school.

So perhaps it’s time that the government started listening to parents, teachers, puils, educational experts and Ofsted rather than its own spin-doctors. Then we might start to get some real educational policy-making.

A visitor from Mars might wonder why the British Government has set up Wednesday as a battleground on which to stake its reputation; a Parliamentary showdown in which it proves it has the political muscle to introduce six-week long detention without trial.

Our Martian would observe that such dangerously radical countries as the USA, Canada and New Zealand each allow only two days before charges must be brought, and that no other country with a system of common law like ours detains people for as long as we do already.  He could only conclude, therefore, that our circumstances must be much worse than those of other countries and that our government had surrendered to heavy pressure from its security services.

Our mythical Martian, then, would be surprised to find that the Home Secretary, asked if MI5 were pressing for forty two days, replied ”No, not directly, but nor did they ask for the extension from 14 to 28, nor did they ask for the extension from 7 to 14.” At this point he might conclude that there was some other agenda in place.

I don’t mean to treat this lightly. Security issues are very serious; most nations, like ourselves, have experienced the horror or terrorist atrocities. The key difference, however, is that they have responded efectively without resorting to ever-lengtheing periods of detention without trial. Instead they work within their laws and introduce much less illiberal measures, like allowing intercept evidence in court and enabling post-charge questioning with judicial oversight.

In this way other countries build effective defences against terror, instead of the intellectually bankrupt approach of just lengthening the period in which people, often innocent people, can be held without trial in the name of protecting freedom. That is an approach which is bound to create resentment amongst those who are falsely imprisoned and bound to alienate the communities from which they come.

I don’t want to be cynical, but I can find no other explanation than that, having been humiliated elsewhere (especially in the 10p tax debacle) our Prime Minister wants to stamp his authority on his party and believes that this is a measure they will be nervous of opposing because it may be popular with the electorate.

Our hard-won freedoms are too important to be gambled away like that, and if I were a betting man I’d back my fellow citizens to share that conclusion.

What’s your view?

The latest report does show some progress, even if the bridges are still being painted. These bridges must be longer than the Forth Road Bridge!

 During the week I had an enquiry from a resident close to Church Road, which was re-surfaced this week. As a result of his enquiry I know know that after bitumen and chippings have been laid ,within 24 hours they do an initial (not very deep brush) so that the bitumen is not disturbed, and then monitor it for three weeks. Thanks to all of you I live and learn.

The report can be found here :

Roadworks June 7th

The first week of the month is an opportunity for you and your councillors to get down to local issues, because on the first Tuesday of each month the Berry Edge Residents Association meets, and on the first Wednesday the Consett North partnership. Both meet in the YMCA at 7.00 pm.

Last night’s meeting of Berry Edge Residents Association heard a report from the police about crime and anti-social behaviour. The bald statistics  are that there were 194 incidents in the Consett area, with 12 of them in Berry Edge, but there was some good news in that the spate of arson and TV cable cutting seems, for the moment at least, to have stopped under intense police activity.

At the same time some people learnt for the first time that there are “Streetsafe” boxes for residents in the area to leave letters to the police with discretion and no need for direct involvement. They can post their concerns and information in boxes at Consett Community Sports College (formerly Blackfyne School) and at Tesco. Others learned the number 0845 6060365 for non emergency police response.

Ongoing issues included the Berry Edge Gardens project and the progress towards an island or other assisted way of crossing Albert Road.

Perhaps as important as the individual issues, however, is the strengthening of community that happens amongst this group of people committed to maintaining, protecting and progressing the area in which they live.

If that sounds like something worth doing, you could come to tonight’s meeting of the Consett North Partnership, also at the YMCA, at 7.00 pm. This body covers a rather wider area, defined by the district council ward boundary, but it’s still not a large community just covering most of Consett itself as well as Number One.

I recently received an appeal from NO2ID. It’s an organisation fighting the introduction of ID Cards. I have supported it previously, but perhaps I’ve grown complacent. The movement towards ID cards has been so slow that it’s been almost imperceptible. So I say well done to NO2ID for reminding me that those of us who care about this issue mustn’t let it overtake us by stealth.

I care passionately about ID cards because they will fundamentally change my relationship with the state. I willingly (if unenthusiastically) give the state information about my finances in order that it can make sure that I pay my taxes, and for that purpose only. I provide it with information about my age and residence in order that it can plan the services our community needs. As a citizen I consent to those things.

I do not consent to give the state my biometrics so that it is capable of keeping tags on where I go or who I meet. It’s not that I am so paranoid that I think it is after me, simply that I do not believe it has a right to the information about any of us until, or unless, there is reasonable suspicion that we are doing something illegal.  

I do not consent to give the state an open-ended source of database information about me. I cannot trust it’s benevolence only to use any information it gets for the benefit of society as a whole. I am cynical enought to believe that the more information government has, the more likely it is to abuse it should there be some advantage to it in doing so.

In order to consent to these things I’d have to be very sure that the risks I ran in handing over all that information was going to make the world a much safer place for everyone else, and no less safe for me. Actually I believe it would be less safe for us all. All that knowledge collected together makes us very vulnerable. We’re generally advised to shred anything with just our address on it, not pool together all our data in a single place. Neatly collected, human error, malice, bad luck or computer hackers breaking systems for the hell of it can put all this data at risk at one go. And which of those has government shown itself to be immune from?

If you’re interested in the issue, take a look at www.no2id.net .

If you care about this issue, let me know. I’d love to see an active group locally. I’m sure there are plenty of us fellow-thinkers in Consett if only we knew who each other were!

Here is the Roadworks report for week commencing May 31st 2008. It’s remarkably similar to the one I posted last week so I have emailed the relevant department to check the reliability of the information.

Roadworks wc May 31st 2008

Has anyone seen any painting going on on the bridges over the Consett by-pass? It’s been on each report I’ve received so far.

I mentioned that a number of potholes had been repaired following my representations, and I’m pleased to report some further repairs in that department.

Unfortunately a rather nasty fall suffered by one resident prompted them to get in touch with me about one hole which I measured at 8 cms deep. It was a powerful reminder that it isn’t just damge to vehicles which can be caused.

Another resident got in touch to point out holes in his own access road and to remind me, quite rightly, that damage will occur to vehicles in “back-streets” as well as “front-streets”.  The worst of those holes have now been scheduled for repair.

I am pleased to be getting these reports, however. Local people taking a hand in these things can improve our district much more quickly tham relying on the regular inspections carried out by the Highways Department. Whilst they inspect main roads very regualrly, little used roads and side-streets may ony get a visit a year., if that. So thank you to those who have got in touch with me, and those of you who have gone direct to the Highways Action line on 0191 3706000 or used the contact form at http://www.durham.gov.uk/feedback.nsf/Highways+Fault+Report

The worst thing about my election from a personal point of view, however, has been the way it’s affected my vision of the world. Much of the week on Arran I have been locating pot-holes there instead of lifting my eyes to the hills. I’m hoping that broader vision will return in due course!