No, it’s not North West Durham! That remains up for grabs. It’s the one I rescued from a Blackfyne skip, and as previously reported have returned to County Hall. Oh to be a fly on the wall, or even a bum on the seat, and find out whether it ever gets put to use, but here’s […]

Politicos know I can’t be talking about the General Election which is just 75 days away. So do I really have another life? This morning I went for my first run of the year, a year in which I have promised myself that I will do the Great North Run again. I have plans in […]

With 32 days to go till Christmas, the Dust Town Dogs switched on Consett’s Christmas Tree lights yesterday. I know that because there’s a window on Medomsley Road with the countdown on a slate, and I’m grateful for the reminder of how the days are flying by and barely a present bought. Meanwhile, I understand, […]

Or 50p to younger readers. That’s what Medomsley Parish Council agreed to pay the Consett Industrial and Provident Society each year to lease the allotments in Bramwell Terrace to the rear of Villa Real Road. The agreement was made in 1920, getting on for a hundred years ago, and was only designed to run for […]

OK, I know it’s a bit late but between Christmas and then escaping for a week at the start of the year I’m only just getting back into the swim. As we start 2011 many of the same issue overhang us as in Consett have done for the last eighteen months, with only the precise amount […]

Two readers correctly identified the coat of arms as that of Consett Urban District Council. One also correctly identified the figure as that of St Ebba. For those of you interested in what you never thought you wanted to know, here it is. Consett Urban District Council Armorial Bearings Granted by Letters Patent dated 17th […]

Anyone who would like to win a copy of my more famous namesake’s “Passing Through” album (see The Other Owen Temple link on the left hand side) should email me by the end of November to let me know whose coat of arms this is. As a tie-break please also name the figure standing in […]

It’s not often the council treats its councillors to a diet of sex, alcohol, gambling and (whisper this one – a sandwich lunch) in the space of just six hours, but that’s what happened today. When I was handed the bundle of 282 Powerpoint slides at the start of the licensing committee’s training session I feared […]

At the County Council cabinet meeting on Tuesday we were given a run through the County Durham Residents’ survey. I got Mrs T to look at the methodology because she’s a statistician, and she was pretty complimentary about everything except the report’s tendency to make comparisons between this survey and earlier ones. The reason why […]

Andrew Marr, former political correspondent for the BBC, has made some pretty hard-hitting comments about bloggers. I couldn’t resist quoting them here: Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all. A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their […]