Highway obstruction, rear of Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery

We have been contacted today by a number of residents concerned about the dangerous condition of a damaged garage door at the rear of Middle Street in Blackhall Colliery.

The garage, which is opposite the Blackhall branch library, is in private ownership and the owner has on a number of occasions in the past been made aware of the danger to the public of the garage door (please see post dated 11 September 2013 for further details).

Although responsibility for carrying out necessary repairs lies with the owner we have contacted the neighbourhood wardens, the environmental health section and the highways department at county hall to ask that they contact the garage owner and ask that repairs are carried out as a matter of urgency.

Coffee morning at Blackhall Library raises funds for Breast Cancer Campaign

The Pink Coffee Morning at Blackhall Library this morning proved a huge success and raised a fantastic £355 for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

There are still a few unclaimed raffle ticket numbers and details are printed below:

Gold 29

Pink 60

White 77

Pink 480

Pink 156

Pink 157

Pink 398 

Please contact library staff as soon as possible to claim your prize.

On behalf of Carol and the staff at Blackhall Library we would like to thank everyone for making the effort to come along and for contributing to a very special event.

Hartlepool Hospital debacle: NHS Trust must now be held to account

This evening's Hartlepool Mail has confirmed that the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has decided to "put on hold" its plans to develop a new hospital at Wynyard. In reality this means that the Trust has not been able to secure either funding or support for its proposals and that those plans must now be mothballed, probably indefinitely, thereby relocating our hospital facilities a further 15 miles down the A19. 

Regular followers of this blog will note that we have been saying for years that the Wynyard scheme was nothing more than an underhand, backdoor method of removing services from Hartlepool hospital and moving them, lock-stock and barrel, to a new facility which nobody wanted at a location which suited no-one (please see posts dated 17 January 2012, 5 April 2012, 10 May 2012, 18 May 2012, 20 May 2012, 23 June 2012, 26 June 2012, 4 July 2012, 17 July 2012, 8 August 2012, 19 September 2012, 8 January 2013, 31 January 2013, 15 May 2013, 23 May 2013, 2 June 2013, 9 July 2013 and 14 August 2013 for details of our previous involvement in the campaign to return all services to Hartlepool).

We have insisted all along that the consultation carried out by the Trust as part of its Momentum: Pathway to Healthcare proposals was deeply flawed and that the people of Hartlepool and East Durham were never convinced of the need to remove health services from our own hospital. Anyone left in any doubt about public feeling toward the Trust's proposals needed look no further than the 30,000+ name petition signed by those opposed to this imposition.

The Trust ignored the will of the people and is now stranded in an indefensible position. However, this should not be an excuse for them to hide from public demands for a full explanation of their narrow-minded, blinkered approach to a re-organisation of health provision that the people of East Durham and Hartlepool neither wanted nor supported.

Public consultation on traffic calming proposals in High Hesleden

Over the past few weeks Durham County Council has carried out a formal public consultation exercise with the residents of High Hesleden to try and determine the type and extent of traffic calming measures residents would like to have in the village.

The consultation ended last Friday and initial indications are that there has been a very mixed response from residents. This follows a similar outcome from the initial informal consultation carried out earlier.

We will be meeting with highways officers within the next week or so to discuss all options available in moving the scheme to the next level and to an outcome suitable to as many residents as possible. 

We will report on progress as soon as further information is available.

Damaged wall, Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery

Ten days ago we contacted Durham County Council to request repairs to a wall in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery damaged in a traffic collision.

As the wall has not yet been repaired we have contacted the council again today to ask that repair work be carried out as a matter of urgency as the fallen brickwork looks unsightly and is causing a potential obstruction to pedestrians.

Pink Coffee Morning at Blackhall Library

Blackhall Library is holding a Pink coffee morning in support of the 

Breast Cancer Campaign

The Wear it Pink event will take place on 

Friday 24 October 2014 from 10 am to 12 noon

ALL WELCOME

Progress on A1086 landslip works at Blackhall Colliery

Works to rectify significant structural damage caused by the landslip on the A1086 between Blackhall and Horden are continuing (please see previous monthly update posts on this site for background information).

We continue to receive queries on a regular basis from residents understandably keen to know when these works are due for completion. Following our earlier request for a progress report we have received an update this evening from the senior structures engineer within the highways section at county hall. We have reproduced her comments in full below for information:

Further to the update from last month regarding the land slip adjacent to the Coast Road to the north of Blackhall I can report the following progress:

The site clearance / site mobilisation works commenced during the week of the 11^th August with the main works commencing, as programmed, on Monday 1^st September. The earthworks sub-contractor completed their element of the construction works on 3^rd October. 

The remaining safety barrier installation together with the relocation of the bus stop and erection of new bus shelter is expected to be completed by 31^st October.  

From the 13^th October for two weeks we have also co-ordinated with Northern Gas Networks to work within our traffic management to undertake maintenance works on their apparatus.

We have asked for a further progress report in 3 weeks time and we will publish all details on this site as soon as we receive it.

Pathways at Hesleden and Castle Eden

Recently we were contacted by a member of the public concerned about the condition of the footpaths along the B1281 between Hesleden and Castle Eden. It was reported that the paths were overgrown in parts, to the extent that some were virtually impossible to pass.

This is an ongoing problem which is referred to in other posts on this site so we reported this incident to the maintenance team who cut the grass back immediately. 

The pathway however remains in a poor condition in many parts and we have asked that the pathways be edged or cut back to the original width to enable pedestrians to get through without having to walk onto the road.

The maintenance team has acknowledged the urgency of our request and has included the works to be carried out as soon as possible as part of the winter maintenance programme.