Christmas at Blackhall Library

Christmas at the Library

Carol and Deborah would like to thank all our borrowers for their support and friendship over the year at Blackhall Library 

We would like to invite you all to join us for mince pies and ginger wine on

Friday 12th December 

9.30-12.00

We hope you can join us!

Hartlepool hospital: 5 questions to challenge the NHS Trust

We have reproduced below a letter we sent to The Hartlepool Mail on Thursday 27 November 2014:

We attended the public meeting in Hartlepool Town Hall on Monday evening which had been called to allow the people of Hartlepool and East Durham to tell the board members of the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust exactly what they thought of their botched plans to build a new hospital at Wynyard.

The people spoke with passion and with one voice. They derided the Trust for their folly in attempting to build a new hospital which nobody wanted, with money that nobody had. Their message was clear: we want all services returned to the Hartlepool hospital site.

It was obvious to everyone there however that another message was equally clear, this time from the members of the Trust board: we have made our decision, we are not listening to you and we will do whatever we want!

On the journey back to Blackhall we talked about the intransigent stance adopted by the Trust board and the impact that this could have on the health care needs of the people of East Durham and Hartlepool. It was clear that the Trust was able to make such decisions simply because it was never elected and accordingly remained accountable to nobody.

We were reminded of a film we had seen recently at Durham Cathedral about the life of Tony Benn, one the four images on the Blackhall lodge NUM banner. In the film he spoke of organisations similar to the NHS Trust and of the five questions he would use to test the legitimacy of their being:

• What power have you got?
• Where did you get it from?
• In whose interests do you exercise it?
• To whom are you accountable?
• How do we get rid of you?

We feel that these searching questions are perfectly relevant to the Trust board today and we challenge them to respond publicly to each.

Tony Benn with Emma Crute at Durham Big Meeting, July 2006

Fly-tippers persist despite prevention measures

On Friday 14 November 2014 we wrote on this site about two separate incidents of vandalism along our coast. The first related to graffiti at the Blackhall Rocks picnic area and the second to damage to a barrier at the top of Deneholme bank, erected to prevent a recurrence of persistent fly-tipping on the approach to the beach.

Unfortunately, although the barrier has been put back the fly-tipping continues!

Over the weekend we received reports of rubbish dumped at the approach to the gardens, just before the barrier. Clearly the fly-tippers are aware that the barrier has been put there to prevent them from dumping their rubbish at the beach so they simply drop it off at the nearest available place.

Apart from making the approach to the gardens and the beach look absolutely dreadful, the cost of constant removal of piles of rubbish falls on the council tax payer. This is bad enough at the best of time but absolutely unacceptable in these times of austerity and diminished local council budgets.

We have reported the rubbish for collection. We have also asked the police and the wardens to check any available CCTV footage active in the area to see if the fly-tippers and their vehicles can be traced. However if you are aware of anyone fly-tipping in our area please report it to:

help@durham.gov.uk

A Neighbourhood Plan for The Hesledens - Have your say

Monk Hesleden Parish Council is helping the residents of Hesleden, High Hesleden and Monk Hesleden to get together and form a Neighbourhood Plan.

Although the parish council will act as facilitator, and we have offered to act as a link between our communities and the county council, it is essential that the Plan is shaped by the views of local residents so a public drop-in session has been arranged for:

Saturday 29 November 2014 at Hesleden Methodist Chapel from 12 noon until 4 pm 

to give residents the opportunity to call in and have their say on what they would like to see in their communities:

Further details are available at:

www.monkhesledenparishcouncil.gov.uk

Planning committee date for the Sheraton Wind Farm proposal

We were notified yesterday that the planning application submitted by EDF Energy for 5 wind turbines just off the A19 at Sheraton will be put before the County (Strategic) planning committee on Tuesday 2 December 2014 for their deliberation and decision.

Because this application has proved particularly contentious it has been on the back burner for a considerable time. We have consistently opposed it from the outset and we know from public meetings and correspondence that many residents in our ward are steadfastly against it too (please see posts dated 27 January 2012, 2 March 2012, 21 March 2012, 22 March 2012, 26 April 2012, 31 April 2012, 10 August 2012 & 18 October 2012 for background information).

We will be at county hall next Tuesday afternoon to voice our opposition to EDF's proposed development and we have included the link to the planning committee papers for your consideration:

http://democracy.durham.gov.uk/ieListD cuments.aspx?CId=318&MId=7613&Ver=4

A1086 landslip roadworks at Blackhall Colliery

In our most recent post about progress with works to correct the landslip on the A1086 between Blackhall Colliery and Horden (dated 10 November 2014) highways officers suggested to us that works ought to be completed within weeks of that date.

Given that the estimated completion date is rapidly approaching we asked highways officers at county hall for another update and we have published their response below in full:

The Construction Manager has just advised that the bus shelter hard standing is programmed next week and the barrier will recommence week after therefore all works except possibly the bus shelter will be complete by 5th December.  The main cause for the delay from previously advised is due to the gas board having more repairs to do than anticipated and for two weeks due to the close proximity of their works and ours it was not possible to work in the same area at the same time.

We will continue to maintain contact with the highways section in order to keep you up to date with progress.

Government cuts - the impact on our councils and communities

Some of the posts on this site refer to the impact of government cuts to local council budgets and at our ward surgeries and other local meetings we are often asked questions about why council services, and consequently our communities, are under such pressure.

The article reproduced below appeared in The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday 19 November 2014 and sets out the background to the impact so far on our communities of central government-imposed cuts to local council budgets. It also raises the almost inevitable prospect of further cuts to local budgets and the devastating effect that this will have on our communities.

We are especially concerned that the areas most in need of help, parts of County Durham for example, are those that have been singled out by the government for particularly harsh treatment and we note the chilling warning from the Public Accounts Committee of "potentially disastrous consequences." 

It certainly isn't pleasant reading but please take time to read the article as we believe it sets out the harsh reality of the threat posed to local councils and the public services they strive to provide:

One in six councils are not expected to deliver services within budget this year, and more than half of all councils are at risk of financial failure within the next five years, a report from official auditors says.

As the government pushes ahead with funding cuts of more than a third in local government, the National Audit Office said many single-tier and county councils feared for core services including education and social care.

The government’s official Whitehall spending watchdog also said Eric Pickles’ Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) had no way of monitoring the financial sustainability of councils. In keeping with past reports, it found that the councils hardest hit were those most dependent on government grants.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, which will scrutinise the auditors’ findings, said she found it extraordinary that the DCLG had little idea whether local authorities were at risk of financial failure, and she warned of “potentially disastrous” consequences.

“Worryingly, local authorities with the highest level of deprivation have seen the biggest cuts, potentially putting vulnerable people at risk. It is authorities with high cuts which have seen the biggest spending reductions for social care services,” Hodge said.

“Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, local authorities with a high cut in spending power had reduced their funding for adult and children’s social care by 12.7% and 4.3%. This is compared with authorities that had low cuts which had reduced funding for adult social care by 1.2% but had increased spending on children’s social care by 14.8%.”

The report’s summary says: “Auditors report that 16% of single-tier and county councils (those authorities responsible for social care and education) are not well placed to deliver their 2014-15 budgets. Auditors are also concerned about the longer-term financial sustainability of single-tier and county councils, reporting that 52% of these authorities are not well placed to deliver their medium-term financial strategies.”

The report concludes that the DCLG “does not monitor in a coordinated way the impact of funding reductions on services, and relies on other departments and inspectorates to alert it to individual service failures. In consequence, the department risks becoming aware of serious problems with the financial sustainability of local authorities only after they have occurred.”

Auditors found that the government was on course to reduce funding of local government by 37% between 2010/11 and 2015/16. This funding accounts for a quarter of local authorities’ total income.

Hilary Benn, the shadow communities secretary, said the report revealed the true impact of the decisions David Cameron’s government had made. “It is now clear that an increasing number of councils are facing serious financial pressures, but DCLG ministers are completely out of touch. That’s why the NAO has told them to start finding out what is actually happening in communities up and down the country,” he said.

Update on Hesleden and Blackhall street lighting issues

We met again earlier this week with senior members and officers at county hall to impress on them the importance of reinstating street lighting in parts of our ward (previous posts dated 5 December 2012, 19 December 2012, 4 February 2013, 6 February 2013, 2 August 2013, 4 September 2013, 4 October 2013, 27 August 2014 & 18 September 2014 give an in-depth background to this long-running matter).

We have published below a short note of the meeting which sets out the current position along with an indication of our next steps:

By the way, every little bit of public support we receive helps with our campaign so if you feel particularly strongly about this matter you should contact the county's senior street lighting engineer John Reed on: john.reed@durham.gov.uk and express your concerns directly to him. Please remember to copy us both in to any correspondence.

We met on Monday 17 November 2014 with relevant cabinet members and John Reed to discuss the possibility of reinstating the street lighting to the highways connecting some of the villages in our ward. The following is a brief summary of the outcome:

To begin with the council reiterated its position that the Street Lighting & Energy Reduction Policy (SLERP) cannot and will not be amended

·        We asked if the council could confirm that, in considering local circumstances (those we have previously set out in other posts on this site), there could be flexibility in the policy to allow for reinstatement of street lighting in some areas. We were told that there was no flexibility as the policy was focused on meeting a pre-agreed level of savings to off-set overall central government imposed budget cuts of £225million over a 5-year period

·         We have asked for a breakdown of costs which would be incurred if we were to try to reinstate lighting in limited areas (the road linking Blackhall Rocks with High Hesleden, consisting of 15 lighting standards, is the area that has been the subject of a huge majority of calls to us). We were given an estimate of £1,500 per lighting column, plus ongoing revenue costs of approximately £70 per column per year. Initially John Reed insisted that future revenue costs would have to be paid up front to cover a 60 year period!

·         We disputed these costs (both capital and revenue) and appeared to gain some ground though the council will still insist on front loaded revenue payments albeit over a much reduced period of time

·         John Reed agreed to meet with us on-site within the next week or so (diaries permitting) to discuss our proposals further. Realistically we must accept that street lighting on the B1281 from Hesleden to the Hardwicke Hall and the road linking Hesleden with High Hesleden is not likely to be be reinstated, at least for the time being. This follows repeated cable thefts in these areas over a number of years. The council insists that the cost of replacing cables and installing lighting to these areas is extremely prohibitive at the best of times, let alone in times of austerity due to government imposed cuts to local government budgets

·         We have asked for a realistic breakdown of costs associated with a scheme to reinstate street lighting on the road between Blackhall Rocks and High Hesleden and we will expect a fair figure to be presented, given the potential costs (social and financial) of isolation to residents in our villages if the lights remain out. From that position we will set out to identify any suitable funding stream which we may be able to use to fund a scheme to return street lighting in our ward.

Vandalism along the Durham coast

As you may already be aware from local press reports it's been a pretty lousy week for vandalism along our coast.

Over the weekend we received reports of graffiti painted across much of the Blackhall Rocks picnic area, including on the new interpretation boards installed recently as part of the Durham Heritage Coast/Limestone Landscapes Project improvements in the area.

It is estimated that repair and graffiti removal works will cost in the region of £6,000. We think that this is particularly hard to accept in these straitened economic times when the council and other partners are struggling to maintain services as a result of massive central government cuts to budgets:

Graffiti at the recently improved picnic area at Blackhall Rocks

Earlier this week we received a second report of wanton vandalism, this time to the barrier at the top of Deneholme bank erected recently to prevent fly-tipping in the area.

It appears that the barrier has been forcibly removed to enable unauthorised access to the beach, and again this incident will incur further costs from already pinched budgets:

The damaged barrier at Deneholme

Any information relating to either incident should be reported to Peterlee police on 101.

A1086 landslip works nearing completion

We have been publishing regular monthly posts on this site for some time now (the most recent being on Friday 10 October 2014) to keep members of the public up to date with progress on works to rectify the landslip on the A1086 between Blackhall and Horden.

We have now received the latest update from the senior structures design engineer at county hall and from her comments it would appear that works are approaching completion. Whilst most works are now finished there has been a slight delay to those carried out by one of the utility companies (in this case Northern Gas).

It does seem however that all remedial works should be finished within the next two weeks, providing of course there is no further delay to public utility works.

We have published below, in full, the update we have received from the highways section today and we will continue to publish progress reports as and when we get them:

Further to the update sent on 10^th October regarding the land slip adjacent to the Coast Road to the north of Blackhall I can report the following progress:

Northern Gas Networks commenced on 13^th October and were expected to take two weeks to complete their repair works.  Unfortunately NGN have taken longer than planned as additional repair works over and above those planned have been required.  Consequently as a result the remaining safety barrier installation together with the relocation of the bus stop and erection of the new bus shelter was not able to commence until today and this remaining work is expected to take approximately two weeks to complete.   

Remembrance Sunday, Blackhall Welfare Park

A reminder that the Remembrance Sunday service will take place tomorrow in Blackhall Welfare Park. It is recommended that we meet at the park gates at 10.50am.

The service will be given by the Reverend Alison Richardson and a buffet will be available immediately afterwards in Blackhall Cricket Club.

Please also see our post dated Sunday 2 November 2014 for details of other services in our area.

Measures to tackle standing water in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery

Following complaints received recently about standing water and associated incidents of flooding at the Co-op store in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery we asked the highways section at county hall to take whichever measures were required to address the problem.

We have received confirmation this morning that the drains and gullies at the gable end of the building, opposite the RAFA club, have been cleared to enable any excess water to drain away.

We have also asked that the road surface immediately outside the main door entrance to the store be leveled off to prevent any excess standing rainwater washing into the store when disturbed by passing traffic. We have been assured that this will be done as soon as possible.

Standing water in the road outside the main entrance to the Co-op store in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery

High Hesleden residents undecided on traffic calming measures

Durham County Council recently completed a formal consultation exercise in High Hesleden aimed at finding a traffic calming scheme suitable to a clear majority of residents (please see post dated Tuesday 21 October 2014 for further details).

As we indicated in that article we met late last week with the highways officer responsible for the programme to assess feedback from the consultation.

Unfortunately, and as feared, there was no clear indication of support for the proposals. We were told that while 59% of those responding to the consultation favoured the proposed measures, 41% either did not want the scheme to progress or did not want to see any form of traffic calming at all in the area. We were also told that a number of residents believed that speed cushions, as proposed, were either not effective in preventing speeding traffic or that they produced excessive noise when driven over by vehicles.

The council insists that it is not able to justify proceeding with any traffic calming measures when public opinion is divided to this extent so highways officers have now proposed an alternative measure of using chicanes similar to the one at the western end of the village. We have warned that some years ago residents did favour a chicane in the area but at the time no-one wanted it placed in the vicinity of their property, hence the distant positioning of the chicane away from the centre of the village. For this reason we have advised officers to be cautious in their approach with this option.

However, in an attempt to reach some kind of consensus (and acknowledging that doing something positive is much preferable to doing nothing at all), we have agreed that another consultation should take place as soon as possible. Consequently, letters will be falling on door mats later this week outlining the council's latest proposal as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam

C81 Micklehill Road, High Hesleden

Proposed Introduction of Traffic Calming Measures

Following the recent resident consultation with regards to providing speed cushions throughout the village, the response received was inconclusive, therefore we have taken on board comments made including alternative measures, noise etc.

Another scheme has been drawn up and your County Councillors, Lynn Pounder and Rob Crute, have asked that the residents of the village be consulted on the proposals.

The scheme will involve the installation of a speed reducing feature at the eastern entrance (in the form of improvements to the signs and road markings), two chicanes on Micklehill Road, the locations of which are shown on the attached plan. The aim of the scheme is to maintain lower traffic speeds, and generally promote road safety. 

As the support (or otherwise) of the local residents is an integral part of the scheme consultation process, I should be grateful if you would complete and return the enclosed Freepost postcard by 24^th November 2014.

Yours faithfully

Sarah-Ann Stoker

Senior Traffic Technician

We hope in due course to be able to report on a positive outcome, favoured by a clear majority of the residents of High Hesleden.

Remembrance Day Service at Blackhall

The annual Remembrance Day service will be held on Sunday 9 November at the cenotaph in Blackhall Welfare Park.

To commemorate the centenary of the beginning of the First World War we have arranged with Blackhall Cricket Club to hold a buffet in the club immediately following the end of the service. All are welcome and we hope to see you there.

Details of the service are as follows:

Please gather at the main gates of Blackhall Welfare Park, Blackhall Colliery at 10.50am

Reverend Alison Richardson will be officiating and refreshments will be served in Blackhall Cricket Club immediately after the service

(Please note that there will also be services held at other venues throughout the ward including at Hesleden Methodist Chapel and at Castle Eden)