Weather warning

We have been notified of a weather warning for County Durham which will remain valid until 11 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Please see full details below:

As you will be aware more wintry weather is in store for the region over the course of today. 

The Met Office has issued an Amber Warning of Snow for Pennine (western) areas of Northumberland, County Durham and the northwest corner of North Yorkshire. This warning is medium likelihood of medium impacts, and is valid from 17:00 today until 11:00 tomorrow. The details are:

Wednesday (today)

During this afternoon we’re going to see more showers develop and spread gradually across northern England. The showers will be of hail and snow, and there is a risk of seeing several cm of snow, but it’s going to be the higher, hillier parts of our region which will bear the brunt. In excess of 10 cm of snow is likely in places – particularly ground above 150 m in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland.

Thursday (tomorrow and into this weekend)

Some of the snow/hail showers may continue in Pennine areas on Thursday, but many of us will see the showers dying out. The winds will also ease down for all of us. Friday and the weekend will continue the cold theme, with further snow showers possible at times, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments, and will issue warnings if required.

Strong, gusty winds will lead to drifting and temporary blizzards over high ground, while icy surfaces and lightning pose additional risks in some areas.

Advice and action                                                                                                                  
There is potential for disruption to travel.

The council is monitoring the situation and based on the latest forecast, is carrying out a pre-salt of all priority 1 highway routes at 14:00 today across the whole county (38 routes).

Following the pre-salt, all gritters will continue to monitor the priority 1 network and will salt/plough as appropriate. This will continue throughout the period of adverse weather to ensure that the priority 1 network remains serviceable. Gritters have the opportunity to fit ploughs should circumstances dictate. Teams will also be deployed to treat priority footpaths as appropriate. 

We will have people available on standby to step in wherever there are incidents brought on by the adverse weather.

Helpful links:

Met Office: severe weather warnings

Council services info: disruptions, closures and warnings

Get the latest weather and information about our services throughout the winter on our twitter or facebook pages. Look out for the hashtag #twittergritterNE for road gritting information.

Blackhall Library to host British Heart Foundation event

We have been notified of an event to be held next month at Blackhall library to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation. Please see full details below:

Wear It Beat It

Blackhall Library is holding a Coffee Morning on

 Friday 6th February

 9.30-12.00

to raise funds for the 

British Heart Foundation

Please come and join us!

Roadworks in the Blackhall ward area

We have been notified of the following scheduled and ongoing roadworks throughout our villages for the next week:

A1086 Coast Road, Blackhall
17 - 18 January
Duct work (Virgin Media)

A1086 Coast Road, Blackhall
23 January & 2 February
Overhead electrical works

C91 Mickle Hill Road, Blackhall Rocks
26 January - 2 February
Gas main works (Northern Gas)

C22 Stockton Road, Castle Eden
20 - 22 January
Sewer cleaning (Northumbrian Water)

Station Road, Station Town
5 January - 3 February
Water main works (Northumbrian Water)

In addition, Footpath 5, off St James Fields, Castle Eden will be closed until 25 January due to repair work to a dangerous wall.

Litter clearance at East Street, Blackhall Colliery

We have asked the county council's environment team to arrange a clean up of the grassed strip running the length of East Street, Blackhall Colliery. 

There have been abnormally large accumulations of litter and debris in this area recently caused mainly by a combination of very high winds coinciding with waste collection rounds for two consecutive weeks.

This area suffers more than most from litter because the trees and fencing, which separate the grassed strip from the railway lines, tend to catch debris as it blows eastward from the adjacent streets. Because of this we will try to ensure that this area is given more attention, especially after bin collection rounds each Friday.

If you know of any other particularly problematic areas in our ward please contact us and we'll do whatever we can to find a solution.

Fly-tipping: a blight on our coast and communities

Regular readers of these pages will know that we have a long history of reporting incidents of fly-tipping in our villages. 

Sadly this seems to be a particular problem along our coastal strip and over the years we have helped to introduce a number of measures in an attempt to tackle this blight (please see previous posts dated 3 April 2013, 18 April 2013, 23 April 2013, 7 November 2013, 17 November 2013, 12 February 2014, 10 March 2014, 22 May 2014 & 26 November 2014 for background details).

Unfortunately there were further reports at last night's PACT (Police & Communities Together) meeting of another two incidents of fly-tipping on the approach to Deneholme at Blackhall Colliery. One is at the barrier erected last year to prevent illegal access to the beach, the other at the entrance to the gardens nearby (please see images below):

Furniture dumped next to the barrier on the approach to the beach at Blackhall Colliery

The fly-tipping blackspot at the entrance to the gardens in Blackhall Colliery

Both incidents have been reported this morning with a request for collection.

As with other environmental issues (especially littering and dog fouling) fly-tipping is high on the agenda for almost everyone we talk to in the street, at public meetings or at ward surgeries. It goes without saying that we view it in a similar light and we will continue to make a priority of keeping our streets and open areas clean.

However, we are up against determined people and we need your help if we are to address this problem effectively. If you are concerned about any areas of blight in our ward please contact us in the usual way and we will arrange for collection, or another solution as appropriate. 

Alternatively, please report fly-tipping incidents direct to: 
Durham County Council on 03000 261 000.

If you are aware of anyone involved in illegal fly-tipping please contact:
Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Hartlepool hospital protest march

Despite the desperately cold, wet and windy weather yesterday there was a fantastic turnout for the protest march against the creeping closure of Hartlepool hospital and the removal of services by the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust (please see post dated Sunday 4 January 2015).

It was great to see such a mix of people from across the region coming together to protest against the Trust's unjustified actions in transferring services to North Tees hospital against the will of the people of Hartlepool and East Durham. 

Trade union members gathered alongside people of all party political persuasions and none to send a clear message to the unelected and unaccountable members of the Trust board:

Hartlepool hospital belongs to us and we want it back!

Weekend weather warning

We have published below a press release issued by the council regarding potential weather-related matters over the coming weekend (Friday 9 to Sunday 11 January):

Weather warning over weekend 9-11 January:

More wintry weather is in store for the region over the weekend with strengthening winds again across much of the region this evening and overnight, then a sharp change to much colder weather tomorrow morning with the risk of snow showers and ice later tomorrow and overnight into Sunday morning.

The Met Office has issued a number of weather warnings for the region as follows:

Rain (south west end of County Durham), Medium likelihood of Minor impacts, valid 1500 Friday to 0900 Saturday:

Heavy, prolonged rain has already set in across a good part of the Pennine region where it will be fairly persistent this afternoon and evening. A yellow warning is in force, primarily for areas over and to the west of the Pennines, just clipping the far southwest of the county where some minor impacts are possible. The rain elsewhere across the North East will be less persistent and generally lighter, especially through this evening and overnight.

Strong winds (all areas), Medium likelihood of Minor impacts, valid 2100 Friday to 0800 Saturday:

West to south westerly winds will strengthen again this evening and will extend further south to include the whole of the North East. Gusts of 50 to 60mph are well possible and some may well reach 60 to 70mph. Such winds will be capable of causing disruption to HGVs, especially on exposed sections of the motorway network with a risk to power transmission as well as perhaps the less secure building structures and trees.

Later on Friday night and first thing on Saturday morning, a very well-marked cold front will make a south eastwards sweep through the region.  Temperatures will drop by several degrees and will be accompanied by a short period of heavy rain and very squally winds.

Snow/ice (all areas), Medium likelihood of Minor impacts, valid 0600 Saturday to 1200 Sunday:

A much colder regime will follow for the remainder of Saturday and overnight into Sunday morning. With brisk westerly winds blowing, it will feel decidedly chilly despite the sunshine. There is the possibility that wintry showers will extend into the North East from across the Pennines.  Any that do, will be wintry with hail, sleet and snow likely down to low levels.  Whilst it is tricky to gauge the extent of any snow showers, the high-level trans-Pennine routes are at greatest risk of disruption by snow, where drifting may become an issue with ice another potential hazard by Saturday night.

Through the course of Sunday, the wintry risk is expected to diminish with any sleet/snow showers reverting back to rain.

However, the unsettled weather looks likely to extend through to next week with a renewed (and perhaps more widespread) snow risk on Tuesday and the threat of renewed strong winds/rain Wednesday/Thursday.

The council already has staff out dealing with the impact of last night’s severe weather and we will have people available over the weekend to deal with issues as they arise.

We will also have people available to take calls out of hours tonight and over the weekend.

If you need to report any issues which we need to deal with, please call 03000  261 000.

New ward surgery for Hesleden

We are pleased to be able to announce the details of a new monthly ward surgery to be held in Hesleden:

Venue: Hesleden Methodist Chapel, Front Street, Hesleden

Time: from 9.30am until 11.00am

Date: the last Thursday of each month (the next one is on Thursday 29 January 2015 at 9.30am)

This surgery will be held in addition to the monthly ward surgeries currently being held in Blackhall Colliery: 

• on the first Friday of each month at Blackhall Community Centre (9.30am until 11.30am), and 
• on the third Friday of each month at Blackhall Library (9.30am until 11.00am).

Please note that if you would like to raise an issue with us, and you are unable to attend any of the above surgeries, please contact us on:

rob.crute@durham.gov.uk or

lynn.pounder@durham.gov.uk

Fly-tipping near to our primary school and children's play area

No form of fly-tipping can reasonably be justified. It makes a terrible mess of our streets and green areas and it hits us all in the pocket, rather than just the individual responsible.

However, of all the examples we've come across recently, this one takes some beating for stupidity. This fridge freezer was dumped in the road, across the pavement and just around a blind bend at the top of Eleventh Street yesterday morning. 

It is also on a main route to the nearby primary school and welfare park playing area, used regularly by children, which makes it all the more unbelievable that someone would be mindless and selfish enough to dump it there!

The council is to review any available CCTV footage from the area in the hope of identifying the individual responsible.

Protest march in support of the Hartlepool hospital campaign

Next Saturday morning, 10 January 2015, we will be taking part in a public march and demonstration which has been organised to show support for the campaign to return all services to Hartlepool hospital (please see previous posts on this site, dated 23 October 2014 and 28 November 2014 for details of our most recent involvement in the campaign)

The march is scheduled to begin at 11am at Seaton Carew bus station and we have published below a map showing the planned route to the hospital: