Ward surgery details

Unfortunately we were forced to postpone two ward surgeries last week because of the half-term school holidays.

However, we're back on track now and we thought it might be helpful to post details of our forthcoming ward surgeries.

Please don't forget that if you're unable to come along to one of our scheduled ward surgeries you can still get in touch using the contact details shown below:

Scheduled road works at Crimdon

Please see below advance notification of road works scheduled for next week on the A1086 at Crimdon:

A1086

Coast Road, Crimdon Dene

Street lighting works

2 way lights (9:30am - 4:00pm)

25 October

26 October

Durham County Council

 

BCE Review of Parliamentary Boundaries - and what it means for the Blackhalls ward

BLACKHALLS WARD: The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) is currently conducting a review of parliamentary constituencies and is proposing to create a new parliamentary constituency for Hartlepool which will include all the villages in the Blackhalls Division of Durham County Council (ie, Blackhall Colliery, Blackhall Rocks, Crimdon, The Hesledens, Castle Eden, Station Town and Hutton Henry).

FULL DETAILS: By following the link below you can view the Boundary Commission's proposals, make comments, see what other people have said and learn more about the BCE and the review:

www.bce2018.org.uk

Universal Credit: advice and assistance

Despite a significant number of reported problems from other parts of the country during the pilot stages the government is determined to proceed with its roll-out of Universal Credit in County Durham over the next six months, starting in East Durham next week.

 

We are aware that there is a high probability of problems in this area as the new system takes hold, especially when it is considered there will be a minimum 42 day lead in time for receipt of benefits (meaning that claimants will be left with no benefits for a minimum period of six weeks).

 

Clearly effective communication is going to be vital in helping people to understand the background to this new benefit regime and the potential issues at play during the early stages and beyond. Assistance will also be essential to help those who might find themselves in difficulty, through no fault of their own, simply because of the delay in benefit payments being made.

 

For these reasons we have published below an advice note from the county council which is intended to clarify a number of issues relating to the roll-out of Universal Credit. Key contact numbers are included to help people find the correct advice direct:

 

The rollout of the Universal Credit full service begins on 18 October 2017 for all new claimants of working age in the Peterlee and Seaham Jobcentre areas.

 

We have been and continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions, community and voluntary groups and landlords and housing providers to ensure that residents are aware of the changes and how this will impact on them. 

 

Universal Credit can only be claimed online, there are no paper forms. There is a mobile enabled version of the claim process, which means customers can use their smart phones to progress their claim online. The claim can be saved and returned to at a later date if the customer needs to.

 

To make a claim, the customer must verify their identity with the DWP, this can be done online or via an appointment at their Job Centre, and they must have a bank account in place.

 

Once they have made a claim, the claimant is responsible for managing their claim online and as part of the claim they are required to sign up to a “claimant commitment”.

 

Universal Credit is paid four weekly in arrears and where applicable will include housing costs. Due to the initial waiting period however, and depending upon when the initial claim is made, the first payment can take up to 6 weeks to come through if the claimant doesn’t request an advance payment. To receive an advance payment claimants must request this at the point they make their claim. This check box is included in the online claim form. Advance payments are then recovered from future UC entitlements over a 10 month period.

 

Working with our partners we will provide support as required to local residents in your area, including;

 

·        Information on our website www.durham.gov.uk/universalcredit. This includes information on where customers, yourselves and staff can find out where there are local computer facilities and also where there is help and support to progress and maintain a claim. You will find this under the “Get help to apply” section. We’ve gathered this information from a number of sources both inside and external to the Council, learning from the experiences elsewhere when the UC Full Service has been implemented.

 

·        Our Customer Access Point/Library in Seaham offers access to self-service computers and staff are on hand to assist customers. In Peterlee we have Digital Support Assistants who will be in the Library Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and working from the Citizens Advice Bureau on a Wednesday, to provide access to self-service computers and support from their facility in the town centre. We will also continue to operate our surgery for customers from the East Durham Homes outlet in Peterlee Town Centre on a Wednesday. We will monitor demand for this service and consider local options whilst changes are made to the Library provision.

 

·        Free bookable computers with internet access in all our libraries www.durham.gov.uk/libraries

 

·        Support for customers through our Customer Services Team on 03000 262000

 

·        Personal Budgeting Support to assist customers with the changes to the frequency of payments and the need to ensure that they pay their rent to their landlord. The DWP will make referrals to us to provide this support where the claimant has particular difficulties in this regard.

 

·        Ensuring we support and encourage claims for council tax discount through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme www.durham.gov.uk/counciltaxreduction. We will carefully monitor and actively pursue cases where the person / household is in receipt of UC with housing costs to ensure they also make a claim through the our Council Tax Reduction Scheme

 

·        We have amended our Discretionary Housing Payments Policy, which provides support to help people meet the shortfall in their housing costs, to include an ‘eight week extension’ of the DHP award where the claimant has moved from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/3566/Discretionary-Housing-Payment-DHP

 

·        Availability of support through the Councils Welfare assistance Scheme http://www.durham.gov.uk/welfareassistance to support people with short term awards to help with daily living expenses such as food, heating and travel costs, plus the availability of resettlement grants.

 

·        Details of local food and furniture banks and credit unions www.durhamlocate.org.uk

 

·        Working closely with both local Landlords and the Advice Partnership to ensure that customers are referred to the right support and advice

 

 

We are aware that in December that the Peterlee Library will close and the facility will transfer to Peterlee Leisure Centre. Plans are in place to ensure that the access to self-service computers and staff to help assist customers will also be in place in the new facilities in Peterlee Leisure Centre.

 

Universal Credit is a Department for Works and Pensions benefit and there are some complexities in terms of advising when it is the best time for an individual to make their claim. If approached in terms of assisting someone to make a claim it would be advisable for members to encourage them to speak to their local Job Centre or to our Customer Services Team in the first instance. Set out below are some useful contact numbers for members’ information.

 

Key Contacts:

 

Universal Credit Helpline: 0345 600 0723 premium rate number and will incur charges of 55p/minute. Please avoid wherever possible.

The Council’s Customer Services Team:   03000 262000

The Council’s Welfare Rights Team: 03000 268 968

Citizens Advice County Durham: 0300 323 2000

 

If you have any particular problems associated with the roll-out of Universal Credit please do not hesitate to contact us directly and we will do whatever we can to find the right level of advice.

Hesleden Pit Heap - monitor and update report

For some time we've been monitoring progress on the removal of waste from the pit heap in Hesleden (please type "Hesleden pit heap" into the search bar for background information).

At the outset developers established a liaison committee, including representation from the company, parish councils, county council, police, local residents and ourselves to oversee progress on the scheme to remove spoil from the pit heap.

The liaison committee met yesterday to offer the latest update:

• the entire B1281, from Gray Avenue in Hesleden to the A19 interchange at Wellfield has been inspected by the company to assess the highway condition as it is now to enable it to be brought back up to a decent standard on completion of works. An update was also given on measures in place to mitigate the impact of traffic flow from the works site to the A19, and especially as it travels along Gray Avenue

• the company has been asked to consider making improvements to the highway at the bottom of Station Road, which is now the advised detour route for walkers during the period of works. They are also to consider improving access restrictions at the private road/footpath leading from Hesleden WMC onto the site to prevent illegal access

• we have also asked that the company maintain contact with the highways authority (DCC) and the traffic management office at Durham police to ensure that any highways related incident can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. The company has also agreed to make contact information readily available to members of the public to enable queries and complaints to be addressed without unnecessary delay

We will continue to monitor works at the site and report any significant developments as they arise. In the meantime we have published below an updated schedule of works for information:

Blackhall Colliery and Horden beach ridge concerns

Beach users and members of the public have expressed their concerns to us recently about a high ridge extending north along the beach from Beckett's Bank past Deneholme to Horden.

Looking towards Horden from Deneholme

As can be seen from the images, the ridge is quite high in parts and appears to have been formed naturally over time by the movement of the tide. There are fears that anyone caught on the shore side of the ridge, especially children and young people, could be in serious danger under certain tidal conditions.

Looking towards Blackhall Colliery from Deneholme

We have contacted the council about this matter and we've asked for an inspection to be carried out to assess the risk in advance of any measures recommended to make the area safe.

As there are multiple landownership and responsibility issues at this location, the council's environment and design manager has confirmed his intentions to progress matters as outlined in the email below:

As mentioned in the email trail, this is a cross-service issue which needs some co-ordination to establish the background, current position and how any risks are dealt with going forward.
I will contact a number of service leads and seek a co-ordinated response and shall provide feedback/possible solutions to all concerned as requested.
We will monitor progress closely and update on developments as soon as we have further information.

The Seagull at Crimdon

We have received further complaints over the weekend about the poor condition of The Seagull, just off the A1086 Coast Road at Crimdon. In addition to comments about its shabby appearance residents have also expressed concerns that children and young people are getting into the derelict building through holes in the external walls. The dangers associated with playing in derelict buildings are obvious.

We have reported residents' concerns to the council, asking that contact be made with the owners of the site and that any measures available be used to bring the building into a decent condition. We will report on progress in due course.

Hesleden War Memorial Unveiled

We were delighted this morning to go along to the formal unveiling of the new war memorial in Hesleden. Despite the dull and rather nippy autumn weather there was a tremendous turnout of an estimated 300 residents, visitors, local schoolchildren from Blackhall Colliery and Hesleden primary schools and representatives from the War Memorials Trust (NE), Royal British Legion and the Durham Light Infantry to watch the ceremony, which included an opportunity for local people to lay wreaths on behalf of their relatives.

The project to erect a memorial in the village was initiated just over a year ago by members of the Blackhalls Local History Group and involved a number of public participation events to ensure that residents had sufficient opportunity to choose where they would like the memorial to be sited (please see posts dated Wednesday 17 August 2016, Sunday 4 September 2016, Sunday 15 January 2017 & Sunday 22 January 2017 for more information about these events).


The memorial itself, which provides a comprehensive roll of honour of the fallen from Hesleden during both world wars, was designed and built by John Peace, the grounds manager for Monk Hesleden Parish Council. We were both delighted to be able to secure the funding for the memorial through the Area Action Partnership (AAP) Neighbourhood Budget Fund.


Refreshments were served after the event in the school room at Hesleden Methodist Chapel.


We would like to offer our sincerest thanks to everyone who came along this morning to make the ceremony such a special occasion for the whole community.