Chimney's: Planning permission sought for a new Day Care facility

Earlier this year we published an article about the possibility of a Day Care facility relocating to Blackhall Colliery from nearby Horden. The site proposed for the facility was the building on East Street vacated by the former bar and hotel business Chimney's (please see post dated Friday 29 March 2019 for background details).

We have now been given advance notification from the planning department at county hall that a planning application has been received with the intention of formally changing the use of the property to enable the new business to move into the premises as soon as possible.

Please follow the link below for full details of the planning application:

http://publicaccess.durham.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PQ5KKFGD0BH00

All comments and queries should be directed to the contact named in the planning application papers, or to the planning case officer Paul Hopper at:

paul.hopper@durham.gov.uk or 03000 263 946

We will update on progress with this proposal as soon as we are notified of developments.

Roadworks next month on the B1281 Hesleden to Castle Eden

We have received advance notification that telecom cabling works are scheduled to take place next month on the B1281 between Hesleden and Castle Eden:

B1281

Castle Eden to Hesleden

Telecom cabling work

2 way lights (9:30am - 3:30pm)

2 July

4 July

British Telecom

NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield CCG announces consultation decision

We have received notification from the DDES Clinical Commissioning Group of the outcome of their recent public consultation exercise relating to Access to 7-Day Services at its nine hubs across County Durham, three of which are in East Durham.

We have published the outcome of the consultation in full as we received it:

Patients in Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield will still be able to access services during the evening and weekends in a GP ‘hub’ near to where they live, following a 12 week public consultation.

The CCG has announced the decision to implement changes to ‘7 day services’ following support received at the Durham Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11 June 2019. The CCGs Governing Body approved the recommendations presented in an independent report in a meeting held in public on 28^th May 2019.

Changes to the service providing additional appointments during evening and weekends via GP ‘hubs’ have been agreed and will be in place in September/ October this year.

Additional appointments will be available at the following ‘hubs’ but it is important to note these services are not walk in services and can only be accessed via your own GP practice or NHS111.

In the Durham Dales additional appointments will be available from 12 noon - 8 pm during the week and 10am – 2pm on a weekend in Bishop Auckland.

In the Easington area, appointments will be available from 12 noon – 8 pm during the week and 8am – 1pm on a weekend in Peterlee and in Seaham from 6-8pm during the week and 8am – 1pm on a weekend.

In Sedgefield area, additional appointments will be available 12 noon - 8pm during the week and 10am-2pm on weekends from Newton Aycliffe,  In addition, Spennymoor will provide appointments from 6 – 8pm during the week and 10am-2pm on a weekend and in Sedgefield from 10am-2pm on a weekend only.

There have been changes to the number of hubs available, but patients in these areas will still be able to access the service from a neighbouring ‘hub’.

We will provide more support to access transport for those who need it, especially to towns that no longer have a ‘hub’. In addition more pre- booked appointments out of hours for those patients who struggle to access normal GP services will be provided and enhanced services for frail and housebound patients.

The CCG wants to remind people that they should think GP surgery first during the day between 8am-6pm, Monday-Friday and contact NHS 111 at all other times where clinical staff will signpost you to the most appropriate service based on your clinical need.

The consultation report and supporting documents are available on the CCG website at https://www.durhamdaleseasingtonsedgefieldccg.nhs.uk/involve-me/current-conversations/public-consultation-on-proposals-to-change-7-day-access-to-primary-care-services/

NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group
Tina Balbach Engagement Lead	Sedgefield Community Hospital Salters Lane, Sedgefield, TS21 3EE Direct Line: 0191 371 3245 M: 07825 732163 E: tina.balbach@nhs.net https://www.facebook.com/ddesccg1 http://www.durhamdaleseasingtonsedgefieldccg.nhs.uk

Further damage and trespass at The Seagull

Following further complaints recently of damage and illegal trespass at the site of The Seagull at Crimdon we have again contacted the planning enforcement department at county hall to request their intervention (please see post dated Wednesday 30 January 2019 for the most recent update on this matter).

We have been assured by officers that they will contact the owners of the property with a request that they repair the building and also bring it up to a decent standard.

Please note below the comments received from the Planning enforcement team:

Thanks for the information re the above. Unfortunately, [the case officer] is going to be out of the office until the back end of this month, so in her absence I will endeavour to pick this one up and see if we can progress accordingly. Looking at the case file details, I note that [the case officer] and EH colleagues collectively managed to secure some work(s) to board up the exposed openings, but it would appear that these work(s) have been compromised again. Furthermore, [the case officer] did get in touch with the owner of the site to advise of the Council’s concerns and to ascertain their intentions for the site. However, and with reference to the file notes, it would appear that the owner has not responded.

In this respect and based on the info that you have been furnished with, we’ll try and call over to the site at our earliest opportunity to establish facts, and then I will drop you an update on Officers findings and conclusions.

We will update on progress as soon as we have a response from the service.

East Durham Health, Mental Health & Wellbeing Event

East Durham

Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing Free Event

2 – 4pm

WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE

Blackhall Community Centre, Hesleden Road, TS27 4LQ

Do you have a question about you or your family’s health? 

Don’t know who to ask or where to go?

Come along and join us for a fun afternoon of practical advice & support for a wide range of health & wellbeing needs.

Speak directly to the services and support groups in the heart of your area.

Cakes, Fruit and Refreshments Available

 Raffle - Health Checks – Alternative Therapies and Exercise Demos

All Ages Welcome! 

Proposed changes to opening hours at Peterlee Hospital

We have received notification from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) that they are beginning a public consultation exercise today asking for comments on proposed changes to opening hours at the Urgent Treatment Centre at Peterlee.

We have been asked to share details of this survey with our contacts so please see below further information about the public engagement exercise and also for a link to the online survey:

We are starting some engagement today for four weeks (until June 30^th) around some proposals to the change the times that the Urgent Treatment Centre in Peterlee is open. Usage of the service is low between 12 midnight and 8am so we are proposing to deliver the service in a slightly different way and an example could be via home visits.

We would like to reach patients, carers and the public from the East Durham area to find out their usage of the Urgent Treatment Centre which is based in the Community Hospital at Peterlee. We also want views on how they would feel about services being provided in a different way. I have attached a survey – a paper and an online version, Please could you share this around your contacts and colleagues. The link for the online survey is:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/UrgentTreatmentCentres.

We will be in the community talking to the public in Peterlee Town Centre, Dalton Park shopping Centre, Asda at Peterlee and the Share and Support Health Event.