We received confirmation this week from Durham County Council that the Community Action Team (CAT) will be returning to Blackhall Colliery for three months from April this year.
The CAT initiative, which follows on from the team’s most recent visit to the village a few years ago, is time-limited and focuses on carrying out environmental improvements in a single defined area (please see posts dated Sunday 10 January 2016 and Tuesday 19 January 2016 for background details and the post dated Thursday 17 March 2016 for an example of the type of improvements carried out by the team).
The notification we received from the CAT, including the proposed coverage, format and scope of the project, is set out below:
The Community Action Team is currently planning our next project in Blackhall Colliery from 21 April until 5 July 2020. This will be an 11 week project to tackle local housing and environmental issues. It covers approximately 550 properties in Blackhall Colliery. This includes the numbered streets, Middle Street and East Street. Most of these are terraced housing, many of which are privately let:
- The initiative will begin with two weeks of engagement/priority setting. At that time we will speak to community groups and residents to gage current concerns and involve the Community in setting priorities for the action weeks.
- Following this we will agree a strategy with partners prior to holding seven weeks of action. During the action weeks there will be weekly walkabouts, project work and the team will attend community meetings.
- The final two weeks will be focused on our exit strategy where we review the work undertaken and feedback to all relevant parties.
We are currently pulling together the programme for the period and will be in touch in the coming weeks with further information. Would it be possible to hold our partner meetings in the resource centre on the following dates:
In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts on:
- Whether the proposed focus area (enclosed with the green line) tackles the key streets or concern, or whether there are other streets which you think would benefit more from the CAT’s intervention – we are currently looking at a focus area of around 550 properties
- Contact details of all people you think could have an interest in the scheme? We have started speaking with the Police, Fire Service, Wardens, Strategic Waste, Planning, Housing, Groundwork, Councillors and Community groups mapped by the AAP.
- Any particular concerns in the area that you would like us to target;
We welcome the team’s involvement in the areas set above but we have asked them if they would consider extending the boundary of the scheme to cover additional locations nearby. Bearing in mind that the team is hoping to keep the project area at a manageable level of 550 properties we are hoping to persuade them to include School Avenue, West Street Cottages, Corry Close and Chicken’s Green.
We are currently drawing up a list of potential environmental improvement schemes for the team to consider, and there will be an opportunity for residents and community groups to have their say too during the consultation stages of the initiative. In the meantime we will keep you up to date with progress and developments as they arise.