Group to tackle environmental issues on the Durham Heritage Coast

I was contacted late last year by local residents and visitors expressing their concerns about a number of persistent anti-social behaviour and environmental issues taking place along the Durham Heritage Coast (please see post dated Saturday 21 November 2020 for more information on associated coastal issues). 

I’ve been dealing with related issues along the coast and in other locations for some time now so I raised these latest concerns with officers from the county council's Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the latest update received from the team is reproduced below. 

I will publish additional updates on developments and future plans as soon as I have more information from the team. In the meantime if you would like to raise any particular issue with the coastal team please contact me at: rob.crute@durham.gov.uk 

Cllr Crute, I refer to your query concerning the Heritage Coast – ASB and wished to provide you with a brief update on this.

Following receipt of your query we contacted officers at the Durham Heritage Coast and the Countryside Ranger who provided detail as to the number of incidents throughout the County giving locations, types of vehicle used and costs.  DHC advised that the Heritage Coast Partnership was setting up a group to look at what could be done to tackle the issue and prevent future incidents.

We have emailed the Head of Community Protection to make them aware that the issue is being raised and have we received a response from the Safer Communities Manager who is responsible for the Multi-Agency Problem Solving Groups across the county (MAPS).  She has confirmed that off-road vehicles and the resulting ASB are regularly discussed at these groups and that although a significant amount of work has been done they continue to discuss this issue and look at new ways to tackle it.

Both DHC and Countryside Rangers have been contacted to check that they are aware of the existence and work of the MAPS groups and have suggested that they may want to liaise and share information/intelligence with the Safer Communities Manager and her team which will then feed into the relevant MAPS group.  In addition, that in relation to the Heritage Coast Project group which has been established to look at ASB on the coast, that they may want to have a colleague from Safer Communities team on that group, if they don’t already, with a view to ensuring that all relevant agencies are involved and engaged in determining what action to be taken.

At our catch up meeting with the Chair and Vice Chair of ESCOSC (Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee) yesterday they confirmed that they would want including in the next Heritage Coast Update to the committee information on the number of ASB incidents resulting from off road vehicles, associated costs and action taken to address the issue and future plans.