About 18 months ago I published a series of articles on these pages about the council's Community Action Team and the work they intended carrying out during their latest presence in Blackhall Colliery in the summer of 2020.
I’ve reposted each of those articles in chronological order below for ease of access:
June 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/06/community-action-team-and-private.html
June 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/06/community-action-team-returns-to.html
July 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/07/community-action-team-in-blackhall.html
August 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/08/environmental-improvement-works.html
August 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/08/community-action-team-environmental.html
Last week I received an update of their work carried out in Blackhall Colliery during that period and I’ve reproduced it in summary below:
The Community Action Team has recently reviewed the project we carried out in Blackhall Colliery in 2020. We carried out low-key walkabouts of the original focus areas and are collating updates about the exit strategy. Thanks to everyone for your updates so far.
Here’s a short summary of our findings and action taken:
Blackhall Colliery review walkabouts:
14 February – 9 March 2022
Original CAT areas covered
From the low-key walkabouts in Blackhall Colliery we identified 88 pieces of casework which included rubbish accumulations, fly tipping, dog fouling, drainage complaints and open to access properties. These have now being actioned by ourselves and partners. See breakdown below:
Total Cases logged – 88
-
61 cases recorded for CAT – 45 noxious
rubbish/dog fouling accumulations in rear yards, 8 drainage issue, 7 open to
access, 1 public health other
-
25 cases referred to the Wardens – inert
accumulations, fly tipped bin bags, dog fouling
-
1 case referred to Clean and Green
- 1 case referred to Planning
Action:
- Contact
was made with all those responsible following our walkabouts.
- We
have seen improvements in the area following our actions, which is great
news.
- During the walkabouts we
worked with partners to ensure a caravan in the rear lane was removed
- Worked with a neighbouring team on an occupied property in poor condition
- We linked in with the
Parish Council about complaints which had been raised with them.
- There
was a low level of compliance with our initial letters, which led to a
large number of legal notices being served.
- 86 legal notices were served on 29 issues/properties
- 41 required ‘work in default’ (on 13 issues/properties)
- One property owner was responsible for 6 of the 29 (21%) issues on which we served legal notice and he failed to comply with all of these.
Exit Strategy:
The majority of actions have been completed or are continuing as
ongoing work in the area. Of note so far:
- Blackhall
Colliery is a Targeted Delivery Plan area, so additional work is being
proposed for the area to engage with empty homes owners.
- 138
letters were sent out to empty home owners on 18 February by
the Empty Homes team. As of last week, there had been 67 responses either by way of returned empty property questionnaire or owners
calling the office directly.
- Officers are looking to start monthly/bi-monthly walkabouts back up again
with Councillors soon. Hopefully joining up work officers are looking at
for the area too.
- A
week of action took place at the start of February, which included waste
carrier checks.
- Planned
works to ‘Chicken’s Green and the trees in the den area were carried out.
- Selective
Licensing goes live on 1 April 2020. The application process
was open for landlords to apply prior to the start date. 1200 applications
have already been received across County Durham.
- The private initiatives team have and ongoing log of landlords who are of concern. Selective Licensing are actively using this log.
