Stacey and I held our latest street walkabout this afternoon in Hesleden. We had the council’s neighbourhood wardens and our local PCSO with us, alongside officers from the anti-social behaviour prevention team, an officer from believe housing and the council’s safer communities team. Two of our local parish councillors came along too.
Amongst other things we covered a number of issues of concern for residents including dog-fouling, an uneven pavement surface, empty properties in the village, potholes in a few places and damage to the grassed area behind East Terrace caused by quads and off-road bikes. All these issues have been reported to the appropriate authorities for their attention. In addition officers from the council’s clean and green team have been asked to look at the best way to make the grassed areas secure against trespass. Other similarly affected areas have been blocked-off by boulders, which at the moment seems to be the favoured option, but it wouldn’t do any harm to see if there are others available. We’ll report on progress as soon as we have an update.
In the meantime our next street walkabout is scheduled to take place next month in Station Town. We are already aware of a number of issues relating to long-term empty properties in the village, and officers from the appropriate departments are carrying our preliminary reports in advance of our visit. If residents have any particular issues they would like us to take a look at please get in touch.
In addition if you think your village or estate would benefit from a street walkabout please let us know and we’ll make the necessary arrangements: rob.crute@durham.gov.uk and stacey.deinali@durham.gov.uk
