1. Litter bins along the Coast Road: I’ve been contacted by quite a few residents recently commenting on the excellent work carried out by the ‘litter lads and lasses’ who give up their spare time at weekends volunteering to pick up litter in and around our village where the clean and green team hasn’t yet reached.
However one resident got in touch to express their concerns about the impact of people discarding litter and debris along the A1086 Coast Road between Blackhall Colliery and Blackhall Rocks.
Walking along the Coast Road from the Colliery to the Rocks and back again it’s noticeable that there are several litter bins in key locations - and crucially at bus stops along the A1086 in both directions. However, there is no litter bin at the Broad Road bus shelter at the top of Belmonte Avenue and Warnbrook Crescent (this is the last bus stop out of Blackhall Rocks heading towards Crimdon, as shown in the image below).
I’ve been in touch with the council’s clean and green team with a request that a litter bin is installed at this location. Hopefully that should be a sufficient supply of litter bins along the Coast Road to encourage people to deposit their rubbish responsibly - or at least take it home with them.
2. Replacement seat at Poplar Avenue bus stop: Last year the corroded and damaged seat near the bus stop at the top of Poplar Avenue was removed for safety reasons. Since then I’ve received several request for the seat to be replaced, with bus users particularly keen to have somewhere to sit while waiting for a bus. Following my requests the council’s clean and green team confirmed last week that a replacement seat will be installed at the earliest opportunity.
3. Fly tipping in Blackhall Colliery: Unfortunately, despite the good work of the volunteer litter picking team and the council’s clean and green team keeping our streets clean, there are still a number of incidents of fly tipping popping up in parts of Blackhall Colliery.
Although incidents of fly tipping in many areas are reducing significantly there are still some occasional isolated incidents - and I’m sure most of us would agree that just one incident is one too many.
The latest reported incident concerns a significant amount of household waste abandoned in the back lane between Middle Street and The Crescent in Blackhall Colliery (shown in the image below).
This incident has been brought to the attention of the authorities who will make arrangements to have it removed. However, before they do they’ve been asked to sift through the household waste in the hope of finding items that might identify the person or people responsible.
**If you have any concerns about environmental issues in your part of the Blackhall Ward please let me know in the usual way and I’ll do whatever I can to help: rob.crute@durham.gov.uk