The Blackhall PACT (Police and Communities Together) meeting for June was held on Wednesday night at the Parish Council offices in Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery.
Once again there was a good turnout from members of the public who came along to report some of the issues in their neighbourhoods, and also to hear about updates on issues raised at previous PACT meetings.
The main issue reported at last night’s meeting related to an incident in Eleventh Street which is being dealt with by the police and the selective licensing team at the county council. Understandably residents in Eleventh Street are anxious to see a swift resolution to this incident and were assured by the police that everything would be done to address their concerns as quickly and effectively as possible. Notably the police have confirmed that they’re seeking to install CCTV cameras at and around this location.
Separately I was told of an incident in Park Avenue earlier this week in which it was reported that an ambulance was unable to access a property in the street because of the way residents had parked their vehicles in the back lane between School Avenue and Park Avenue.
I was already aware of this report after someone had alerted me to a social media post setting out details of the incident. As soon as I was made aware of the social media post I wrote to the director of NEAS (North East Ambulance Service) to ask for details of the incident from their perspective. I’ve since received a holding response from the service director confirming that they’re looking into the incident (a full response from NEAS was received on 5 July. Please see details at the bottom of this page).
As soon as the facts are established I’ll ask that any outstanding issues are addressed, although given that the social media post complained primarily of irresponsible or obstructive parking in the back lane it would appear that this would be a matter for the police to deal with. Full details of police responsibility for parked vehicles can be found in a related post published on this site in November 2022: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/11/tackling-parking-issues-at-park-avenue.html?m=0
After the meeting had closed I picked up a few additional reports from residents about low-level ASB at one specific location, street signage, damaged road surfaces and dangerous parking practices in and around the village. I’ve reported those issues through the appropriate channels at the county council and through other authorities where necessary.
Despite the understandable frustrations of residents at last night’s meeting the dialogue remained positive and good natured - and for me this bears testament to the way PACT meetings are organised and run, and specifically to the established format of listening to what residents have to say and addressing their concerns as quickly as possible through all the relevant authorities.
The next Blackhall PACT meeting will be held at the usual venue on Wednesday 17 July 2024. If you have any issues to report in the meantime please contact the police on 101 (999 in an emergency), or if you prefer you can get in touch with me at rob.crute@durham.gov.uk and I’ll do what I can to help.
**Response from NEAS on reported incident at Park Avenue:
Thank you for your patience in waiting for a reply. We do aim to respond to most requests within 20 working days.
I have had a chance to look at our operational response notes to this incident on 17 June. Our ambulance response was 23 minutes for this category of call, where the standard is to respond within 40 minutes in 90% of cases; and to have an average arrival time of 18 minutes. I also asked the clinical team manager to review this case for me and he informs me that there were no concerns logged either by the crew or our control room staff regarding access to the patient or their walk back to our vehicle.
In answer to the query about issuing keys to the ambulance service to unlock a road barrier, it would be impractical as these would need to be distributed on all our ambulances. This is because our vehicles operate across the region. A key would need to be distributed on all our ambulances as it’s possible that a crew from outside the local area could respond and convey a patient to hospital. This is because to achieve the fastest response times possible, our service is peripatetic to ensure that the closest ambulance crew to an emergency call is always available.
Regards
