Coalition members give the green light to parking charges at Crimdon

Although I'm not a member of the Highways Committee I submitted a request to address committee members at its meeting this morning to consider the council's proposals to introduce parking charges along the sea front at Crimdon Dene. 

As regular readers of these pages will know I've opposed plans to introduce parking charges at Crimdon since they first came to light. I don't believe they will do anything at all to tackle the central problem of obstructive parking at a specific location to the southern edge of the sea front, and furthermore I'm convinced that the council's intention is not to manage or control traffic at Crimdon. In my opinion their only purpose in introducing parking charges is to open up a revenue stream to off-set gaping holes in the council's budget. 

In truth these proposals are nothing but a cash-grab, and the proof lies in the council's own MTFP (Medium Term Financial Plan) and Budget papers published last year in which it is estimated that the council can raise almost £450k by introducing parking charges at Seaham and Crimdon. Incidentally the MTFP also refers to an additional cost burden of £600k every year to keep the new art gallery and restaurant at the former DLI building ticking over - so you can work out for yourself that we're suffering parking charges in East Durham to subsidise a high-end restaurant in Durham City!

I spoke at length this morning about the damaging impact that parking charges would have on visitor numbers and the local economy. Despite my arguments however, every coalition member on the committee supported the council’s plans to introduce parking charges at Crimdon. For the record every Labour member on the committee agreed with my position, stood by my comments and opposed the parking charges. 

In accordance with the council's constitution the committee’s recommendation to approve the charges will now be passed to the corporate director for a final decision made under delegated authority. Unfortunately the last line of local resistance fell today and the final decision is a foregone conclusion.

Finally, my thanks go to the hundreds of people and businesses who have supported the campaign, especially those who took the time to contact me directly or respond to the council’s public consultation. Although we haven’t managed to get over the line on this occasion the campaign has been a success in bringing our community together in opposition to these unfair proposals.

Background details to this complex and often confusing issue can be found in this link: Objections to revised parking charges at Crimdon

I've reproduced below an initial draft of the comments I made to the highways committee this morning:

Crimdon Dene Coastal Car Park

Comments to Highways Committee, Tuesday 17 September 2024

Committee members will have already had sight of my written response to the public consultation exercise on the introduction of parking charges at Crimdon Dene, so my comments this morning will cross reference the points I raised in that response.

It’s fair to say that there have been one or two reports of obstructive parking at Crimdon, but these are isolated to one specific location and are infrequent – and certainly nothing of the magnitude to warrant this kind of response.

To begin with, over the past year or so I’ve raised residents’ concerns about obstructive parking in one particular location along the southern edge of the sea front in Crimdon, but these incidents occur infrequently at only at one or two peak times and apply mainly to the summer months and on the occasional Bank Holiday. 

I discussed potential solutions with the highways team at the time and recommendations were made to prohibit obstructive parking at the junction to the bungalow and at the approach to the beach from the former Ponyworld building at the southern edge of the site.

Critically, back then parking charges were never once suggested as part of that proposed solution, which begs the questions - why now?

I’ve noted officers’ comments this morning on their reasons behind the potential introduction of parking charges, but to me the proposals completely miss the point and fly in the face of reason and public opinion.

My main concern is that after the measures we’ve put in place to attract more visitors to Crimdon, including the council-owned Dunes café and visitor centre, the council now appears determined to drive visitors and tourists away.

Crimdon as a visitor attraction holds a fairly unusual position in our neck of the woods in that it is one of the only remaining visitor destinations where people can come to the coast and park for free. But instead of using that as a unique selling point, and promoting Crimdon as a welcoming destination, the council risks displacing visitors elsewhere for the sake of raising revenue.

To me that is a short-sighted approach that is completely at odds with the need for a long-term ambition to bring the good times back to Crimdon and at the same time attract more visitors to the Durham coast.

Without exception, every member of the public and every local business that has taken to time to contact me directly about this issue agrees with me that we should promote the coast as a tourist destination alongside a developing nature reserve, and at the same time take the opportunity to boost the local economy.

Consequently they view these parking charges as a retrograde step that will have a negative impact by repelling visitors and taking custom away from shops and other businesses in nearby villages like Blackhall Colliery – at a time when local businesses would love the opportunity to welcome more visitors through their doors.

If proof is needed on this point I would draw attention to the impact that parking charges have had recently on businesses and visitor numbers just up the road in Seaham. Once thriving businesses, and some newer enterprises, are now struggling to make ends meet as potential visitors bypass the town and go elsewhere.

Finally, I have concerns that parking charges at Crimdon Dene are being used as a cash-raising initiative, rather than an exercise in actually managing or controlling traffic flows and obstructive parking.

A look through the MTFP (14) papers published last year will show that a shortfall of over £400k is to be met by the introduction of parking charges along the Durham coast. This reinforces the point I made earlier that a regressive measure like introducing parking charges at Crimdon Dene is an ill-conceived intervention that will have a long-term impact on visitor numbers and the local economy in nearby villages like Blackhall Rocks and Blackhall Colliery, and also in others right across East Durham.

I acknowledged earlier that there are occasional incidents of obstructive parking at one specific location, but if there are persistent and widespread problems associated with over-parking at Crimdon I haven’t been made aware of them. Besides there are others means of addressing that issue. Either way, the approach recommended by the council appears to be taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It appears to me (and many others) that this a regressive, revenue raising exercise that risks driving visitors away from Crimdon, and one that could well have dire consequences for the wider economy in East Durham.

For the reasons I’ve set out this morning I would urge members of the highways committee to reject the proposal to introduce parking charges at Crimdon Dene and recommend that the relevant director reaches the same conclusion under delegated authority.

Rob Crute

Blackhall Ward

Durham County Council

PW&S 2024 - Supporting our local horse riders in their road safety campaign

It was my pleasure to once again support our local horse riding group at their annual Pass Wide & Slow campaign event, held earlier today at South Blackhalls Farm in Blackhall Rocks.

This morning’s event was one of many held right across the country, and the intention of both local and national campaigns is to highlight the dangers horse riders face when drivers pass at speed or fail to allow sufficient space when overtaking. 

The main aims of the campaign are to promote awareness of the dangers faced by horses and their riders and to encourage drivers to reduce speed to a maximum 10mph and allow a gap of at least 2m when passing individuals or groups of horse riders. Full details can be found on the Pass Wide & Slow website here: Home | Pass Wide And Slow (passwideandslow1.wixsite.com)

More details about the local Pass Wide and Slow campaign were published by the Hartlepool Mail on Thursday evening. Their article can also be found on the Mail's online website: ‘We just want to be safe’: Blackhall horse riders organise ride to raise awareness of road safety (hartlepoolmail.co.uk)

Please take a moment to have a look at the local and national campaign material and think about how you can play your part in helping to promote better road safety for horse riders.

High Hesleden footpath abandoned once again!

Residents in High Hesleden will have noticed recently that all the footpaths throughout the village have been resurfaced. This follows an unnecessarily long and complicated campaign Stacey and I have run for years on behalf of residents.

However, residents will also be absolutely staggered to have seen that the stretch of footpath between The Elms and the Black Path has once again been by-passed by the highways team. 

Regular readers of these pages will know that I've been pressing the council for several years to get this short length of footpath resurfaced, but for a number of reasons (amongst them a farcical error a few years ago when the council included the works in their resurfacing programme, but subsequently resurfaced the wrong footpath) the works were never carried out.

Concerns over unacceptable delays to highways repairs in the Blackhall area

I've been in touch again with the highways service this afternoon to get an explanation on why this footpath has been ignored once again. I'll update on progress as soon as I have an answer. 

Update on reported highways issues

Over the past week or so I've been dealing with a number of highways-related issues after residents in Blackhall Rocks and Blackhall Colliery raised their concerns with me about the poor condition of some of the roads in their neighbourhoods.

I've published the latest known details of some of these issues below, and will update as soon as I have more information from the service:

The Crescent, Blackhall Colliery

Once again I’ve asked the highways team to carry out an inspection of the road surface at The Crescent and carry out repairs where necessary.

After two similar requests over the past year or so for some reason the inspector seems to think that there are no ‘actionable defects’ on this road. The images attached to this post tell a different story. Hopefully it’ll be third time lucky!

Shortly after I submitted the request above I submitted an additional request for the damaged footpath in the back lane between Park Avenue and The Crescent to be inspected and arrangements to be made for repairs where necessary.

I’ve now received confirmation that repair works are now in the council’s highways works programme and will be carried out within the next three months in line with council policy on the type and severity of defects.

Meadow Avenue & Maureen Avenue, Blackhall Rocks

Following contact with a resident recently I’ve asked the highways section to carry out an inspection of the road surface in the lane between Meadow Avenue and Maureen Avenue and repair any defects as necessary.

I was advised last week that repair works are now in the council’s current highways works programme.

Attlee Avenue, Blackhall Rocks

A resident from Attlee Avenue got in touch with me earlier this week to tell me about the poor condition of the grassed area in the cul-de-sac at the top of the street.

I called along there the day after to take a look for myself, and as you’ll see from the images in this post there have been quite a few of the embedded paving stones lifted out of the ground and scattered across the green.

I’ve raised residents’ concerns with the authorities with a request that the stones are either replaced or removed altogether. I’ve also asked that the open space is tidied up and that the perimeter fencing is either replaced or repaired wherever necessary.

I was advised last week that the council’s clean and green team has been issued a request to tidy up the land, replace or remove the block-paving and repair or replace the perimeter fencing where necessary.

Princess Close, Blackhall Rocks

Following a request recently from a resident at Princess Close I've asked for a salt bin to be installed in the street. The entrance and exit points at Princess Close are quite steep so I would expect a positive response from the service.

If you have any streets in your neighbourhood that don't currently have a salt bin at either end of the street but would benefit from one please send me location details, and images if possible, to rob.crute@durham.gov.uk and I'll issue a request to the highways department.

Absent private sector landlords and London Borough councils caught up in relocation scandal

An exclusive report in the Northern Echo recently exposed the 'disgusting' practice of private-sector landlords and their letting agencies collaborating with London Borough councils to transfer vulnerable people from the capital to County Durham without bothering to inform local councils or charity organisations first. I've posted a link below to the article published on Friday 6 September 2024.

MPs slam act of homeless Londoners moved to North East | The Northern Echo

The report comes at a time when a handful of people in our village are posting made-up scare stories on social media platforms about 'illegal' immigrants being offered housing in places like Blackhall Colliery because of 'official' government policy. Those claims are completely false of course, and appear to have been circulated simply to create a diversion to the real issues facing our communities, and also to distract public attention from the fact that organisations like Reform UK and their allies on the Thatcherite wing of the Tory party have nothing to offer in terms of realistic policy ideas. I responded to those claims in an article on these pages last week which highlights the actual facts of the matter:

Misleading information and ignorance of the facts is being used to generate fear and division in our communities

It'll be interesting to see the reaction of the scaremongers and fake news agents to this latest report of 'vulnerable' people being sent into our communities by private-sector landlords without even the courtesy of letting the local councils know about it in advance, especially when it's acknowledged that none of these people are either 'illegal' immigrants or that they were moved here because of any 'official' government policy. They've been abandoned purely in the interest of private profit. Meanwhile our local councils and residents will be left to pick up the tab.

It's certainly something to ponder for those who've expressed their outrage and alarm recently at non-existent 'illegal' immigrants coming into our County Durham towns and villages, yet appear to be relaxed about this deplorable practice of absent private housing landlords and their managing agencies manipulating vulnerable people and raking in the profits at the expense of our residents and hard-pressed communities still reeling from 14 years of Tory government austerity.

Misleading information and ignorance of the facts is being used to generate fear and division in our communities

A resident contacted me recently to express their concerns about a post on the Blackhall Have Your Say Facebook page in which misleading terminology was used to imply that the government had somehow come up with an ‘official’ policy to house ‘illegal’ immigrants in places like Blackhall Colliery. The person publishing the post then goes on to ask if local residents agree with a policy which doesn’t actually exist.

Given the issues raised in the post it can only be assumed that the person publishing it intended to either deliberately mislead the public and unsettle the community - or the post was published in complete ignorance of the facts.

It will be glaringly obvious of course to anyone with even the most basic grasp of politics that the content of the post itself was complete rubbish. Even if it wanted to, no government could even begin the process of establishing official policy based on something illegal - simply because it would be illegal! 

With that in mind it’s likely that the post was circulated for no purpose other than to create alarm, suspicion and division in our village - and there’s a reason why.

When organisations like Reform UK and their allies in the Thatcherite wing of the Tory party have no policies or ideas of any substance their supporters tend to go low and seek to generate discord and fear in our communities instead. It’s intended as a distraction, but it can only work when there’s a void left behind after the facts have been concealed.

Unfortunately alarmist posts about 'illegal' immigrants do tend to get traction on social media, simply because no one bothers to challenge the misleading information or question the terminology used. Perhaps worse, it also works against anyone who might have genuine concerns about community safety and cohesion. We've all heard the tale about the boy who cried wolf.

So in order to get the facts out I’ve published below a response I received to a query from a resident who had asked recently how many immigrants had been housed in Blackhall.

The fake news agents might not like what follows, but it’s factual and it stands up to scrutiny.

**** passed your query over to me as it really isn’t a straightforward one to answer unfortunately.

We can tell you from Census 2021 how many people in Blackhall were born outside of the UK.

We estimate that’s about 57 people out of a population of 2,723 (so around 2% of the resident population). Of course, that’s Census 2021 so doesn’t really answer the question about ‘immigrants moving in to the village recently’.

This is where it gets tricky as it's a really difficult one for us to answer.

I’ve spoken to our Resettlement and Humanitarian Support Manager and can say that we haven’t resettled anyone into that area.

There are publicly available statistics which are available at Immigration system statistics data tables.  But they don’t go to LA level never mind any sub LA geography (some of it is by region).

Finally, someone with a right to enter the UK and relevant status could relocate to an area and we simply wouldn't know (several people are living in the east of the County who are international students or living in the UK with a work visa, for example).

I’ve also contacted a colleague in Assessments and Awards to see if there was any way of looking at this via that route, but most would probably be claiming UC** and we wouldn’t see any immigration status on a claim. Potentially we could look at new accounts and cross reference with the Resettlement team but as I said earlier, I’ve already been in touch with them and they haven’t resettled anyone in that area recently.

I’ll keep digging to see what I can find. There is possibly a flag in GP practice medical records that relates to migrant status. I’ve asked a colleague at NECS about it. It might be useful although not all non-UK residents will be registered with a GP either.

**it should be noted that illegal immigrants cannot claim Universal Credit or any other benefits.