Earlier this week Stacey and I met with the Community Action Team (CAT) and a number of partner agencies to take part in an initial street walkabout through the numbered streets. The purpose of the walkabout was to enable the CAT team to see for themselves the different types of environmental and housing issues facing the area, and also to map the most affected locations for attention during the CAT project.
When the findings from the walkabout were discussed later the same day at a meeting of the partner agencies involved it was obvious that issues around fly-tipping, dog fouling and the condition of some of the empty private-sector houses were the main issues to be prioritised during the CAT project.
Those issues are identical to most of those raised frequently by residents, and it came as no surprise to those of us who interact with residents on a daily basis and deal with similar issues all year round.
At a separate public engagement exercise carried out before and after the Blackhall PACT meeting on Wednesday night residents took the opportunity to choose the 3 main issues they saw as a priority for attention by the CAT team. As expected, the priority issues identified by residents reflected the same issues we’d picked up on the street walkabout. These included rubbish dumped in back yards, the management of some private sector properties, dog fouling in several locations, off-road bikes and reports of anti-social behaviour in one or two of the streets in the targeted area.
As a result of the street walkabout, and from a number of engagement sessions with residents recently, the CAT team and their partners now have a clearer idea of local priorities and of the issues to be addressed over the remaining period of the project, which will run until April.
We'll continue to work closely with the team throughout the CAT programme, so if you have any issues you would like us to raise on your behalf please get in touch with us direct at: rob.crute@durham.gov.uk or stacey.deinali@durham.gov.uk
For more details about the Community Action Team project please follow this link to an article I published earlier this month: Community Action Team project in Blackhall Colliery
