A decision has now been made on the Cheapside area of Festival Walk and a communication plan of intended works will be shared to the public in the coming months after the plan is fully developed, writes Cllr Liz Maddison on behalf of Spennymoor’s independent County Councillors.
Works will start on the pathways of the shopping area circa August and should take 10 weeks to complete. The work has been organised to minimise on any disruption to pedestrians and shops.
The Leisure Centre is due to re-open to the public w/c 17 July with the library relocated at the new main entrance. There is more work still to do that will take full completion into next year but the Technical Team will work with the public to keep any disruption to a minimum whilst the work progresses.
Find and Fix are completing any remaining Town Centre handrail painting and cleaning up of the Spennymoor signs. The Lighting Team will complete the painting of the top half of the lighting columns along St Andrew’s Way. I hope everyone agrees that Find and Fix have done an excellent spruce up of the street furniture.
I have sent reminders for some outstanding works; repainting of road markings, filling in of potholes and the damaged barrier on corner of High Street to Oxford Road and cutting back of verges.
The bus shelters on High Street are to be replaced and a date for their installation has been requested.
In the last two weeks we have attended the Byers Green Carnival and the Spennymoor Gala – both run by volunteers. This year there was a fantastic turn out of families celebrating these annual events. Thank you to all volunteers who helped organise these events. Cllr McAloon and I were invited by Culine Amusements to their open afternoon for special needs children to enjoy the fun of the fair. All said they had had a good time!
The 30mph weathered sign on the approach to Byers Green is to be replaced in the next few weeks. Clean and Green have also been reminded about the verges on the approach roads.
A fly tip was identified off the C152 on approach to the Daisy Fields this week and immediately cleaned up. We would ask anyone seeing fly tipping to report it to the police as soon as possible and obtain a crime number so all incidents are logged and followed up.
A meeting has been organised to discuss ‘target hardening’ on Merrington View car park to stop illegal encampments and fly tipping.
Works are planned to install bollards on Central Drive, paid for from mine and Cllr Molloy’s funding to stop destruction of grass verges caused by off road parking.
The underpass on Carr Lane at the Ash Tree is currently being strengthened.
Residents attended a consultation event to discuss a potential plan to build 214 homes off Whitworth Road. Cllr Molloy and I also attended and asked for further information on a few issues, including safe access onto Whitworth Road, speed issues, drainage plans and the short notice provided to residents for this consultation. This event was published in Spennymoor News before the consultation event took place. The developer has promised a full response to these questions and will also look at the possibility of organising an online event.
Time is running out for residents to respond to Boundary Commission suggestions for changes to Spennymoor and Tudhoe Division boundaries and a suggestion to rename Local Authority areas to Spennymoor West and Spennymoor East. Click here to add your comments by 6 July.
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