I am saddened to report that another bus shelter, owned by the Town Council, has been damaged, reports Cllr Liz Maddison, this time on Carr Street, Carr Lane on the Greenways Estate. Having reported the incident to police, I removed the brick off the road that had been thrown at the panels together with large slivers of glass that could have caused serious injury.
There have been two separate flytip drops on the bridleway close to Whitehouse road roundabout. Neighbourhood Wardens are investigating.
We were invited to an award ceremony organised by Spennymoor Boxing Club to celebrate the outstanding achievements in the past year of their boxers. Congratulations to all boxers, young and old, who are a credit to this popular club.
The installation of the new play area on Bessemer Park should be completed by the start of the six weeks holidays. There will no longer be any trees planted on this area but there will still be a small kickabout area for football along with a wildflower and grass meadow with cut paths that will produce a show of wild flowers next spring.
A commemorative sign has been placed on each of the two King’s Coronation flower planting schemes in Spennymoor Division, with thanks to Clean and Green.
Cllr McAloon and I met up with the Gypsy and Traveller representative and police to look at the car park site on Merrington View to discuss temporary measures to stop up verges and prevent illegal encampments. The site has been identified to site nine houses and for improvements to the pathway running behind.
The new reception area and new entrance to the Leisure Centre opened this week with the library space having been completed and awaiting transfer of the current library to its new site. Spennymoor Library will close for one week from 31 July until 6 August to allow for the transfer. Surveys will then start on the old library site before a decision is made on its future use or demolition.
Phase 2 of the refurbishment and transformation will involve works at the pool end of the building and accommodate the soft play, cafe and water play improvements. The latter works will involve a further period of pool closure but timescales for this will be advised closer to the dates. Improvements are likely to continue into next spring and summer with minimal disruption to leisure centre users.
The Little Brass Bash held in the Market Area was a great success. We have asked if next year we could have a third band play, which we would again fund from our Member Neighbourhood budget. I will let you know how this request progresses and what other events we can put on in this area. Thanks to Greggs and the Sweet Shop for staying open to provide refreshments and to the events team and Clean and Green for cleaning up the area afterwards.
St Paul’s will be providing three commemorative services to welcome veterans to the church. These events will serve Army, RAF and Royal Navy veterans to commemorate and remember past conflicts and peace and provide an opportunity to give thanks together as a community. These services will be held on 30 July (70th Anniversary Korean War); 17 September (Battle of Britain) and 22 October (Trafalgar). County Councillors for Spennymoor Division have provided match funding to help the church to host the events.
Work on the Festival Walk pathway is still planned to start early August with disruption kept to a minimum.
The promised bus shelter replacements on High Street are still outstanding and has been chased.
The mural event in the town finished with a meet and greet at the Town Hall with the artists. Lots of people have viewed the work which has brightened an otherwise dull corner of the town. Well done to those involved with this project and to the shopkeepers who allowed their walls to be used. We have been talking with the artist, Lewis, about another possible project.
Barratts’ update has advised that the road between Lotherton Drive and Gibside Way (at the point of their compound) will be the last to be surfaced with completion around August to early September.
All other remedials of ironworks and street signage have been picked up.
Countryside Partnerships who recently held a consultation event to discuss a possible 214 homes to be built behind Paige Grove on Whitworth Road have offered a further on line consultation event. Please get in touch if you would like me to fix this up.
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
