Cllr Liz Maddison has provided an update of activities on behalf of Spennymoor’s independent county councillors.
The whole of the Festival Walk pathway from Greggs up to High Street, including the extra drainage work, is still on target to complete in circa ten weeks. DCC will be taking the pathway over and new seating and bins will be put in on this top level.
Hellens have filled in potholes on their rear car park and have been asked if they could refresh line markings and disabled bays to avoid congestion in this area.
We have found that a number of tops for the street barriers are missing. All of these barriers are within the town centre boundary. Officers have been asked if more can be supplied to replace these. If anyone should find any of these tops could you let us know.
Following a request I made last year to replace damaged and rusted litter bins, new bins have been installed across the whole of the town centre. Any bins that can be refurbished will be repaired and re-used across our area. Lighting columns that were also identified for a spruce up have now been repainted.
Following the successful relocation of the library to its new base in the leisure centre, Cllr McAloon and I visited the centre to view the completed set up. The area is warm and welcoming and on the day we visited there were lots of people looking around. Library staff advised that there was a large community space available for meetings and events. Any community groups, schools and other public and private organisations can book this room by contacting the library staff directly.
It was noticed that bikes had been left just outside the entrance. I am pleased to report that a secure bike storage facility will be installed soon. I have asked if there are any plans to refresh the car park arrangements in front of the old entrance.
The play area and small football pitch on land off St Andrew’s Way has not yet opened but is making good progress to be completed. This was part funded by Tudhoe Division members. There will also be a wild flower and walking route around this area. We hope this will be a welcome facility for the area.
We continue to identify and report issues across our two Divisions including anti-social behaviour, litter and flytipping, damaged street furniture, road signage, potholes, road markings, path repairs, cutting back of hedges and verges and other environmental issues and are working with officers and with Livin to resolve these.
We have also supported projects with our Member funding that, when complete, will feature in a future report.
We were invited to a meeting with Thirteen Group a social housing provider who manage and build homes. They already own a small number of properties in the town but have secured 48 properties on Cornish Park, Merrington Lane, that will be a mix of apartments, detached and attached homes that will be built over the period 2023-2025; a small number will be available in 2023. They do have bungalows in Spennymoor but do not plan any for Cornish Park. Their representative gave us an insight into their future plans. We have arranged a walkabout around their housing stock and their planned development.
The planning proposal reported in the last edition of Spennymoor News for a possible 214 homes off Whitworth Road has now come through as a planning application (ref. DM/23/02170/FPA). This has been called in to DCC Planning Committee. Comments from members of the public should be directed here quoting the above reference number. As soon as we have a date for the Planning Committee meeting we will provide this information. No one has asked me to arrange a further consultation event with the developers following the invitation made in last edition.
We hope you enjoy the remainder of the summer holidays. Council meetings resume in the first week of September.
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