Councillor Liz Maddison has provided an update of activities.
Dates for your diary, all in Market area:
Christmas lights switch on: Saturday 30th November, from 3.45pm.
Christmas Market event: Saturday 14th December, 12pm – 6pm.
Saturday, 24th May 2025: Circus event*
*We have already contributed our Member Neighbourhood funding to secure and plan this circus event in May 2025 that will be held just after Council elections in May, to ensure this special event goes ahead.
The play area project behind Craddock Street is making progress with some of the equipment now installed. A kiddies cycle path is planned, similar to the one at the play area in Moorside, Middlestone Moor, installed in 2018.
The new footpath from Auckland Walk to corner Church Street, Byers Green, is now finished.
Member Funding for a sensory room at King Street School has been issued.
We are awaiting a new completion date for Cheapside works, following unexpected delays.
I am pleased to report that the bushes on the back road from Middlestone Moor to Old Park Terrace (Slowly) towards Byers Green, a renowned area for flytipping, have been removed, making this area more visible and a deterrent to stop the constant flytipping in this area.
A flytip on the approach to the sewerage plant in Tudhoe was reported and removed quickly. Neighbourhood Wardens have been asked if they will patrol more hot spots where there is regular dog fouling and flytipping.
Cllr McAloon and I attended a recent PACT meeting and raised more issues with the police concerning ASB in our areas; some issues have now been addressed.
We learnt that one offender responsible for a number of thefts has been given a three year custodial sentence.
We were also advised that the new Police Custody Suite off the A167 close to the Coach & Horses roundabout is due to open mid December 2024.
Weather dependent, the protected right hand turn into Burton Woods, the path widening and the lighting works down to Paige Grove on Whitworth Road will start early January 2025 with an anticipated handover, including any snagging jobs complete, by end of June 2025. I have been notified that two way traffic lights will be in place on this road.
A resident has reported that some construction traffic from the Countryside Partnerships development on Whitworth Road had been seen on Burton Woods roads.
In answer to my questions raised at the planning meeting, it was stated that all traffic was to enter this site from the left off Whitworth Road and leave from the left along Whitworth Road to Brancepeth, avoiding Burton Woods. The Planning Authority have been notified and asked for this condition to be enforced.
I have been working with officers to address areas of blind spots on access points near to the One Stop Shop on Grayson Road, Middlestone Moor. It has been agreed that bollards will be installed early next year to deter inappropriate parking causing these blind spots.
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