County Councillor Liz Maddison provides an update on recent activities:
A few people have asked the position on the footpath between Cheapside and the Doctor’s Surgery. Design work has been completed and an estimate of the cost and a confirmed installation date is awaited. We have stressed the urgency to reconnect this footway that will be in the same position as it was before the Library on Cheapside was demolished.
Road surfacing work on Holborn Road in front of Morrisons and to the side of the Post Office has been temporarily halted until Northumbrian Water have completed some emergency works. It is envisaged that this will not disrupt Highways schedule too much and that they will soon return for one more shift of resurfacing to complete the job.
We have been advised that road surfacing work on Oxford Road, Whitworth Terrace (from Osbourne Road to the four lane ends) and to the junction itself, is expected to be fully complete by Sunday, 3 November. Whitworth Academy agreed to help us in providing parking facilities during this week for those residents that had to remove their cars from Whitworth/Clyde Terrace – we thank them for their offer of help.
Although residents have been significantly inconvenienced whilst Highways work has been underway, we thank everyone for their understanding and sincerely hope that everything will be back to normal, including bus services, by Monday, 4 November.
The damaged bus shelter on High Street has had its panels replaced with extra thick plastic panels. On the same evening that this damage was done several shop owners had their windows pelleted. Repairs are not only an inconvenience but are a significant cost to shopkeepers who can ill afford this drain on their resources. Please report all Anti-Social Behavior to the police and obtain a crime number; that way all incidents can be fully recorded and investigated.
At the last PACT meeting, we learnt that the significant training to deploy our drone has been completed and we will soon see this operational in our neighbourhoods. We are lucky to have been one of the first in the County to be operationally ready to see this technology in use and to benefit from it. I have also made several requests to have additional CCTV cameras installed that will focus on the High Street.
The local authority have received a national scam warning from Parking and Traffic Regulations London (PATROL). They say that some members of the public have been asked to scan a code at the parking meter or received a demand by text from their local authority requesting urgent payment of a parking fee. They ask us to be aware of these scams as a legitimate penalty charge notice would be attached to a windscreen of a vehicle in the authorised yellow envelope or sent by post to the registered keeper of the vehicle.
The activities for the Christmas market on Saturday, 14 December have now been booked. Preparations for this free event have been underway for some time and involved our meeting with officers to discuss ways of making this an extra special event during difficult times.
We know that you will not be disappointed. Posters will be out shortly.
Meetings of the Town’s Board set up to consider all projects identified in public consultations for the £20m funding for Spennymoor have continued, as have meetings of sub groups covering the three themes of Safety and Security; High Street, Heritage and Regeneration and thirdly, Transport and Connectivity. The projects as defined under these themes are ready to go as soon as we have budget commitment from the new Government. Information on this is expected shortly.
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
