At its Full Council meeting on the 25th April, the City of Durham Parish Council voted
unanimously in favour of entering into a service level agreement with Durham County Council to
provide additional Neighbourhood Warden services for the Parish area.
The move comes following a recommendation by the Parish Council Environment Committee.
The Committee has received a number of complaints from residents relating to dog fouling,
littering, bins being left out for long periods of time and dangerous car parking, etc.
The benefits of the Council taking up this offer could be significant due to the heightened
responsiveness to environmental issues and a substantial increase in proactive environmental
enforcement. This has already benefitted other Parish Councils which have signed up to this
arrangement including Stanley and Spennymoor.
The Neighbourhood Warden would deal with all local incidents in relation to fly-tipping,
littering, dog fouling, nuisance parking, waste accumulations, graffiti and waste duty of care
offences. They would also carry out proactive work in relation to dog fouling and littering and to
identify specific neighbourhood problems at an early stage. The Warden will work closely with
the Parish Council to identify hotspots and areas that are causing concern for residents and
businesses. The Warden will also be involved in publicity and education of the public in all
aspects of environmental issues within the Parish area and be able to carry out mini-campaigns in
problem areas to tackle local environmental problems in particular problem areas.
Fixed Penalty Notices can be issued by the Neighbourhood Warden to those who commit an
offence.
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council Environment Committee, Cllr Victoria Ashfield said,
“the City of Durham Parish Council was established to be a voice for residents in our area and
this project will respond to some of the most significant concerns expressed to us. It has therefore
been high on our list of priorities to address and I am so pleased that this is now going ahead. We
will continue to listen to residents to help us to pinpoint precisely where and when the worst
problems are happening so that we can focus the Neighbourhood Wardens on these times and
areas. We hope residents will continue to keep in touch with us and we hope that the programme
will encourage the offenders to change their behaviour”.

At an extraordinary meeting of the City of Durham Parish Council this week, Councillors voted unanimously in favour of seeking a judicial review into the proposed new County Headquarters scheme.
The extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council was called after Councillors received legal advice from Richard Buxton Solicitors that certain aspects of the scheme were legally flawed and there were a number of grounds for a judicial review into the proposed new County Headquarters and the process by which the decision to approve these plans was made.
Last week, the City of Durham Parish Council vowed to continue the fight against the new £50 million County Headquarters on the Sands after the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire MP decided not to call in the application.
The plans to relocate the County Council Headquarters from its current site of Aykley Heads to a new building on the Sands car park have faced overwhelming opposition from across County Durham and beyond. In addition to a call-in request from the City of Durham Parish Council and other local bodies, a change.org campaign amongst residents requesting that the Secretary of State call in the application had reached over 4,700 signatures.
Members of the public attending the extraordinary Parish Council meeting on Wednesday expressed anger at the impact the proposals would have on the local area and the City.
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council, Cllr Elizabeth Scott said, “throughout all of this, what we have seen from this County Council is well-established and Saved Local Plan policies being disregarded and an avoidance of any accountability whatsoever to the welfare of the residents of Durham City and the fabric of our City. For many of us who have fought these plans, there seems to have been a sense of pre-determination from the outset, with the County Council operating a ‘one stop shop’ in its determination of these plans. Last week we vowed to continue our fight and fight on we shall. As such, the Parish Council has now resolved to seek a judicial review of the scheme, with the aim that the County Council goes back to the drawing board on its plans for a new headquarters. People far and wide have expressed their opposition to these plans and we want them to know that the City of Durham Parish Council will continue to be a voice for this City. The impact of the proposed new £50m County HQ on our much-loved World Heritage site, our local amenity, traffic flows, parking, local residents and our environment will be hugely damaging.”

Integrated risk management plan consultation 2018-2019 events.

The consultation event taking place at Durham Station (Sniperley Farm, Sniperley Park, Lanchester Road, Durham, DH1 5RA) is on 15 January 2019 6.30 pm – 8.30 pm. The leaflet advertising all the events can be found here:

CONSULTATION EVENTS

The link to the online consultation document can be found at https://www.ddfire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Final%20draft%207.pdf

The online questionnaire can be found at
https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/IRMP201819/

The public notice for the Finance Committee taking place on 7 December 2018 has been published.

The City of Durham Parish Council met on 5 September 2018 to consider and respond to the planning application concerning the proposed new Durham County Council HQ and associated works.  View the parish council’s objection.