One of the tasks of the Town Council is to represent ‘the voice of the people’ in matters affecting the town, and the Full Council meeting of Wednesday 31st October addressed a number of such issues.
Mr Robin Turnbull, District Manager for the Fire Service, gave a presentation on their move to a ‘Day Current Plus’ shift system (12-hour shifts with ‘standby’ hours). This will allow the Service to reduce the number of full-time firefighters from 24 to 14. In response to Councillors’ questions, he assured members that a 24/7 immediate operational response would be maintained, that staff welcomed the change in work-pattern, and that no member of staff would be sacked.
Livin representatives Ian Brown and Wayne Harris gave a presentation to the Council of some of the initiatives Livin are undertaking in the Great Aycliffe area. Members were impressed by the excellent standard of the houses Livin are building, and heard that – in addition to c.450 new houses over the next three years – Livin hopes to bring 30 empty houses back into use.
As Councillors asked questions, however, they learned that Aycliffe is a high-demand area for affordable rental housing, with some 1,800 on the waiting list. It seemed to members that the provision of housing was not keeping up to the demand, and Council Leader Bob Fleming stated that Livin would need to be a key partner in the Council’s forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan.
Councillors heard a presentation by Mr Stuart Timmiss (DCC Head of Assets and Planning) on the County Durham Plan. He described it as ‘a Plan of opportunities’ for development which was sustainable AND deliverable, protecting the wonderful quality of life we have in County Durham. (It is the only Plan in the country which specifically plans for older people’s housing.)
Councillors thanked Mr Timmiss for the way the consultation process really had listened to people’s comments, and taken on board many of their suggestions for the town (notably in the amount of development land identified). Councillors heard also that the Neighbourhood Plan will allow residents to protect Aycliffe’s green spaces and amenity land, and to encourage the provision of the kind of housing needed.
Responding to an initiative by Councillor W Curtis, members discussed the changes to bus services, which are seriously inconveniencing and angering residents. Bus services are difficult for the Town Council to influence because Arriva is a private company and subsidised routes are a County Council matter. Nevertheless, members felt that the current situation is grossly unacceptable, and unanimously agreed a motion that GATC should try to arrange a meeting of interested parties, to see if anything can be done.
The Council expressed its disappointment that the Boundaries Commission had not listened to its submission regarding the constituency boundary, but had insisted on splitting Aycliffe between Bishop Auckland and Stockton North constituencies.
The Boundaries Commission had now placed itself in the situation where, by insisting that it could not split a County Council ward, they were in fact splitting a County Council ward, because it had refused to acknowledge a recent change in boundaries which the Boundaries Commission itself had made (…so that it might not split a Count Council ward)! Councillors delegated Councillor Clare and the Town Clerk to write to the Boundaries Commission asking that the decision be changed.
John D Clare
Great Aycliffe Town Council
