10:11am Saturday 20th March 2010
YOUR item, “‘To Let signs are a blight on historic city’” (Echo, March 18), quotes the Durham City Labour MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods, laying into Durham City Council for “failing to act on an eyesore that is upsetting residents”.
She seems to forget that the city council no longer exists and that the new Labour-run Durham County Council has also “failed to act” during the current student letting season.
The fact is that current planning law makes it impossible to prevent landlords from erecting To Let signs on properties that are on offer for a future period, and councils can only insist on removal after the properties are let. Simply asking for restraint by landlords in an increasingly cut-throat student lettings market is almost certainly whistling in the wind.
As the local councillor for the area most blighted (a word I do agree with) I am frustrated by the lack of powers for councils of whatever hue to deal with this issue, and by the Labour MP trying to score cheap political points by accusing the former administration of failing to do something it could not do anyway.
Councillor Nigel Martin, Liberal Democrat, Neville’s Cross Division, Durham County Council.
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