Thousands speak out against planned County Durham tip closures (From The Northern Echo)
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Thousands speak out against planned County Durham tip closures
4:15pm Monday 23rd January 2012 in Durham
THOUSANDS of residents have spoken out against council plans to close six tips.
Durham County Council’s consultation on closing six of its 15 household waste recycling centres closed on Friday.
A council spokeswoman said it had received 770 online comments, 55 paper comments and 100 emails or letters during the exercise.
But thousands of people are said to have signed petitions to save Broomsdene tip, near Leadgate, and Todhills, near Willington.
The centres listed for closure are: Broomsdene; Todhills; Cragwood, near Evenwood; Thornley, east Durham; Hett Hills, near Chester-le-Street; and Stainton Grove, near Barnard Castle.
The following facilities would remain open: Potterhouse, near Pity Me, Durham; Seaham; Horden; Coxhoe; Tudhoe; Heighington Lane, Newton Aycliffe; Roman Way, West Auckland; Annfield Plain; and Middleton-in-Teesdale.
Mobile services would be introduced to cover Weardale, Barnard Castle, Crook and Willington.
Consultation began on Friday, October 28, and was due to close on Friday, December 9, but was extended until Friday, January 20.
The changes are aimed at saving between £1.4m and £1.8m a year. The Labour-led authority is facing nearly £150m in cuts over the next four years, following large reductions in its grant funding from central Government.
The council says it currently operates more recycling centres than most other authorities, but while in some parts of the county tips are within easy reach, in other areas access is limited.
Cragwood tip has been running without planning permission since 2002. Broomsdene is not fully compliant with its Waste Management Licence and its planning permission expires this year, while consent for Todhills is due to end in October.
Durham County Council’s cabinet is expected to take final decisions on closures on Wednesday, April 18.
Comments(18)
D D Coy
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5:45pm Mon 23 Jan 12
D D Coy
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5:52pm Mon 23 Jan 12
David Lacey
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6:09pm Mon 23 Jan 12
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The 3.49% has been cynically chosen because at 3.5% a referendum would be triggered. All North East councils are out of control. But we only have ourselves to blame for voting Labour.
bingbong
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6:56pm Mon 23 Jan 12
David Lacey wrote:Ah yes, but the full story is that the Condems have offered the bribe to stop Council Tax increases for one year only. So, the full story is that the Condems have said "Here Local Council, you can have x thousands of pounds if you do the right thing and promise not to raise Council Tax this year" but then in the small print the Condems have said "But we'll take those x thousands of pounds back off you next year". End result, those councils that take the bribe will actually end up worse off next year.
Well it would D D. The Echo is a labour paper through and through.
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The 3.49% has been cynically chosen because at 3.5% a referendum would be triggered. All North East councils are out of control. But we only have ourselves to blame for voting Labour.
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You've got to hand it to the Condems, it's quite clever really, because they can come out and say how wonderful they are finding some money to keep Council Tax down (and then bash all the naughty councils who say they aren't going to take the bribe). And then quietly next year, take the money back off them. The end result, the councils that take the bribe will have even less money next year, and so have to make more cuts.
bingbong
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7:05pm Mon 23 Jan 12
The Grim North
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7:09pm Mon 23 Jan 12
D D Coy
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8:47pm Mon 23 Jan 12
The Grim North wrote:They aren't going to save anything by doing it this way, it will actually be more intensive and fly tipping will definitely increase around Teesdale area of Natural Beauty.
So when calculating the £1.4 to £1.8m savings per year how much is saved directly by closing the tips and how much extra expenditure have they forcast for clearing up all of the additional sh1te dumped in laybys.
D D Coy
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9:00pm Mon 23 Jan 12
bingbong wrote:For the sake of balance, 14 Councils in total have stated that they intend to increase the Council Tax by upto 3.49% - Ten are Labour run the other Four are either Lib or Con - I failed to omit them from my initial post because they are not from the Northeast Region, for balance I named the four Councils from the Region considering an increase of 3.49%.
Oh, and for the sake of balance (as people seem to suggest there is inbalance in the Northern Echo reporting, but that's another argument!), the stories that have been quoted about Councils considering 3.49% increases......there are Councils of ALL politcal colour (Tory, Liberal and Labour) considering the increases, not just Labour ones.
If Councils learned to curb financial waste, such as paying through the nose for 'Snow Shovels' ( just one example of thousands in the Northeast each week ) then any Council Tax charged would be a balanced amount that reflected the true services that residents receive, as opposed to the currently imbalanced Council Tax that residents have to currently pay Labour Run Councils in the region, roll-on May 2013.
bingbong
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9:37pm Mon 23 Jan 12
D D Coy wrote:Roll-on May 2013? Why? Are you so naive that you believe a Tory (or Lib Dem) run DCC would fair much better?
bingbong wrote: Oh, and for the sake of balance (as people seem to suggest there is inbalance in the Northern Echo reporting, but that's another argument!), the stories that have been quoted about Councils considering 3.49% increases......there are Councils of ALL politcal colour (Tory, Liberal and Labour) considering the increases, not just Labour ones.For the sake of balance, 14 Councils in total have stated that they intend to increase the Council Tax by upto 3.49% - Ten are Labour run the other Four are either Lib or Con - I failed to omit them from my initial post because they are not from the Northeast Region, for balance I named the four Councils from the Region considering an increase of 3.49%. If Councils learned to curb financial waste, such as paying through the nose for 'Snow Shovels' ( just one example of thousands in the Northeast each week ) then any Council Tax charged would be a balanced amount that reflected the true services that residents receive, as opposed to the currently imbalanced Council Tax that residents have to currently pay Labour Run Councils in the region, roll-on May 2013.
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Councils up and down the country (Labour run or otherwise) are closing libraries, Children's Centres, Refuse Tips, Leisure Centres etc etc. The fact DCC happens to be Labour run is largely irrelevant. For example, I believe North Yorkshire CC (a true blue County) are closing numerous libraries, reducing opening times and closing refuse tips etc etc. And that's just one example, I'm sure there are countless others
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The reality is, the savings required by ALL Councils, regardless of politcal persuasion, can't be achieved by just sacking a few managers, cutting councillors expenses and reducing the Chief Execs pay, despite what the tabloid press (and I include the Northern Echo in that) would try and make you believe.
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I don't deny there's waste in local councils, but to believe the savings required can be achieved without cutting front line services is fantasy. If that were so, surely all the Tory run councils would be towing the party line and protecting all their front line services.......which they are not.
cllrmarkwilkes
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9:41pm Mon 23 Jan 12
D D Coy
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10:13pm Mon 23 Jan 12
"THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER" with new blood running the Authority, the balance of power at Durham County Council lies in just half a dozen seats, the electorate has had enough.
Starting from 2008 DCC needed to concentrate on its core front-line services at the new authority by restructuring and streamlining those services. Then a review of the other 300+ non core services, many not even required could either have been reduced to the bone or terminated.
The mess that DCC finds itself in stems form the complacency of its 'Labour Controlled Cabinet' and its Leaders that promised savings of £21m per annum, those savings of £21m were most definitely required but did not materialise, as DCCLG did nothing about those proposed savings, until 2011.
D D Coy
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10:20pm Mon 23 Jan 12
David Lacey
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5:54pm Tue 24 Jan 12
David Lacey
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5:58pm Tue 24 Jan 12
David Lacey
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5:58pm Tue 24 Jan 12
David Lacey
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5:59pm Tue 24 Jan 12
D D Coy
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6:39pm Tue 24 Jan 12
D D Coy says...
5:42pm Mon 23 Jan 12
"Mobile Tips will become a Mecca for fly-tippers, who will leave their waste every day of the week, at the designated mobile sites, this happens in other areas of the UK".
About the only thing that Simon Hinge decided in 2008 was to increase Cllrs allowances from £10,000 to £50,000 per annum & Directors salaries for the increased responsibility.
They all sat on their laurels increasing the Council Tax annually, making Durham County Council one of the highest Council Taxes in the UK. They didn't think about restructuring the giant authority until Autumn 2010 when the Condems stopped more of the handouts.
In 2006 Albert Nugent Leader of DCC promised savings of £21m per annum for four years, and at least 600 redundancies if the New Super Authority was created.
"THEY KNEW CUTS & SAVINGS HAD TO BE DONE BUT DID NOTHING! THEY LEFT BOTH TIERS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN PLACE!"
The mess created by Labour at DCC is now totally out of control and the authority will be lucky to escape either 'bankruptcy, special measures or both'.
DCC has recently paid £13,800 for 770 snow shovels and 770 bags of rock salt, that can be bought on-line by anyone for a total of £6,100 inc vat,
saving DCC £7700. Including surplus stock of 30 snow shovels and 350 bags of rock salt.
It doesn't take rocket scientists to save cash just common-sense and a little effort. Thousands of transactions / purchase orders each week by DCC soon add-up to £millions of pounds in savings each year.
A team of buyers should now be installed by a private company at County Hall, working on a no win, no fee contract, earning perhaps a 2% commission of any savings made, and worth every single penny to the tax payer!