Main Guestbook
Disclaimer | Privacy Statement
I've tried to download your PDF version of your Unitary Authority bid several times now and it will not download.
Is there a problem with it?
John Docherty, [email protected], Lanchester, Durham, 26/01/2007 12:59:52
Web Administrator: Hi there. There is currently a problem with the size of the file. Hopefully this will be resolved shortly.
I heard in the news that Durham County Council is to receive a windfall of over �10 million from the expansion of Newcastle airport.
As a local taxpayer, I was wondering what the County Treasurer's plans are for this money.
Peter Garfield, Consett, 03/01/2007 17:57:31
Web Administrator: Our Treasurer's department says: The receipt for County Durham is �9.8m and has already been received. County Councillors on 20 February have decided to "return" almost �2.5m to Council taxpayers in Durham by keeping the Council Tax increase to a 10 year low of 2.9%. Councillors will decide in the coming months what they will do with the balance. In the meantime, the money has been invested and is earning interest for the benefit of the Council and its taxpayers.
I have just heard that Durham County Council is looking to close three libraries. Please can you tell me why and which ones are to be closed?
Name Withheld, Durham, UK, 27/11/2006 12:47:34
Web Administrator: Patrick Conway, Director of Culture and Leisure says:
Thank you for your enquiry about the possible closure of three libraries in County Durham.
The County Council is currently undertaking a consultation exercise on the 2007/08 budget and I advise you to examine the documentation on the website. If you have difficulty in accessing the website, hard copies are available at your local library. There is an opportunity to make your views known by 30 November, so these can be taken into account as the Council continues its work on preparing the 2007/08 budget.
Faced with some very difficult decisions about the budget, competing priorities for investment and the level of council tax, the Council has prepared lists of budget reductions totalling just over �15 million. You will see the full detail on the reports out for consultation.
These options do include the possible closure of three libraries. I must emphasise no final decisions have been taken and views of the public are being actively canvassed before any of the savings actions are further considered.
As regards the closure of libraries, no specific locations have yet been identified. Should this option be pursued, further local consultation would take place.
Were closures required, it would be due to financial pressures facing Durham County Council and not because of a loss of importance. Ideally, the County Council wishes to develop its network of libraries as key community assets, accessible to all for recreational use, lifelong and family learning, information and advice, and as venues for activities and events.
Please visit the website indicated above for details of the budget consultation exercise, or visit your local library for a hard copy.
Patrick Conway
Director, Culture and Leisure
Durham County Council
The Rivergreen Centre
Aykley Heads
Durham
DH1 5TS
Sorry for your time.... Why i can't see images on this resource?
My Browser is: Opera.
Thank you.
Green_Monkey23, [email protected], Los Angeles, USA, 13/10/2006 01:20:18
Web Administrator: Hi there. Thanks for your comments about being unable to use the Durham County Council website in Opera. Opera is one of the browsers that the DCC web team work in, so we would appreciate more information about your problem, so we could try and re-create it here. Thanks.
Looking for anyone who lived on SECOND ST Horden BETWEEN NOS 77-89 BETWEEN YRS 1920 1960S. mY RELATIVES LIVED THERE THEN OLIVERS AND sMITHS jUDDS
lcair, [email protected], Kirkby In Ashfield, Nottingham, uk, 04/08/2006 18:25:05
Looked through your site. Good work! Ken.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], USA, 20/06/2006 10:16:12
Have you seen the newspapers about these idiots who are spending their time removing County Durham road signs over some protest to do with the historic county of Durham? Have they nothing else better to do with their time or something more important to protest about? Which County Durham are they on about? There is the administrative county which excludes Darlington or the pre '92 administrative one that included Darlington or the ceremonial one that the lord lieutenant covers which includes Darlington and part of Stockton or the pre 1974 county which included Gateshead and Sunderland or the medieval Durham which included parts of North Northumberland like Bamburgh and Holy Island. Maybe they want to re-establish the ancient kingdom of Northumbria or the Danelaw. Why stop there. What about the Roman Empire?
History lessons aside, these idiots are costing the taxpayers of the county hundreds of pounds and should be prosecuted. That will teach them a lesson that they should not forget.
Peter Garfield, Consett, 02/06/2006 13:29:36
As a local tax payer I'm glad to see that efforts are being made by DCC to encourage recycling and promote a more eco-friendly attitude amongst the people of County Durham. May I ask what efforts are being made to reduce DCC's own waste? And what percentage of waste is recycled eg at County Hall? Thankyou!
Name Withheld, Durham City, Durham, UK, 21/05/2006 15:00:25
Web Administrator:
Thanks for your enquiry. Two examples of waste minimisation measures within DCC are:
1: Pilot programme at County Hall trialling the use of networked photocopier/printer/scanner machines to replace existing stand alone separate devices. These Multi-Functional Devices default to double sided and should help to significantly reduce the volume of paper currenty used for printing and photocopying.
2: 'Excess packaging' clauses included as standard in tender documents for all centrally-negotiated DCC contracts.
In terms of reducing waste to landfill DCC has several additional measures in place. In summary these include:
- Paper and cardboard recycling scheme at 65 DCC properties (libraries, care homes, offices etc.).
- School WasteWise project (based at Esh Winning Primary School) providing learning support and practical sustainable waste management advice to DCC Schools.
- County Hall recycling schemes include: office paper, cardboard, plastic wrapping, fluorescent tubes, aluminium drinks cans, waste cooking oil, wooden pallets, toner cartridges and mobile phones.
- Aerobic digestor route for general waste collected at County Hall (instead of going to landfill much of the general office waste from County Hall goes to Premier Waste's aerobic digester at Thornley Station. The biodegradeable element is turned into soil conditioner. Metals and plastics are recovered for recycling).
- Service Direct recycling: DCC's Service Direct have a comprehensive recycling programme for their waste including paper, cardboard, street lamps and construction waste.
My best guess at a current recycling rate for County Hall is around 60% (this is mainly due to the use of the aerobic digestor for general waste and low grade papers, but also includes around 100 tonnes of office paper recycled through the office paper recycling scheme).
The recycling rate for Durham County Council as a whole is much lower than this, although the new paper and cardboard collection scheme is helping. We plan to extend this from 65 sites to 85 sites by March 2007.
The situation in our 311 schools is very varied. Some have very high recycling rates, many others still have very low recycling rates.
If you would like any further details, please don't hesitate to contact me. I will try my best to answer any further questions which you might have.
Best wishes.
Ed Turnbull
Sustainable Environment Policy Officer
Durham County Council
Tel: 0191 383 4901
Read with interests the advice that you gave to name withheld of Consett regarding Council Tax. They were aggrieved that they were faced with a large Council Tax bill and you told them to contact their district council.
Surely, 80% of the bill relates to the Durham County Council charge and you must take responsibility for this. Indeed, their district council (Derwentside) didn't even increase their charge this year!!!
Peter Garfield, 11/05/2006 18:24:53
Read with interest the new political appointments on the website. I notice that Mr Clive Robson is a member of your Cabinet AND is a Chair of one of your Scrutiny Committees.
Isn't this illegal?
Peter Garfield, 11/05/2006 18:18:38
Web Administrator: Cllrs Clive Robson and Cllr Alan Cox both obtained positions on the Cabinet at the annual meeting of the County Council on 10 May 2006. The annual meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee is being held on Monday 15 May 2006, where new appointments will be made. The website will be updated to reflect these changes as soon as possible after this meeting.
Congratulations DCC on your new choice of leader-to some extent restores my faith in politics against the world of 'spin and modernisers'which are bywords for privatising/profiteering /money for consultants and fatcats.
Timely reminder that people who care can still make a difference.
Name Withheld, durham, co durham, uk, 30/04/2006 16:11:26
Good site!
Ivan, Love the site, if nothing else it's varied in content. George Ford, [email protected], Trimdon Station, Durham, England, 10/03/2006 22:10:09 I am gravely disappointed that after some considerable public warning from the Met. Office, the roads around Stanley were neither gritted nor ploughed during the inclement weather between Christmas and New Year. S. Devlin, 03/01/2006 10:30:55 Web Administrator: Our Highway Management division made the following response: I am moving to County Durham soon and have started looking at several sites related to the county. As I use the internet on a handheld and my limit for the month is an 8 meg I really appreciated the text only capability of your site - I use the BBC as text only a great deal but many sites lack this useful feature so I was delighted to find that yours does until I discovered that it is limited to certain parts of the site only. Can I ask why and whether you plan to complete the job. D Packer, London, 28/12/2005 21:11:13 Web Administrator: Thank you for your message. We are currently developing our systems to enable us to offer text only functionality over the entire site. It is something we are certainly working towards. In the meantime, however, we'd be happy to help with any individual requests for specific information if we are able to. Please feel free to contact us. Hi all Name Withheld, Durham, 12/11/2005 22:07:15 Web Administrator: The following reply has been provided by our Environment department: Small gripe. having had my assisted bus travel application refused becasue of a college 1.5 miles away from the one I chose (and have no choice but to go to due to limited places) I would just like to call into question how it costs the council more to get me that 1.5 further considering the bus cards cost the same. Spike, 19/08/2005 10:42:37 Web Administrator: Our Education department say: Hi TenHourDays, Thornley, Durham, 08/07/2005 12:09:34 Web Administrator: Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We would be grateful if you could contact us to provide further information so that we can look into this for you. Please contact our complaints co-ordinator on 0191 383 5580 or use the complaint form on this website. Superb site, I have bought certificates with reference to tracing my ancestors. These have been of excellent value and content. The issue of documents are first class. Keep up the very good service. TREVOR BROWN, PETERBOROUGH, 29/06/2005 05:16:51 Wondering if anyone can help. My friends parents and grandparents all came from around the Durham area. Sadly she has had no contact with any of them and desperately wants to try and locate her two half sisters and any other relatives that she may have. linda fisher, [email protected], Hemel Hempstead, Herts, U.K., 25/05/2005 16:20:37 Comment from Simon Duncalfe ... Name Withheld, 25/05/2005 15:55:19 Web Administrator: Thanks for your comments Simon, we hope that you continue to find our website useful. Excellent online facilities for ordering certificates for family history, 24hr turn around and confirmation emails. Saves me a trip up to search the archives. Will continue to use it for more research. Wish all the counties were as forward thinking as DCC. I was born and bred in Ferryhill and now tracing my roots. Keep up the good work. John Rowley, Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK, 24/03/2005 13:57:50 i would like to say how fantastic your online services are for finding records of births and marriages. tracey davey, co durham, uk, 09/02/2005 21:17:48 I am looking for any relatives of my father's. His name was John Young and he was born in Houghton-le-Spring (D'arcy Street or Sunderland Street)in 1884; his father's name was William and he had a sister who was slightly older than him named Margaret. Margaret was married to William Carney and lived in Annie Street Sunderland when she got married. Emma McFall, liverpool, england, 02/01/2005 16:00:31 trying to obtain details of my mother& lindsay mckenna, [email protected], bolton lancs, 29/12/2004 12:43:16 My husband myself and two young children we will be relocating to County Durham next year 2005 for 12 months. Natalie Wood, [email protected], durham, australia, 16/11/2004 01:41:45 This is a truly impressive website. I've not yet had the pleasure of visiting Durham, but it all feels familiar to me already! Lynne Simpson, [email protected], North Wales, 12/11/2004 20:27:02 I'm feeling a little aggrieved - landed with large council tax bill (Band E), and on a water meter (new build house).I recycle everything I possibly can, planning to put our new baby in reusable nappies (guess what Durham doesn't have an incentive scheme - Newcastle offer �30 towards cost of buying nappies). I realise that you offer details of a nappy laundering service, but pre-fold nappies wouldn't be first choice of many parents and could actually put some parents off using reusable nappies in the long-term - not good for containment with breast-fed babies. I feel that having moved from London to County Durham, the system is penalising me every way it can ....... !! Name Withheld, Consett, Co Durham, UK, 12/11/2004 16:53:38 Web Administrator: Dear Anne-Louise,
If you have any queries over your council tax you will need to speak to your local district council.
It's good to hear you recycle everything you possibly can. Some Council's do offer incentive schemes or real nappies in various ways and in terms of 'value for money for the public' depending on how successful these other schemes are, we will investigate the introduction of real nappy incentives. The nappy laundering service is quite popular and real nappy alternatives are getting better and cheaper. Find out more about the Real Nappy Laundering Service. As your local MP won't answer comments by outside parties, I am writing to you. I find it appalling that Hilary Armstrong is now using "strong arm" tactics re the Hunting Bill. Better to have an MP who adopts a "for" or "against" position so that constituents know where they stand with their MP. I suggest this MP is putting her own interests before those of the voters of County Durham - and indeed of the whole countyr - while pandering to Tony Blair to enhance her status within the party. Shame on her and County Durham! Mary Clarke, [email protected], Seaford, East Sussex, UK, 12/11/2004 15:28:55 Can anyone tell me about a little village in Durham County called Framwellgate Moor R.D. AS MY MOTHER, whose maiden name was Ford WAS BORN 1898 AT 110 Pump Row. it would be interesting to find out if the house still exists.& of course any relatives. I believe my great grandmother was Irish. Mary Meikle, [email protected], newcastle, N.S.W., Australia, 12/10/2004 06:38:16
Can anyone help me and explain the history behind the Pavilion, near Preben's Bridge, with greek pillars and the bench with supports in the shape of serpents just opposite. Is it anything to do with the tale of the Lambton Worm?
It seems that although the roads are designated to be cleared (as evidenced by the map on the Roads and Pathways Maintenance section of this site), no action was taken. Adding further to my disappointment, travelling outside Stanley in this period, it was evident that the authorities at both Chester-Le-Street and Sunderland were able to act appropriately and treat their roads. So my immediate question is why was Stanley unable to respond the the needs of it's road-users?
Although having contacted the Highways Agency through a web form on this site, I have yet to receive a response which I would greatly appreciate.
Thankyou for your guest book entry left on our website on 3rd January 2006 concerning the apparent lack of response in Stanley and firstly may I apologise for the delay in replying, due mainly to the fact I have been trying to validate some information to give to you now.
I can assure you that the whole of our fleet was mobilised and fully utilised during the severe weather experienced over the Christmas period. Stanley area is treated using a gritter based in Morrison Depot at Annfield Plain where we have five gritters based. The following is a short timetable of the usage of the gritters based at this depot.
Monday 26th December 2005, Snow Salt - 18.00 - 21.00
Tuesday 27th December 2005, Snow Salt - 05.00 - 09.00, Snow Salt/Plough - 15.00 - 24.00
Wednesday 28th December 2005, Snow Salt/Plough - 04.00 - 24.00
Thursday 29th December 2005, Snow Salt/Plough - 04.00 - 22.00
Friday 30th December 2005, Snow Salt/Plough - 00.01 - 21.00
Saturday 31st December 2005, PreSalt - 04.00 - 07.30, PreSalt - 18.00 - 23.00
Sunday 1st January 2006, PreSalt - 05.00 - 08.00, PreSalt - 20.00 - 23.00
Monday 2nd January 2006, Standby -05.00 - 07.00
The salt used from this depot over this period amounted to 1001 tonnes.
As can be seen above our fleet was used extensively in this area, however I will take on board your comments and should you experience similar circumstances again please do not hesitate to contact me.
I travel everyday through Nevilles Cross and every day I have to look at the eyesore that has been painted on the Bridge Barriers both left and right.
We live and should be proud to live in and around a beautiful historic city such as Durham, so why are we trying to make it look like south tyneside.
Who gave permission for such a pathetic load of tosh to be painted on these barriers?
If I painted it, I would be looking at a fine for graffiti
Were the local people consulted at all on this folly?
I hope to see a response very soon.
Regards
Thank you for your views about the artwork to the barrier at Neville's Cross.
I am sorry that you feel the artwork is poor. The barrier was felt to be a rather ugly engineering structure that had been erected for safety and technical reasons. The local County Councillor together with two local primary schools, Neville's Cross and St Margaret's, felt that it could be improved if repainted with attractive designs. This was supported by officers of the County Council who helped to facilitate the project, using the opportunity via a repainting contract that was already planned for maintenance purposes for the barrier and the footbridge.
Children from the two schools worked closely with a local artist, Barry Ormesby, from the Bearpark Artists Co-op, to come up with designs for both sides of the barrier. This was subject to consultation with the schools and an exhibition was held at County Hall in the week commencing 8 August 2005 to display the design. A free flowing pattern with landscape and animals was chosen for the vehicle face of the barrier, whilst a more abstract pattern was chosen for the pedestrian side, reflecting the vertical ribbed structure of the barrier.
I have to say that many people have been complementary about the design saying that it makes them 'smile' whilst often waiting in traffic queues at this location in the City.
I freely admit that this kind of project can be quite subjective and art is in the eye of the beholder.
I agree that Durham is a beautiful City and we take our responsibilities very seriously for looking after it, but in this rather unfriendly traffic dominated location the transformation of the barrier was felt to be positive change.
Involving local children in a project such as this gave them a real sense of achievement and they were very proud when they visited the site after the scheme had been carried out.
I hope this answers some of your concerns, I know that I probably won’t be able to change your mind about the appearance of the barrier but I hope this gives some background to how it came about and the reason for doing it.
it feels almost as if this is a cash saving trick to save money using petty distances to differentiate between colleges.
From what I've seen this is a commom problem, and not just a freak occurance.
Rant finished.
For post -16 students, it is the policy of the County Council to provide free transport to students who live more than 2 miles from, and attend the nearest educational establishment that provides the core course that meets the primary learning goals of the student in the view of the LEA.
Without the specifics in your case, I cannot make much further comment other than to say that where, of course, the distance to the establishment attended is less than 2 miles, the Authority would provide no assistance and therefore, in the interests of using limited resources most effectively, the LEA provides assistance to those students attending the nearest establishment if this is more than 2 miles from the home address.
Could some one tell me why a DCC iveco van was only away from the drivers house for 28 hours this week.
Not only are they spending the diesel I pay towards for free travel to/from work but today he has been out 5 hours and yesterday 6....
I woundered why he looked fit after work when I get home....its because even thou he leave 30 mins before me hes in anytime between 12 and 2.30....
Regards
Ten Hour Day
Her sisters were Eileen and Audrey Allison, both born in Thorne in the 40's.Their fathers name was Thomas Allison, he passed away many years ago, so she has no one to ask.
We believe Audrey married a Frank Jones in 1964, thats where the trail stops!
Does this ring a bell with anyone??
Please contact me if you can help, thanks
I just wanted to say that your online services have been very helpful to me! Thank you for all your hard work!
Simon.
Cheers!
excellent!!really helpful in my family history search!! especially with a name like horsford!!!
thanks
I am doing my family history and would love to find out if I have any relatives in the area. I do hope to hear from anyone that has information. Many thanks.
father
brian hobson born in bishop auckland
in 1952-1953
living in meadowfield rd darlington in the early 70s
linda mitchell
born in hartlepool
1955
living in oakfields newton aycliffe
in 70s
anyone with any details please contact
me............
[email protected]
thanks
We were wondering if there was any possibility of being able to house sit around Barnard Castle to Darlington.It wouldnt matter if it was short or long term. We love animals and currently live on 100 acres in Australia.
We are a clean living and honest family and looking forward to the experience of next year. Maybe someone could refer me in the right direction to find this request. Kind regards Natalie Wood
ps. Great website
I am trying to find out about my grandfather, FREDERIC SIMPSON, born October 1919, in Croxdale Colliery, to Frederic and Hilda Simpson(nee Adamson). I would love to hear from anyone who might have links with them, or just know a bit about the area.
