Rubbish dumped over Christmas

My first job on 27th December was to report three different lots of rubbish.

A mattress on Grove Street, some rubbish by the entrance to the park on Yarm Road opposite Arncliffe Avenue and yet more builders waste in the alley behind Densham Drive.

I have also enquired about installing a new bin on Yarm Road by the park entrance in the hope that sorts that problem out for the future. Thanks to Low Hartburn Residents Group for that suggestion.

Why are people so selfish? Particular cowboy builders, we will catch them in the end, and I look forward to the naming and shaming!

There's a hole on Ellen Avenue - workers are looking into it!

- the old ones are the best.

When I was  knocking on doors in Ellen Avenue I noticed a depression in the surface of the road which worried me. I got in touch with the council and suggested they ask Northumbria Water to take a look. They have done that now and say they don't believe there is a problem with the sewers. I am now waiting for Highways to come and fill it in and make it safe.

Road markings

I have had two quick wins for residents this month.

A resident in Windsor Road asked me if it would be possible to have 20mph markings painted on the surface of their road. They used to have small signs on their lamposts but unfortunately these had to be removed when the new lights went up because they are now attached to houses not columns. I am pleased to report that even despite the snowy weather, this has already been done.

And Janey, the owner of From Drab to Fab, the furniture upcycling business on the corner of Osborne Road and Oxbridge Lane asked me if she could have a white line, in the shape of an H painted across the entrance to her warehouse doors so that cars couldn't block access for her delivery trucks. It is great shop by the way, if you haven't been in, do pay a visit.  Again the work was done very quickly.

A big thank you to Stockton Highways - who won an award this year as the best in the country - for their prompt action.

Criminal activity in Densham Drive

Flytippers rake soil from the back of a van onto the alley behind Densham Drive

I was approached by a resident in Densham Drive just before Christmas. Residents have been experiencing a spike in criminal activity on the estate - car theft, burglary, theft from cars and fly tipping in the alley, along with occasional liaisons there between prostitutes and punters.

I organised a residents' meeting with Councillor Javed and our local Police Sergeant, Mark Doherty. There was a good turnout and we talked about the various incidents and discussed some possible measures to keep them safe.

The police have agreed to give the area more attention and Councillor Javed and I have enquired of council staff about the possibility of using some of our small locally held budget to introduce various safety measures. We are looking at installing a new CCTV camera - or moving an existing one to a better position, possibly replacing a piece of fence with a wall, and putting up some better lighting in a few places.

I hope to have a site visit with a council officer in early January to explore the options.

Residents are reminded to always report incidents to the police, so that we have a true picture of criminal activity.

A day focused on Housing

Tackling empty homes

This afternoon I met the Head (Jane) and most of the Team Leaders from SBC Housing team. They gave me plenty of their time to discuss local issues and helped me get on top of current themes and plans. A big thank you to them.

We discussed Empty Homes at some length, the resolution of which is one of my key manifesto pledges. They explained that until recently they were able to work with local social housing providers (housing associations) who were funded by the Government's Homes and Community Agency to take on these properties. Sometimes they would lease and repair (and let out) empty homes from owners/landlords, sometimes they would purchase and repair. However this funding has been cut quite extensively so it is more tricky. There are still things we can do - increasing council tax on empty properties, offering advice and support on repairs and carrying out some work ourselves potentially and putting a charge on the property where houses are unsafe or have been breached.

I have asked for a list of all such homes in the ward so I can check it includes the ones I identified during the election with help from residents. I am then going to take this list to the different social landlords myself and see if they can be persuaded to step up again.

I also asked about the vacancy for a second Empty Homes officer - the current one is working fantastically hard and needs support. The good news is that money has been found for a further year so the position can be advertised as a contract lasting at least a year so there should be a good range of applicants. I will continue to keep the pressure on for our empty properties to stay on the radar. That being said, I do understand that with deep cuts to the Housing department because of deep Government cuts to the council, there is only so much they can do every day - every case creates a mountain of paperwork - and only so much money they can commit to court cases etc. Mostly only owners of the houses at the top of a very long list can be most vigorously pursued.

I asked about tackling private landlords who are indiscriminate in who they let to, causing all sorts of problems in a street, and also those who do not look after their own properties, leaving tenants in unsafe and unacceptable conditions. I was pleased to learn that the council is considering introducing Selective Licensing in parts of the ward (and in parts of two other wards in the borough) which is a scheme that makes certain actions mandatory on landlords, giving more power to the council to enforce better behaviour of landlords and better behaviour of tenants. I look forward to engaging closely with council officers as plans develop.

I asked for a list of supported living accommodation in the ward so that I can arrange to meet local managers. I will want to discuss how we tackle any issues or incidents that have arisen or might arise in the future but also find out whether there is more I can do to support them and their tenants while they are living in our community. 

I discussed the future of the former Fairview centre on Spring Street and am now in a position to update the resident who raised it with me.

Finally I asked about super-fast broadband provision on new estates, this is another one of my manifesto commitments and I got some new information. I will blog about this separately in a few days time when I have met Dr Paul Williams MP to see what he can add to the picture because his office have also been working on this issue for at least one of the estates concerned. 

An hour later I was at Northshore meeting our Housing Manager for Thirteen, Stockton's biggest social landlord who took over all our council properties through stock transfer in 2010 (as Tristar). I met Chris who covers the Stockton council area to discuss local issues with him and get a sense of their priorities for our ward.

He explained they are currently going through a big reorganisation with a lot of personnel changes (it has been in the news this week too) so some of the people I might work with in future are not known yet but he will definitely still be there.

I asked for a list of Thirteen's properties and holdings in the ward as I start to map the area in terms of which partners and agencies operate what and where. I also asked for a copy of their maintenance schedule for land and green spaces in their ownership. I want to know for instance, how often they cut their grass, pick litter or weed their paths, so that I don't waste time taking up cases where they are already providing the service they should but at the same time I can put pressure on them to deliver where they are falling short.

I raised 4 individual issues with Chris on behalf of residents - including ASB (where he helpfully brought the ASB officer in), housing benefits and the bedroom tax and two requests for rehousing. I will be updating those residents separately.

I have also requested support with some tree planting on Sheraton Street by the bus stop on their land (at the request of a tenant of theirs) and we will hopefully come up with a good result together.

It was good to spend time with Chris and I look forward to working with him in future. 

That's another big group of people I have met who have the power to make a difference in our area, I do believe that building these relationships is the best way to get the right outcomes for our community.

First week in post

It is Wednesday today and I was elected on Thursday night last week, so it has nearly been a week.

I thought I would give you a quick update on what I have been up to so far.
I signed the papers accepting my membership of the Labour Group and picked up my pass from Municipal Buildings on Friday.

On Saturday I set up access to my council email.

On Monday I met the Chief Whip for an induction, and discussed which committees it would be appropriate for me to sit on - and also where the vacancies are that need filling. Thankfully it looks like those two things may coincide. I won't reveal which committees those are until after the council meeting that approves the appointment though. 

On Monday night I gave my first Councillor's report to my local Labour Party branch meeting.  I also spent some time helping a resident with serious neighbour from hell problems.

On Tuesday afternoon I met the council's Parking Enforcement services team, along with local residents, in the Kingfisher and Cygnet Drive area of Preston Farm, on the run up to the Water Avens Way estate,  to talk about how we can make pedestrians safer. There is a lot of inconsiderate parking, mostly from one of the car dealerships, some of it is thoughtless, mostly it is not illegal but some of it is. Hopefully we have come up with a potential resolution which may require Councillor Javed and I spending some of our local community participation budget. I will report back on this when there is more news.

I spent a couple of hours this morning with Marc Stephenson, head of Care For Your Area, Civil Enforcement, CCTV, Waste, Recycling and various other services that are hugely important to local residents. I discussed our priorities - those that I highlighted in my campaign material which could be called my mini manifesto -  so that he and his team can focus on them. These included street cleansing, bin presentation, alley dumping, parking, and various other things. He also took me into the CCTV monitoring station which was very interesting. He showed me where all of our local cameras are and I watched some of them in operation.

I also asked Marc about the pigeon droppings under the bridge on Oxbridge Lane and he gave me the contact details for network rail. I have written to them this afternoon  asking about them putting up a net under the bridge to deter roosting birds and will let you know what they say.

A big thank you to Marc for his time.

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours with Sergeant Mark Doherty talking about issues related to Crime and ASB that residents have also raised with me over the last 6 weeks on the campaign trail. I took him through the mini manifesto too, talking particularly about prostitution in the Yarm Road area, drug related activity, and speeding cars. I also talked about the issue on Mulberry Wynd where cars and vans are using the estate as a cut through from Yarm Road to Bowesfield Lane and driving dangerously and at speed. We had a very fruitful and constructive discussion. Sergeant Doherty filled me in on the work already underway and we have agreed some further activities in each of those areas too. I will write about them separately and in detail in the next few days.

I am really looking forward to working with the police on your behalf. A big thank you to Sergeant Doherty for his time.

I have also been putting my thank you leaflet together. It will be going to the printers as soon as I have confirmed the dates of the next tenants and residents groups with the relevant chairs because I made a commitment to advertise them in all my publications.

I have appointments in the diary to talk to Housing chiefs about empty houses which was in my manifesto, and with the officer in charge of our Community Participation Budget so that I can understand how much I can helpfully commit to your priorities. 

And finally I have spent quite a lot of time tackling casework for individual residents and individual streets.

A busy first week but I am pleased to be making progress already on some of the things I pledged.

A big thank you to the voters of Parkfield and Oxbridge

I am proud and humbled to have been elected as the Labour and Co-operative Councillor for Parkfield and Oxbridge ward in Stockton on Tees.

Thank you everyone who voted for me - and a big thank you too, to the huge team of volunteers who supported the campaign, helping me to achieve our aim of knocking on every door - and delivering thousands of leaflets.




Because this was a byelection I won't serve the four years that a councillor ordinarily does, the next election will be on the first Thursday in May in 2019 - so that is in roughly 18 month's time.

That is not a very long time to achieve everything that I have pledged to work on, on behalf of residents but I will do my best and will certainly hope to be making decent progress by that date.

In future posts I will spell out the pledges I made during the election, those of your priorities I have promised to tackle and give you regular updates.

I will also share details of any community events and meetings that I hear about so that everyone knows what is happening in our area.