Darlington Neighbourhood Policing

Darlington Neighbourhood Policing Team in partnership with Darlington Borough Council/Local Motion are to hold a 3 day event in Darlington to promote and educate the public on Pedal Cycle Security and the Prevention of Crime, and Pedal Cycle Safety. On site security marking for Pedal Cycles belonging to Darlington residents will be offered free of charge. The events are to be held at 3 different locations between the hours of 10.00am and 4.00pm as follows: Monday 25 October - Darlington Market Place; Wednesday 27 October – Morrisons, North Road ; Thursday 28 October – Morrisons, Morton Park

ARNOLD ROAD POND

We wrote residents some time ago in respect of forming a working group to apply for funds to undertake works to improve the Arnold Road pond area, we have held meeting with Rosi Thornton Community Development Worker for the council. We would like to try again to set up a working group of resident s to work on this scheme. Rosi has undertaken some research and we now have more information on funding and how it works. With this in mind we will be organising an information event in the area. Details of this will be made available on conformation of venue ect

STREET SCENE

As your ward councillors we are often informed about fly tipping. Litter, grass verges, road and footpaths repairs. Street scene and the Highways department deal with all these matter and continually feed back to us as ward councillor on the work they have undertaken in the ward week by week. As your ward councillor we regularly are out and about in the ward and we also give details to department on work we believe needs to be sorted in order to maintain the ward. However lots of the issues to be dealt with can be avoided. Reporting incidents of fly tipping with a registration number would help the council to take action against those fly tipping. Taking a second to consider dropping litter or placing it in the bin would reduce the cost of litter clearance. Drivers who persistently park their vehicles on the grass verges without any considerations for the damage to verges and of the inconveniences caused to residents and other road users. We have also received several complaints about Council vehicles and contractors have also been seen parked on verges and we take the same position with these as we do with any vehicle they should lead by example and not park on the verges and grassed areas.

CONSULTATION

There are consultation processes to take place shortly in the Ward The first is in relation to the Central Park Development and will be held on the college site shortly. This will be your opportunity to see the development plans for sections on the Central Park Development and to comment and question these plans, Notification will be made to resident affected by this development and we would encourage residents to attend.
The Second will be consultation on traffic and highways issues around Heathfield School, some draft drawing of a traffic calming scheme have been produced and these will be the basis of the consultation. We are requesting a public meeting on this to be held at Heathfield, the dates for this will be included in the notification letter that will be sent out to residents.

WARD SURGERIES /PACT MEETING

We continue to hold twice monthly ward surgeries at Heathfield School 4th Wednesday of the Month) and the Eastbourne Sports complex (2nd Wednesday of the Month). Also incorporated are Monthly Police and Community Together (PACT) meetings. The next PACT meeting being 22nd October at Eastbourne sports complex 6.00pm.

The current PACT priorities are, anti social behaviour, Motorcycle nuisance, & highway and parking issues around Heathfield School.

On nuisance motorcycles in particular Quad bikes we regularly receive complaint in respect of excessive speed and noise in all areas of the ward in particular the Hundens Lane Area? We have spoken to the police several times and have been assured that they have taken action the problem being is that most of the riders spoken to are on street legal quads, and are taxed tested and insured. It is not a legal requirement to wear a helmet but we believe it should be. The noise levels from these quads also meet the legal requirement when ridden correctly. However in a built up area at excessive speed they are exceptionally loud. We would request that residents continue to report incidents they witness to the police, were these quads are being driven at excessive speed.

At the PACT meeting the police gave a break down of the crime figures for the ward and in general reported crime is down by 50% on the same time last year including Burglary, car crime and anti social behaviour. However at the time of the meeting detection rates for the reported crime was difficult to assess, the police intend to feed back detection rates at the next meeting. As your Ward councillors we challenged the report on the crime levels as we believe that crime levels are higher but are not being reported to the police, so we urge residents to report any and all incidents to the police it is the only way to get a true reflection of the crime levels in the ward and would also allow the police to make clearer decision on their policing priorities.