Dear friends, neighbours and residents.
I hope that you are enjoying your summer. I just wanted to share with you a brief update. First of all, thank you to all those who signed both the online and paper petitions, to get our local store re-opened and for giving Mandeep, Mohan and their staff a warm welcome.
Secondly, thank you to Councillor Tony Beddard for supporting me in meeting with our MP to lobby for him to push Durham County Council on progress to either repair or demolish the town centre multi-storey car park. I also asked the MP to lobby cabinet Minister MP Stephen Kinnock about extortionate private care home fees.
The minister’s response was sadly weak and ignored my recommendations to re-use closed down pub hotels (as public sector councils run care homes) to undercut the private sector, prevent OAPs from having to sell their homes to pay for fees and create thousands of green jobs as well as, plus save billions in care home fees for Rachel Reeves. I have also had the pleasure of visiting Forest Park special secondary school and was massively impressed. I linked them up with Durham Youth Council.
We also have two new co-opted councillors at Great Aycliffe Town Council, as you will have seen in last month’s paper. The only sad thing is that we could have had two free, no expenses co-opted (voted in by current councillors, not the public) last year, but the Lib Dems and Labour voted against it (because it was not their candidates), but did a U-Turn this year in exchange for the new members (to vote for them) and get committee chair/vice chair places, as a reward, if they voted for nearly all Lib Dem chairs.
It’s quite bizarre when Councillors vote to elect opposition party members, but sadly, that’s how politics works. One even voted against a former Labour Mayor last year, who was ten years in his own party!
I invited my two Lib Dem Councillors to share with me what achievements (successes and challenges) they had encountered on our shared ward, but was told I had to ask their spokesperson, which I did last month, but am sadly still awaiting a reply. It is a great shame when we can’t work together for the benefit of our residents and share information on ASB, potholes, dog bins, litter and residents’ concerns. It’s not a competition to see who is best.
Being a Councillor is a unique job with no job description, person specification or performance appraisal. Therefore, you can do as little as possible and attend one meeting every 6 months, or you can engage with residents, be seen on your ward and notify taxpayers if you are giving value for money.
Please be aware that County Councillors get £300 per week expenses, a free laptop and phone and a £20k budget. Town Councillors get £30 per week expenses, zero budget, no free equipment and no access to big committees at County Hall for health, education, highways, etc. It was good to see a Reform County Councillor come and speak to the town council and update us on his work for the town. Believe it or not, it very rarely ever happens!
I believe that one of our Councillors has joined another political party and I myself am joining the Green Party after thirty years as a Lib Dem, five years as Independent, but can no longer sit back and watch the genocide taking place in Gaza and Lebanon or the racism growing in the UK.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Cllr Tony Armstrong BA (Hons) HND PGCE.