Readers may remember that there were a number of issues affecting Great Aycliffe which we campaigned about last year. Three of them are raising their head again, and we will find out shortly how successful we were, and how much we still need to do.
The Durham County Plan, which provoked a significant response, has now been revised, and you will be able to see the new proposals at the Leisure Centre on Tuesday 25th September, from 10am to 2pm. The Town Council has also written to the County Council asking them to make an additional presentation to the Town Council. This consultation runs until 2 November, so we have adequate time to consider what we think about the new Plan and to make our further responses.
A second issue, as a correspondent noted a few weeks ago, was the County Council Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS), where the initial consultation period lasted only a fortnight and was over by the time the Editor had opportunity to include it in the Newton News. I immediately contacted the JHWS team, but it was impossible to extend the consultation. However, the JHWS team did email me that the draft strategy ‘will, in its entirety, be subject to a public consultation for four weeks in September/October 2012’. This consultation has not yet been flagged on the DCC Consultations webpage (http://bit.ly/DCConsult), but I am watching out for it and will try to alert residents through the Newton News.
The third issue we campaigned about, readers will remember, was the suggested Parliamentary boundary changes to the Sedgefield Constituency, where we campaigned very hard to prevent Great Aycliffe being split between Sedgefield and Bishop Auckland constituencies. The boundary changes, readers will be aware, are the subject of a political row at Westminster, with the Lib-Dems threatening to defeat the proposals because the Tories did not support Lords reform. Nevertheless, the Boundary Commission is still proceeding for the moment, and I read in the press that it reports on 16th October; if the new proposals still divide Great Aycliffe between two constituencies, we may need to renew our protests. Again, I will watch out for this and try to alert residents through the Newton News.
John D Clare
