Startforth Parish Council Correspondence List for meeting dated 20 January 2021 Ref Date received From Subject Note: CDALC = County Durham Association of Local Councils NALC = National Association of Local Councils SLCC = Society of Local Council Clerks 1 10/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - encouraging residents to sign up for Garden Waste Collection scheme for 2021. Collections are March/April to November, fortnightly, for £35 annual fee. In Teesdale, the service is operated by Rotters in partnership with the County Council. 2 10/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - work of Durham County Record Office’s 4-year online project ‘Durham at War’ has been recognised as a case study by the Imperial War Museum. Durham at War is an interactive mapping website telling the story of the county and its people in the 1914-18 conflict. 3 11/12/2020 Teesdale Action 6-page bulletin: stories of the projects helped with the Covid-19 Emergency Response funding (Teesdale Day Clubs, YMCA, Music at the Heart of Teesdale, Partnership UTASS), support available for those looking for work and Fire & Rescue service’s Christmas safety campaign. 4 11/12/2020 Durham County Council 3-page Update on Covid-19 and DCC’s response: Public Health (coronavirus rates in County Durham continue to fall, helping alleviate pressure on local Leader hospitals, continue to promote ‘hands, face, space’ message, 13 vaccination sites will be opening from next week in GP practices, concentrating on over 80s, subject to supplies); Outbreak control (Durham University students have used travel window to return home, improvements seen at Franklin Prison outbreak, decline in cases in last few days, following a three-week plateau, new spike detector tool as an early warning system to highlight area that see more cases than expected (eg. in Brasside and Low Newton, Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me); Adult Social Care (continue to work closely with care providers, strengthening contingency arrangements for Christmas period, working on care home visitor testing support); Economic resilience (contributing more than ten times as much funding to road improvement schemes than 10 years ago (£8.86m in 2019/20 plus £12.2m from Department for Transport), continuing to contact hospitality businesses who have previously claimed support payments, £8.8m paid to county businesses to help them deal with local and national restrictions); and Finally, preparations are being made for next year’s elections on the basis that they will be taking place in May. 5 12/12/2010 NALC Launch of ‘Good Councillors’ Guide to Community Business’ 72-pp publication. PDF of the Guide sent to all cllrs 13/12/20. 6 14/12/2020 DCC Planning Weekly list of new applications w/e 13 December. Email sent to all cllrs 14/12/20. 7 15/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - DCC has allocated >£1.3m to businesses impacted by Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions, in 2,007 grants paid fortnightly in arrears. Eligibility can be checked out at www.durham.gov.uk/covid19businessgrants 8 15/12/2020 CDALC Request to share information about frequency and supplier used for assessment/inspection of stability of war memorials — for Middleton St George Parish Council. 9 15/12/2020 CDALC Details of North East Transport Plan consultation, open until 14 January. As the consultation deadline is before the next scheduled PC meeting, full email forwarded to councillors inviting them to respond individually or through Clerk by 31 December with comments to form a collective PC response. 10 15/12/2020 CDALC Request for help/information with a ‘blue plaques’ audit for DCC for a website resource. Parish Councils are asked to identify any plaques in the parish (blue or Does a councillor wish to volunteers to otherwise) being used to mark points of local history — they want to know what the plaque commemorates, its precise location, the scheme it was awarded collate this information? under, information about the story behind its awards and a photograph. 11 16/12/2020 Teesdale Action Promotion of ‘Wear Your Winter Woollies for UTASS’ day, 17 December, raising money to be matched by Barclays Bank. Partnership on behalf of UTASS 12 16/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - funding through 3 Towns Area Action Partnership has allowed Jack Drum Arts (£2,061) and St Catherine’s Dementia Café (£5,486) in Crook to deliver their services digitally. 13 16/12/2020 DCC Chief Executive’s Announcement that DCC full council has approved John Hewitt as Interim Chief Executive, with contact details for him. Office 14 16/12/2020 Durham County Council Christmas Greetings. Leader 15 17/12/2020 Highways England Request from the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project team for the Parish Council to nominate a member to sit on a Community Liaison Group (CLG) to ensure For discussion at January meeting. that ‘conversations and presentations focus on the local issues which impact most on the community’. The CLGs will run throughout the planning process and on towards the construction period. A full project update, with project update brochures and videos, is at www.highwaysengland.co.uk/A66-NTP. Page 1 of 4 200121-4 Correspondence list Startforth Parish Council Ref Date received From Subject Note: CDALC = County Durham Association of Local Councils NALC = National Association of Local Councils SLCC = Society of Local Council Clerks 16 18/12/2020 Durham County Council 4-page Update on Covid-19 and DCC’s response: Public Health (fall in rates has now stopped and small rises are seen in some areas, joint campaign with other Leader north east authorities thanking people for everything they are doing to limit the spread, including TV ads, vaccination roll-out continues, with high take-up and 6 further sites due to open next week); Outbreak control (self-isolation period for anyone who has tested positive is now 10 days, not 14 days, rates decreasing in schools, number of Covid inpatients in all hospitals in Durham and Darlington has flatlined, spike detection tool highlighted three areas with higher cases - Brasside and Newton Hall, Thornley, Deaf Hill and Wheatley Hill, and Fishburn and Trimdon, 59 people being trained to become Covid Champions across the county); Adult Social Care (care home infection rates and staffing resources remain stable, working with providers on visitor testing, assisting with roll-out of vaccinations); Children’s Services (praise for school staff for a term’s hard work, attendance at 87%); Service updates (Christmas and New Year holiday opening details, bin collection changes only apply to Friday collections, real Christmas trees can be collected free of charge (need to book); Economic Resilience (£1.3m in 2,007 grants allocated this week to businesses impacted by Tier 3 restrictions, new scheme offering extra grants of £1k to pubs and bars that do not serve meals or where turnover from meals is less than 50% of income, with process for application being prepared, www.durham.gov.uk/covid19businessgrants); virtual winter fayre created by Visit County Durham www.thisisdurhan.com/winterfayre). 17 18/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - DCC pledged £21k towards the Feeding Families-run scheme which has delivered 700 hampers to County Durham families in need. 18 18/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - Customer Access Points and most other DCC buildings will be closed over Christmas and New Year. For emergency, still run 03000 260000. For any coronavirus-related support, contact County Durham Together on 03000 260260. 19 21/12/2020 CDALC Christmas Greetings from Steve and Audrey, and thanks for huge endeavours during 2020. 20 21/12/2020 DCC Planning Weekly list of new applications w/e 20 December. No new applications to consider. 21 21/12/2020 CDALC News that parish council are eligible to apply to the new National Recovery Leisure Fund. Scope is limited to outsourced provision and councils must apply via their principal authority, and deadline is noon 21 December (20 minutes after this email arrived!). DCC have regifted their interest and need details from parish councils before 8 January. Good job we don’t have an outsourced leisure facility! 22 21/12/2020 Citizens Advice County Raising awareness of the Priority Service Register for vulnerable individuals in the county. PDF leaflet provides details of who is eligible and how to apply. Also Durham Energy Redress Scheme for social housing tenants and a national Energy Advice Project for energy-related support — 0808 278 7821. 23 21/12/2010 CDALC NALC Chief Executive's bulletin: Local Government Finance Settlement 2021/22 issued (including confirmation of no referendum for parish councils), response to the Redmond Review has been published, new National Recovery Leisure Fund launched (see item 21), update from Communities Partnership Board and new research published by Demos ‘The Future of Towns’. 23 22/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - re-opening of Witton Park Bridge following £2.5m replacement scheme. 24 22/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - workers at Hawthorn House respite centre in Newton Hall have turned the garden into an activities area for Christmas. 25 23/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release -DCC’s Managing Money Better service has helped a disabled Co. Durham woman recover more than £3k in overpayments following her gas supply being transferred to an energy company without her permission five years ago. 26 23/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - Two volunteers with DurhamWorks Plan 4 Life programme are helping spread festive cheer in Stanley. 27 24/12/2020 DCC Planning Weekly list of new applications w/e 23 December. No new applications to consider. 28 24/12/2020 DCC Press Office Press release - members of public invited to have their say on which projects should receive major investment for regeneration in Bishop Auckland.