Improvements promised at last in Rise Carr and North Riverside! (Darlington and Sedgefield Liberal Democrats)

Darlington and Sedgefield Liberal Democrats <joe.kelley@darlingtonlibdems.org.uk>

Improvements promised at last in Rise Carr and North Riverside!

December 29, 2007 6:53 PM

North Road ward councillors Fred Lawton and Mike Barker have been keeping a close eye on Rise Carr and North Riverside for some months. It seemed to them that these areas were being badly neglected by the Council's Street Scene Department.

The unkempt and uncared for state of the flower beds and borders in Rise Carr has been reported in the North Road Focus and in the Northern Echo. Fred and Mike arranged a meeting with the manager of Street Scene, to let him know their concerns at first hand.

In the weeks before the meeting, Street Scene suddenly set to work in Rise Carr, clearing rubbish and cutting back the rampant undergrowth. In fact, the area was transformed. And that was before the meeting!

When our councillors met the manager of Street Scene, he admitted that maintenance of the beds and borders in these areas was not up to standard during 2007.

Fred and Mike have been promised that more time and resources would be allocated to maintaining these areas in future. They will make sure that these promises are kept.

A recent walkabout by a housing officer in Riverside Estate came up with no less than sixteen complaints about neglect of this estate by Street Scene.

Councillor Fred Lawton took a look, a few days after the meeting, with a housing officer and the local Street Scene team leader. The teams had obviously been working on the estate and a lot of progress had been made in clearing beds and borders. All the complaints had been sorted out. There remains a problem with perennial weeds; beds have been cut down but weeds are still thriving.

The new Street Scene philosophy is that all staff are generalists. The danger with this is that men experienced in working the gardens are taken for other jobs whilst the staff doing the gardens may be experts on refuse collection but not know the difference between a dandelion and a daffodil. Management say that this issue is being addressed.

It is clear that councillors across the Borough are upset about the shortcomings of the new Street Scene set up. In Rise Carr and Riverside, the persistence of our councillors has produced good results, but 2008 is going to have to see a major improvement in Street Scene.