Brandon and Byshottles Parish News
Beautiful Durham Competition
The Parish Council has organised the Beautiful Durham Schools Painting Competition since 1989. The Competition is open to all Primary Schools within the Parish and the theme for the paintings can be anything relating to ‘Beautiful Durham’. The Competition is divided into the following categories:
- Nursery
- Primary
- Years 1 & 2
- Years 3 & 4
- Years 5 & 6
with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes of £15, £10, £5 book tokens being awarded in each category.
Fourteen schools entered the competition this year and the local ward members judged the paintings within the schools.
The Chairman of Durham County Council, Cllr Mac Williams and his partner, Pauline, judged the overall 1st prize winners in the council offices on 6th July. The Chairman of the Parish Council, Cllr Thomas Akins, then presented trophies to the following overall winners at the Parish meeting in July:
| Zane Murray | Brandon Nursery |
| Abigail Seymour | Langley Moor Primary |
| Aidan Russell | Silver Trees, Ushaw Moor |
| Romane Zeze | St Joseph's R.C. Primary, Ushaw Moor |
| Sally Robson | Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Esh Winning |
| Catherine Traynor | St Partrick's R.C. Primary, Langley Moor |
Brandon Park
The new junior and senior play areas were officially opened by Lynn Readman, Chair of 'Friends of the Park' along with local young people on 19th August. The 'Friends' Group have worked extremely hard with Durham County Council, the Parish Council, Brandon Community Partnership and others to raise the necessary funding for the play areas. The Parish has recently helped with a donation of £700 and assisted with insurance costs. The children had a really good day enjoying the new equipment which includes a cable rider, cantilever and cradle swings, roundabout and slide. Harry Akeins can be seen below joining in the fun.
New Chairman for Brandon & Byshottles
At the Parish Council's Annual General Meeting on 21st May 2010 Councillor Thomas Akins was elected as Chairman of the Council for the ensuing year. Councillor Akins was re- elected to the Council in 2007, having previously served on the Council from 1985 to 2003. A member of Meadowfield and Browney ward, Councillor Akins is a respected member of the local community and is involved in many local groups and organisations.
Councillor Brian Nelson, representing Brandon ward, was elected as Vice-Chairman.
Past Chairman's Charity
The Past Chairman, Councillor David Bell, held his charity evening on Wednesday 12th May 2010 at New Brancepeth Working Men's Club. The evening was well attended and raised £1,344 towards Councillor Bell's chosen charities, The Bobby Robson Foundation and Charlie Wilkinson, a young boy from New Brancpeth who suffers from Leigh's Disease. Councillor Bell expresses his sincere thanks to all those who donated and helped to make the event such a huge success.
The AAP Formerly Known As.....
From April 14th the Mid Durham Rural West Area Action Partnership has changed its name. The Partnership, which covers the villages of Castleside, Lanchester, Langley Park. Esh Winning, Waterhouses, Ushaw Moor, New Brancepeth, Brandon, Meadowfield Langley Moor and the surrounding area will now be known as the Mid Durham AAP.
Life and Times of the Mid Durham AAP Team
Reduce speeding; support local community groups; improve and increase activities for young people – these are the main areas of work for the Mid Durham Area Action Partnership as chosen by you the residents of Mid Durham. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the overall work of the AAP staff team.
Mid Durham Area Action Partnership was conceived in May 2009, with the first Board meeting taking place a couple of months later in July. The remit of the Area Action Partnership, or AAP for short, is to involve and empower local residents in working together with various service providers to identify local issues and attempt to solve these together. The AAPs are not just about the services provided by Durham County Council, they also include those provided by our partners including the police, health, local housing providers, fire and emergency as well as our ten partner Parish Councils.
Your AAP team consists of a coordinator, Andy Coulthard, a community project development officer, Pam Sinclair and a support officer, Lynn Cummings. Andy has been in post since May 2009 and at one point was running both Mid Durham and Teesdales AAPs; Pam and Lynn came into post in February of this year when all of the team moved into an office in Park House, home of Durham Rural Community Council in Lanchester. None of the above officers have worked in Mid Durham before so they have been familiarising themselves with the people and places that make up the area.
The AAP team are there to service the Board and its respective task groups and to make sure the relevant people are around the table when it comes to addressing particular issues. They must also keep the current 200 Mid Durham Forum members up to speed with what’s being planned and provide them with an opportunity to input if they so wish. Since February the team, alongside Brandon and Byshottles Parish Council and the local County Council elected members, have supported a number of projects within the Brandon, Meadowfield and Browney, Langley Moor, New Brancepeth, Ushaw Moor and Broompark and Esh Winning and Waterhouses Wards. These vary from starting to increase youth provision in Esh Winning to supporting the development of playsites in Meadowfield, Brandon and Esh Winning. The team have also supported local members to develop environmental, highways, sporting, youth, play and parking improvements in all six wards. The team will be working closely with several other partners, including the community this autumn to look at addressing speeding issues in and around Ushaw Moor with the design development and implementation of physical gateway/entrances to the village. This will be backed up by regular use of the community speedwatch scheme. Another scheme which will soon be looking for public input will be the development of a masterplan to improve elements of the two railway foot and cycle paths which runs through numerous villages in the Parish. Finally, after a tepid start in June the Sportstart scheme, which introduces young people to local sport, recreational and arts clubs will be looking to develop an improved accessible and attractive format for October half term. Local young people’s views will be used to help deliver on this.
The AAP teams main focus is on improving and developing local services; however, they must also be aware of what’s happening outside of their AAP (13 other AAPs within the County) and indeed what’s being looked at from a County wide perspective. Members of the team attend several groups and partnerships that look at specific themes that impact upon the priorities within our area; these include the Local Children Boards, Local Multi Agency Partnerships (LMAPs – Community safety), PACT meetings and various health, leisure and business networks. The connections made here have enabled increased investment both in monetary and resource time into the mid Durham area.
The current focus for the team is to increase local residents’ knowledge of the AAP and its work and provide various engagement opportunities for those active residents who want to make a difference to their area. The team are pulling together a list of potential community / residents groups where they can go out and talk to local people about the AAP and its work and gain local peoples input.
If you are part of a group who would like to have a say in how we can improve services for mid Durham or an individual who actively cares about their community and wants to work with like minded people then please contact us on 01207 529857 or at mdaap@durham.gov.uk.
Brandon Village Allotment Garden
The Brandon Village Association decided that one of its aims was to be the creation of a community run allotment garden for the benefit of the village. The site chosen had been used as an allotment in the past but had been allowed to run wild and had become subject to damage to the stone walls and to occasional fly tipping.
The main objective agreed on was the creation of a growing space for vegetables, fruit, and flowers for the use of the community, by methods which were to be, as far as possible, environmentally sustainable and organic; encouraging and supporting wildlife within the garden, choosing plants suitable to the environment with native species included in the permanent planting. It was also hoped to create an enjoyable learning environment for children by the provision of such things as insect habitats, a dedicated planting area and a weather station.
The overall intention was to make a pleasant, as well as a productive environment. The structure is to be largely determined by the laying out of growing beds, but there will be provision within the site of spaces where people may simply sit and enjoy the garden.
Good progress has been made through the work of volunteers, supported by the generosity of a number of donors, including a vital grant from the County Durham Environment Trust. Fencing to the north and east of the allotment has been erected, paid for by the Parish Council, and the damaged stone wall to the village green has been repaired. A dry stone wall has been built on the southern boundary by villagers in a training exercise run through the good offices of the Twelve Villages Group. Everyone involved in this felt the benefit of a co-operative endeavour. A foundation for the greenhouse has been put in, and a hedge to the north boundary has been laid. Fruit trees have been planted against the east fence and the wildlife pond has just been excavated.
Police and Communities Together
A series of PACT (Police and Communities Together) Meetings will be held on a monthly basis at various locations throughout the Brandon & Byshottles area. Please take this opportunity to voice any issues and concerns you may have in order that local priorities can be set.Click on link below to view details.
Police and Communities Together
Quality Status for Brandon & Byshottles
The Parish Council was presented with its Quality Status certificate at the Annual General Meeting
The Quality Parish & Town Council Scheme was launched in 2003 with the aim of providing a benchmark minimum standard for parish & town councils throughout the country. Councils are required to pass a number of tests such as qualifications of the Clerk, accounting procedures and community engagement, to name a few, in order to achieve Quality Status. Brandon & Byshottles is the 12th council in Durham County and the 598th in the country to achieve the award.
The Vice Chairman, Cllr David Bell, Cllr Philip Stoddart and Susan Carmedy, Clerk to the Council received the certificate from the Chairman of the Association.
Elections
The elections held on 1st May 2008 have resulted in 126 Councillors being elected to a new unitary authority for County Durham. These Councillors will be responsible for running Durham County Council until it ceases to exist on 31st March 2009 and the same Councillors will be responsible for the implementation of the new Unitary Council during 2008/2009 and following vesting day on 1st April 2009.
The following Councillors have been elected in the Parish area:
Brandon Ward
Cllr. Ronnie Rodgers
Cllr. Paul Taylor
Deerness Ward
Cllr. Jean Chaplow
Cllr. John Wilkinson
County Durham Registered Trader Scheme
The County Durham Registered Trader Scheme was launched in June 2005. The scheme was set up by Trading Standards and the County's Community Safety Partnerships in conjunction with the Police and various other private and voluntary sector organisations. The scheme has the following aims:
- To help to combat Doorstep Crime
- To help reduce the number of complaints that Trading Standards receive about home repairs
- To help the consumers of County Durham make an informed choice about whom they employ to do work on their home
- To promote reputable traders signed up to the good practice of the scheme.
The scheme particularly aims to assist vulnerable members of the community, who are often targeted by bogus property repairers calling door to door.
Details of members currently on the scheme can be found from any of the following sources:
- The scheme website: http://www.countydurhamrts.org.uk/
- Durham County Council website: www.durham.gov.uk
- Trading Standards: 0191 3833589
- Local libraries
- Age Concern
- Citizens Advice Bureau
- Care and Repair
