Wednesday 30 July 2008

I can sing a rainbow……

By ‘Gadabout’

If you’re passing by Darlington Town Hall on August 11, take a gander at their flagpole.

Chances are you’ll see a lovely rainbow flag fluttering in the breeze; nice.

It’s there to celebrate Gay Pride 2008, an evening extravaganza featuring drag acts, fire eaters and stilt walkers that will be happening at various bars throughout the town.

Darlington Borough Council was approached with the request to fly the flag by Barry Birch, the Chief Executive of Gay Advice Darlington/Durham (GADD).

Fair play to the Council; they agreed, demonstrating that they really are an inclusive bunch.

What set us musing, however, was the acronym of Gay Advice Darlington/Durham – GADD.

We wondered how it is that various bodies arrive at catchy – sometimes silly – acronyms.

For instance (and see our post on July 22), one of the mooted names for our soon-to-be-realised super-duper council is ‘County Durham Unitary Council’. If you write the acronym, it’s simply CDUC. But say it out loud and it becomes SEEDUC…… See what we mean?

Do you have any nominations for silly (or just plain odd) acronyms? Let us know, won’t you?

(By the way: the dictionary definition of ‘gadabout’ is ‘a person who flits about in social activity’ – quite appropriate, we thought!)

The ‘merchants of muck’ are at it again….

Eagle-eyed readers of the Northern Echo might have spotted an item carried on July 26 about Greencycle, the company which collects household bins in four County Durham districts – Sedgefield, Durham, Easington and Chester-le-Street.

Greencycle began collecting cardboard, plastic, paper and cans in April, taking these items to its depot at Tursdale, near Durham City.

Seems like they ‘forgot’ to check they had the necessary planning permission, though….

Not to worry, dear readers: the collective might of Durham County Council’s planning committee has been brought to bear on Greencycle, and the company has now received the necessary planning permission – plus an almighty ‘slap on the wrist’.

And what exactly is this ‘slap on the wrist’? Greencycle have been ‘reminded’ of the need to clarify and follow planning requirements about developments it intends to carry out in future. Bet that set them quaking in their boots, eh?

So it seems that you can set up a recycling centre – expected to process up to 50,000 tonnes of waste a year – not worry over-much about getting the right approvals at the start, and, when discovered, be told ‘you’re a bit naughty, and please don’t do it again’.

Why do the powers-that-be continue to treat Durham County like the dustbin of Europe? Damned if we know!

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Enid – an Independent woman part 2

By ‘Returning Officer’

Regular readers will remember that last month we brought to your attention Enid Paylor’s ‘defection’ to the Labour party, shortly after she stood as an Independent candidate (and won a seat) in Newton Aycliffe’s west ward.

Well now it seems the whole debacle is becoming very messy indeed with lots of accusations being flung about (and who says ‘knockabout politics’ is solely the preserve of Westminster?)

Let’s try to make sense of what’s happening, who’s accusing whom etc……..

A group of angry independent councillors have hit out at Labour members who they say accused them of ‘joining forces’ with an extreme right wing party.

Rita Taylor, Sedgefield Labour Party secretary, accused what she called ‘pathetic’ independents ‘with no shame or moral standing’ for joining forces with the BNP in a bid to oust Councillor Paylor.

Feathers have been severely ruffled it seems. Supreme investigative journalists that we are, we decided to dig a little deeper, and this is what we found:

Independent Councillor Irene Hewitson decided to get up a petition calling for Enid Paylor’s resignation. It seems the good Irene decided to allow known BNP member Honest John Hilton to carry her petition on his market stall. (Honest John raises money for charity on his stall, but insists his charity work is separate from his political beliefs).

With us so far? Good.

Aycliffe Independent Billy Blenkinsopp got a bit upset about Rita Taylor’s jibes. He went to the local press saying “These comments by Rita Taylor suggest that every single independent councillor in Newton Aycliffe is working with the BNP, which is simply not true”.

Other independents chimed in, saying that it’s wrong to assume they all ‘work together’. Aycliffe councillor Paul Drucker, while admitting that independents met and that those meetings have a chair and a vice-chair said: “There’s no party line; there’s no whip. Each independent councillor is free to vote and act as they feel”.

Back in the Labour camp, mind you, Rita Taylor is standing by her comments, claiming that in reality the independents do work together. She said: “There are decent and hard working independent councillors who might be upset by the association (with the BNP) – but if they don’t know what is happening among themselves, then it is up to them to resolve it”. Ouch!

Meanwhile, there seems to be nothing but silence from Councillor Enid Paylor. As a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party she’s obviously learning how to duck!
This one could run and run – and Cobblers will keep you posted!

What’s in a name?

By ‘Worried’ of Durham


Democracy is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? It gives Joe Public (that’s you and me) an opportunity to shape our society; it gives us collective power; but sometimes (just sometimes, mind you) it brings with it awesome responsibilities…….


I’ve been losing sleep recently. I’m troubled. I take my democratic responsibilities very seriously you know.


So what is it that has me pacing the floor at night? I’ll tell you……


Next April, the good burghers of County Durham (that’s still you and me by the way) will have a new ‘super duper’ council to watch over us. No longer will we have the confusion of district councils, borough councils, and a county council. No: we will have just one ‘all-purpose’ council. So far so good (or not, depending on your point of view). Life will be much simpler. It’s change. It’s progress.


But this is why I’m losing sleep. Very soon, someone in authority is going to consult me. They’re going to ask me to make a contribution to a debate. And I don’t know if I can handle the responsibility.


They’re going to ask me (and you) to help decide on a name for our ‘super duper’ council.


Our leaders are doing all they can to make our decision easy, mind you. They’re not asking us to come over all original or anything – that would demand far too much of us good burghers. Instead, the council’s cabinet are going to consult us on which of five possible names we’d like for the new body.


The local press reported recently that a series of consultation meetings will be convened to discuss proposals for how the council should provide people with more “local choice” and “local voice” over council services. (You can imagine a late night meeting in the council chambers; our leaders sitting around trying to come up with something snappy as a slogan. “I know”, says one bright spark, “local choice; local voice”. “What does that mean?” says another. “Does it have to mean something?” says bright spark. “It just sounds sort of, well, nice; and cuddly; and local”. Vote carried unanimously).


I’m sorry, dear reader, I went off on one there – I put it down to worry; and lack of sleep, obviously. Where were we? Oh yes….


Five names. And here they are:


Durham County Council

County Durham Unitary Council

Durham Unitary Council

County Durham Council

Durham Council


I’m a simple soul (you’ve probably realised that already), but it occurs to me that Durham County Council would be a good choice. It’s not new; it’s not radical; but it is familiar.


It strikes me that it’s also the ‘zero-cost’ option. We’ve already got the all-important logo. And there’s probably a mountain of paper stored away already, beautifully printed and proudly bearing the name Durham County Council, just waiting to be used for all sorts of official and important correspondence.


Call me an old cynic if you will, but a new or different name will mean two things for certain.


First, it will mean branding consultants (or whatever trendy name they’re called these days) are brought in to ‘refresh’, ‘re-invigorate’ and (probably) ‘re-position’ the Durham brand. They will (for a modestly outrageous fee no doubt), create a new logo, a new corporate identifier, that will take Durham boldly into the future (probably ‘to infinity and beyond’ to borrow from Toy Story).


Second, thousands of trees will die. They will die in order to give us lots more paper to be stored away, beautifully printed with the new shiny name and logo….


I don’t want these trees to die. See now why I’m losing sleep?


We Durham burghers will, no doubt, look upon this new shiny authority with its crisp and clean logo and pronounce it to be a thing of beauty, a joy to behold……


But wait. Do you want a council that could end up being known as SEEDUC (County Durham Unitary Council – you have to say it out loud for best effect), or even just DUC (Durham Unitary Council)? We’ve already got Toilet Duck, so there’s room for confusion there I fear…..


No, I’m afraid Durham County Council does it for me every time. It does exactly what it says on the tin.


It’s a Council.

It’s county-wide…

And it’s Durham.


I could do well in this branding consultancy lark. And if our cabinet leaders are reading this, my bill is in the post.


Now, to sleep……..my work here is done.


(And because this is a democracy, your thoughts count too. Tell us what you think….)