Minutes:
The Leader, on behalf of the Council, expressed deepest condolences to the family and friends of Olivia Burt who tragically died outside the Missoula Bar in Durham on 7 February 2018. The Council was working closely with the police on a joint investigation into the circumstances around the incident and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.
The Leader informed Council that he had been written to by Councillor Ian Bowyer, Leader of Plymouth City Council, requesting the Council’s support for a campaign against government defence cuts which could see Durham’s adopted ship HMS Bulwark and her sister ship HMS Albion decommissioned, along with reductions in the number of Royal Marines.
The Leader was sure that many Members would be aware of the important long-standing affiliation between HMS Bulwark and County Durham and that its crew were granted the Freedom of the City in 2010.
Not long ago HMS Bulwark was described as a state of the art vessel and a key part of the nation’s defence and humanitarian aid capabilities, with the ship seeing service across the world. The Council had always taken great pride in welcoming the ship’s company to Durham and hundreds of people had enjoyed watching their Freedom Parades, most recently in 2016 when the ship’s company paraded through Durham City as part of a visit to the region. HMS Bulwark had also adopted the children’s wards at Bishop Auckland and Durham hospitals, with the crew both visiting the wards and raising funds.
The Leader had sent information to all Members on how to get involved in supporting the campaign and urged all Members to do what they could to help protect HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion.
Last week Prince Charles had visited County Durham to carry out a number of engagements. The Chairman and Chief Executive were among those presented to Prince Charles at the beginning of the visit outside St Mary the Less Church, where His Royal Highness unveiled a plaque to his ancestor, Dame Elizabeth Bowes, who lived in Bowes House next to the church.
Whilst in Durham the Prince also attended the opening of Open Treasure and a concert in the Cathedral. Afterwards he went to Palace Green Library and saw the DLI exhibition. He then travelled to Barnard Castle where he officially opened the new Emergency Services Quad and visited the Bowes Museum.
The Leader congratulated the Durham BID and all those involved with the Fire and Ice Festival over the weekend. Businesses enjoyed one of their busiest weekends of the year and there was substantial media coverage.
The Leader reported that so far this winter the Council had used 35,629 tonnes of salt and had 14,094 tonnes left. A further 15,000 tonnes were on order with deliveries scheduled over the next two weeks. In an average winter the Council used around 30,000 tonnes of salt and was forecasting to use over 40,000 tonnes this winter, which demonstrated that this winter had been more severe than average.
In terms of other environmental initiatives, Operation Spruce Up had recently been awarded the Keep Britain Tidy Award for Campaign of the Year, the second year in succession for the accolade. The Big Spring Clean started today and ran until 15 April to inspire people to give their local area a spring clean-up to banish strewn litter in time for summer.
Finally, County Durham continued to be successful on the sporting front. In the last couple of weeks it had been confirmed that international cricket matches would be held at Durham County Cricket Club until 2024. In addition to matches in the Cricket World Cup in 2019, one day internationals had been confirmed with Australia in 2020, Sri Lanka in 2021 and South Africa in 2022 with matches to be announced for the following years. Chester le Street remained the only regular international sporting venue in the North East.
The Leader congratulated Durham Women’s football team on their achievement of reaching the Women’s FA Cup Quarter Finals where they would host Everton in March.
The Leader extended good luck wishes to Mica McNeill from Consett who was competing in the third and fourth heats of the Women’s Bobsleigh representing Team GB in South Korea. The Team was lying in 6th place after two heats.