I wanted to drop all of you a very quick note ahead of the local elections tomorrow.
The 2019 General Election changed everything and things are going to be very close between Labour and our local Conservative candidates across North West Durham and the County as a whole. Please don’t waste it. If you want to deliver change at County Hall, only by voting Conservative can you be sure of that. Every vote will count with many individual council seats, including, Lanchester, Crook, Willington, Weardale, Delves Lane, Consett North and Consett South are on an absolute knife edge between Labour and the Conservatives this time.
145 English local councils will face elections, with around 5000 seats up for grabs. There are also 39 Police and Crime Commissioners set to be elected and 13 mayoral elections taking place across the country. The local elections were originally set to take place in 2020, but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic – all the campaigning that we have undertaken over the past few weeks and months has been in line with strict coronavirus regulations, which have meant that I sadly have not been able to speak with as many of you as I would have liked to, and events that we had planned for the elections were unable to take place.
The local elections tomorrow are absolutely crucial – indeed, I cannot stress enough their importance. Tomorrow, you can help to make a difference for North West Durham and the wider County Durham and help to break Labour’s stronghold on Durham County Council, which has lasted for over a century and is not working anymore.
It’s clear it is time for a change. Labour have not been focusing on the issues that people want them to focus on – instead, they have been focusing on vanity projects, like wasting £50 million plus of taxpayer’s money on a new county hall – the same county hall that is set to be built on a floodplain and that the community won’t be able to enjoy – and hiking council tax, meaning that County Durham residents now face the eighth highest council taxes out of 339 councils across the country. They’ve also come up with a £68,000,000 ‘leisure plan’ for County Durham, but have managed to leave North West Durham out of it completely, which means our swimming pool in Consett will be forced to stay closed and they aren’t providing any cash for the swimming pool in Crook.
The Conservative Party will, instead, be able to breathe new life into County Durham, with a focus on the Levelling Up agenda, funding going to the areas that need it most (as opposed to the areas which already receive the highest amount of funding) and, crucially, ensuring that all our communities are supported, with the issues that people want to see tackled being resolved. Measures taken to support our communities will include:
- Tackling speeding and dangerous driving
- Sorting out our roads and getting rid of the pesky potholes
- Tackling littering and fly-tipping
- Ensuring better public transport including, crucially, better bus services across the constituency
- Helping to bid for Levelling Up Funds – our current Labour councillors haven’t put in any bids for the Towns Funds or High Street Funds for anywhere in North West Durham
- Work with me on my campaigns to improve local healthcare, local education (including my current campaign to prevent the closure of Wolsingham Sixth Form, which would be a huge blow to further education in North West Durham), local transport and the local economy
We’ve got some seriously brilliant candidates standing in the local elections, remember, depending on where you are depends on how many votes you have including:
- David Milner and Alison Hirst are running for Esh and Witton Gilbert ward, where you have TWO votes
- Amy Dhillon is standing in Consett South, for the Moorside, Grove and Berry Edge/Genesis Way area – you can watch myself and Amy being interviewed about the local elections HERE, where you have ONE vote
- Mike McGaun and Doug Oliver are campaigning for the Lanchester, Burnhope and Castleside areas, where you have TWO votes
- David Cummings and Paul Robinson have been selected for the Burnopfield, Dipton and Hobson ward, where you have TWO votes
- Will Wearmouth and Steve Cowie are standing for Weardale, where you have TWO votes
- Mike Currah, Patricia Jopling and Robbie Roddis are standing in Crook, where you have THREE votes
- Deborah Armstrong and Emma Young are standing in Medomsley and Leadgate, where you have TWO votes
- Eileen Ridley and Toby Thatcher are standing in Benfieldside ward, where you have TWO votes
- Nick McCarthy is standing in Consett North, where you have TWO votes
- Angela Sterling and Michelle Walton are standing for Delves Lane and Templetown, where you have TWO votes
- Ian Hirst and Alistair Layfield are standing in Willington, Hunwick and the surrounding villages, where you have TWO votes
All of these candidates feel passionately about fighting to make a positive difference to people’s lives and helping our local communities. I’ve spent time with all of them over the past few weeks on the campaign trail and can safely say that all of them would be a huge asset to our council. The very best of North West Durham is represented – we’ve got small business owners, parents, people who have campaigned in our area for decades and some of them I’ve even had the pleasure of working with!
We’ve also got George Jabbour standing as the Police, Crime & Victims Commissioner (PCVC) candidate for Durham and Darlington. George wants to stop a new single custody facility, recently passed at planning by Labour-run DCC and supported by our Labour acting PCVC. The current PCVC, Labour’s Stephen White, wrote to me last year stating that he has ‘taken the decision’ to invest in a centralised custody facility which will cost an estimated £21 million. It was noted in this letter that changes to the estate can be ‘significant’ in terms of cost and community impact, and that the continued maintenance of aged assets is becoming expensive. This was done without holding any kind of proper consultation – which I have spoken out against – and a centralised custody facility in Spennymoor will deplete policing visibility in places like Consett, Crook and Weardale. It’s crucial that we support George in his campaign to prevent this from happening – his work will help to keep our communities safe.
All the Conservative candidates are absolutely brilliant and I sincerely hope that our communities in North West Durham support them – I highly encourage everyone to vote for them as I can guarantee that they want nothing more than to see our communities succeed and end Labour’s complete monopoly on our council. I am genuinely delighted that such a brilliant group of candidates have been selected and I hope to see them all elected as councillors tomorrow.
Best,
Richard