Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has successfully intervened to get blocked drains along New Road in Burnopfield cleared by the council
Richard visited Burnopfield Bank at the end of June, following contact by constituents who flagged their concerns about the quality of numerous drains along New Road. The drains were heavily silted and not draining properly, leading to a stream running along the length of the road due to heavy rainfall. Richard was shown the issues and had a chat with the constituents about what could be done to sort the drains out to ensure that the roads were safe, and flooding was prevented. Richard was particularly concerned that the blocked drains would have a knock-on effect on the roads in terms of causing traffic hazards, erosion and excessive water on the surface of the roads leading to ice issues in the winter.
Following the visit, Richard wrote to the council to request that the drains be urgently looked at and cleaned. Following his request, the council sent out a cleaning team who were able to unblock the drains and put in measures to ensure that the drains would not have similar problems in the future.
Richard is working on concerns of local residents in Burnopfield and across the constituency on issues from speeding to street lighting - in addition to his bigger campaigns for a replacement for Shotley Bridge, better local transport infrastructure, more local policy, improving education locally and protecting our local environment.
Commenting, Richard Holden MP said
"I am delighted that after intervening on behalf of local people, the council sorted this problem out. I know some local people had been flagging these issues to the council for some months and had become frustrated The blocked drains were causing damage to the roads and this would have led to the roads being unsafe. I want to thank those people that got in touch about the problem for showing me the issue – it was really helpful to have a look around the local area and see what was going on. I will continue to keep an eye on the situation to ensure that there are no further problems in the future and am looking forward to working with residents of Burnopfield on some other campaigns going forward."
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