Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Councillors press for funding for villages

Since June, the nine Whickham Liberal Democrat councillors have been working hard to secure extra funding for Whickham village. This follows concerns from residents that although other areas in Gateshead seem to be improving, Whickham is gradually falling behind in terms of funding.

On Saturday 23rd June, the nine councillors held ward walkabouts in Whickham Village. They had previously asked residents (by email) to suggest areas that they should concentrate on, mainly in the centre of Whickham. They also invited residents to join them on the walks. On the walks, they made notes of issues and then followed these up with council officers.

More recently in September, ward councillors from Whickham met with the Council’s Chief Executive, Leader and Deputy Leader in the centre of the village. At the meeting, they requested funding in three main areas; paving, street furniture and some redesign of the centre area.

There are a number of uneven, loose and broken flagstones and the area is badly in need of repaving after many years of patching, mainly by utility companies. There has been another beautiful floral display this year, but councillors have also requested extra funding for street furniture as it is badly in need of replacement.

Finally, they have asked for some limited redesign to be carried out to deal with some aspects of anti-social behaviour. All of these requests will rely on budget, but the requests have now been added to a list of specific requests for the Whickham area, known as ward based schemes.

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