Meanwhile, back in Eaglescliffe ...

The work goes on. We had a meeting this morning of the 3 ward councillors for Eaglescliffe to discuss some of the less urgent issues which had been shelved while the election campaign took up spare time. It's good to know that we will soon have the CCTV relay poles in place so that cameras will be able to link Eaglescliffe and Yarm into the borough system. We hope to be able to deploy the cameras to resolve some anti-social behaviour problems, especially near both shopping parades. There is no reason why a handful of people should deter people from visiting shops during the evening, but the police cannot be in several places at once.
We're also looking at the possibility of some extra street lighting on one or two dark areas, more planting and more dog waste bins. If Eaglescliffe ward residents have other ideas let us know.
This evening's meeting of the Area Transport Strategy group heard of progress made on last year's priorities and spent a considerable time discussing what to spend money on this year. Eventually an improvement in street lighting to finish off a scheme which we'd hoped to partly fund from a housing development that hasn't been built, a speed indicator device for one of the villages in our patch, the possibility of linking with another area to improve pedestrian safety on the road between us all met with some approval and will be further investigated. These meetings are usually good humoured and involve a lot of negotiation and sharing of ideas for stretching the budget. Working in partnership to achieve improvements all round - that's what politics should be all the time! But we're all human and sometimes partnership is hard work. But it's worth the effort when things are achieved.