It came as no surprise to me, reading in the Echo about the Police and their plans to crack down on speeding motorists fuelled by complaints from residents in village areas, given the number of death-wish manoeuvres I’ve witnessed over the past 20 years travelling back and forth along the A67.

On Friday 14 March at around 11:20 driving through Merrybent, over The Green and on into High Coniscliffe a 4x4 vehicle came racing up behind my car, overtook in the 30mph zone, the driver then stuck his fingers up and sped off at speeds of up to 60/70mph through High Coniscliffe.

After pulling over, making a note of his registration plate and driving on to an area where my mobile phone had a signal, (good old Orange) I rang the police, only to be told that unless there was an independent witness, perhaps walking along the pavement, there was nothing that they could do, and clearly weren’t interested in logging the incident, then forwarded my call on to a recorded message.

Ringing back, but this time pointing out that I was a Councillor from the Borough of Darlington, reporting the same incident, it was logged and I was given an incident number.

Should it matter who reports what? Should officers/operators, in first contact with the public acting on behalf of the Durham Police, take more care to log reported incidents? Do you think that it is this kind of behaviour which makes many people think, it’s not worth the hassle of bothering to report incidents to the Police?

The subject matter was so interesting that the show was allowed to run for 40 minutes rather than the usual 20, and is split into 2 downloads on the site. Hear Alan's thoughts on the Nationwide free bus scheme...

<Part One> <Part Two>

I’m currently working to organise a litter picking event in Harrowgate Hill. The idea is to blitz 3 areas of our neck of the woods;

• >The perimeter around Glebe Road Park area (hedging and fencing), Green Lane (up to the railway bridge) and the end of Glebe Road where it ends at the railway bridge
• >The perimeter around Bensham Park area (hedging and fencing)
• >The perimeter around the marsh (hedging and fencing) and within the marsh

I’ve asked the following people, organisations and associations if they would like to get involved;

• >Longfield School#
• >Whessoe Parish Council#
• >Ground Work#
• >Street Champions#
• >Residents' Association#
• >Growing old in Darlington (GOLD)#
• >Gateway Club (Mencap)#
• >Street Scene#

I’ve asked for Street Scene to supply; Bin bags, gloves, reflective vests, litter picking tools and arrange collection of filled bags. And plan to ask for the Northern Echo to come along and take some before and after photographs.

Could you help?
It’s early days yet and no dates have been arranged. Weather permitting I’m hoping for a weekend in April. If you would like to get involved and help out or have any other areas which you think could do with blitzing... please get in touch.

A Royal Navy Lynx helicopter will land in Longfield School’s sports fields as part of the School's careers programme.

The helicopter will arrive at the school at 9am on Thursday morning, and will remain on the school field until around 10.45am.

Pupils will be able to look inside the helicopter and talk to crew members about their role in the Navy's Fleet Air Arm.