Crossgate Community Partnership: Minutes

Minutes of the meeting, 5th March 2026

1. Attendance

Roger Cornwell (in the Chair), Lesley Aers, Max Arnold, Robert Banks, Chris Hugill, Margaret Hefferson, Simon Priestley, David Ramsden, Jean Rogers, Ann Stokes, David Toll, Joe Witherspoon,
Marie Edwards, Dinah Patt (Hild / Bede College), Abbi Mulligan (Unite Students)
David Ridgeway (City of Durham Show),
Cllr Liz Brown.

2. Apologies for absence

were received from: Joan Adams, Eather Ashby, Gillian Banks, Ann Evans, Malcolm Reed, Ann Watkins, Judi Webb, Sarah Wilkinson,
Cllr Victoria Ashfield, Cllr Grenville Holland, Cllr Carole Lattin.

3. Minutes

The minutes of the February meeting were approved as a correct record.

4. Hild / Bede College update

This was the first CCP meeting that Dinah Patt had been able to attend this year: she welcomed the Community back to the college, and introduced Marie Edwards, the college chaplain. She gave advance notice that there would be a College Day in May, with festivities and music; this would be at the weekend, and she hoped it would not be disruptive. One event would be a Cathedral service to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the amalgamation of the colleges od St Hild and Dt Bede. Flyers will be circulated to neighbours nearer to the date.
Marie explained that she had been in post for almost a year, and that community outreach is part of her remit. She was keen to build up a structure over the summer, ready to involve the new intake.
Unite Students were also interested in building up community involvement.

5. Reviving the City of Durham Show

David Ridgeway represented a small working group attempting to revive the City of Durham Show. It was now more or less definite that this would take place at the Town Hall on Sunday 13th September. The project had secured funding from the University and the Parish Council, and had the support of the Market team. The website would go live within the next month.

6. Parish newsletter

Roger summarised those elements of the Parish Newsletter which he wished to highlight:

1. An action plan had been agreed for Fowler's Yard;
2. The next fill Parish Council meeting would be considering nominations for Citizen of the Year; Parish Councillors welcomed suggestions;
3. The new NPPF allocates targets for housebuilding, including a very large figure for Co. Durham;
4. The process of reviewing the Neighbourhood Plan was starting up; he expected the steering group to be set up the following day.

7. Traffic Lights at the North Road Roundabout

A letter had previously been circulated from the Transport Projects team at the County Council, informing residents of their intention to install traffic signals at the North Road Roundabout "to facilitate bus service reliability, improved pedestrian crossing facilities (a key pedestrian route between Durham bus station and train station) and improvements to the public realm adjacent to Bethel Chapel. All works will be sympathetic to the conservation of the World Heritage Site setting." THis was described as "part of the A690 corridor works," and Cllr Liz Brown thought there might be an intention of bringing the junction into the SCOOT scheme. Discussion revealed that members saw no great need for lights at this junction, but that pedestrian lights might well prove useful. Roger was asked to reply in these terms, and asking to be kept informed of progress.

8. Food waste collection

Several members had attended the briefing meeting about food waste collections at Merryoaks which Liz had organised. They were disappointed to learn that DCC's only plan for houses which do not, for whatever reason, currently benefit from kerbside collections is to exempt us from (at least) the initial roll-out of the scheme. Liz expressed disappointment at this information, and suggested we send a follow-up e-mail to Kieran O'Leary, who had spoken at the meeting. Jean Rogers agreed to draft this.
Dinah pointed out that Hild/Bede is classified as a business for the purpose of food waste collections, and therefore already had collections.

9. Emergency Plan

Simon Priestley had attended a simulation exercise, designed to test how the plan would function in the case of a rain-related emergency. This had revealed the need to revisit the provision of contact points, since on this occasion both local contacts were out of service. Recent news reports had caused them to consider how to handle am emergency on which the water supply did not flood but failed altogether. It was also apparent how many emergency plans do exist somewhere, but are not necessarily joined up.

10. Report from Neighbourhood Wardens

The Wardens' report for February was circulated with the agenda: it was noted that once again, their entire report was concerned with waste disposal.

11. Report from County Councillor

Liz reported that a) the Council's budget for the year has been set, and b) that, as reported in the press, the Milburngate development has been sold.

12. Reports from Parish Councillors

a) Cllr Victoria Ashfield had circulated a written report.

b) Roger reported on planning applications for 26 Lawson Terrace, Coviello and The Bowers.

c) Liz had reported the illuminated sign on the One Stop Shop to Planning Enforcement.
She reminded members that the price of visitors' parking permits was about to rise, but that they could still stock up at the existing price.

13. Other business

Abbi Mulligan apologised that she had been unable to attend the start of the meeting; she told the meeting that Unite Students was looking for volunteering opportunities for students, and was encouraged to approach the Parish Clerk.

14 Date of next meeting

The next meeting will be on Thursday 9th April 2026 - deferred from Tuesday because of Easter..