Meeting with North Durham MP Kevan Jones

The CLA, along with a small group of CLA members, held a meeting with Durham North MP Kevan Jones, kindly hosted by Lambton Park Estate Manager Hugo Mallaby.

Kevan will also be standing as a Labour Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in the same constituency at the impending General Election. Members attending included David Gray (GSC Grays Chair); Robert Sullivan (GSC Grays Rural Director), Hilary and son Angus Johnson, and farmer Stuart Smith.

The purpose of the meeting was for the CLA Acting Director North Henk Geertsema, along with a small group of farmers and landowners, to raise various farming and related concerns of those living and working in rural areas as well as government policy matters impacting the rural economy. The meeting also afforded MP Kevan Jones an opportunity to set out his vision for the constituency with a view to the next General Election.

Issues discussed included:

• Similar to other meetings, planning was top of the agenda, with those in attendance expressing particular frustration with the lack of engagement and communication from the local planning authority (Durham County Council).

Concerns were also raised about the loss of experienced staff at the council, and resource constraints to process planning applications. Kevan emphasised more generally, that that diminishing resources in local government has been an ongoing constraint on public service delivery.

• Fly-tipping was discussed, as well as the council’s work to help with clearing fly-tipped material from private land. Members had particularly raised concerns with landowners being threatened by local council officers, when they are the victims.

Kevan’s perspective is that there should be greater cross-functional co-operation to crack down on the organised crime element which is often responsible for industrial scale fly-tipping in the constituency area. Some of these incidents are as a result of avoiding to pay landfill tax, and a lack of enforcement and joined-up working by relevant agencies.

• Rural crime, especially hare coursing and off-road bike trespassing on farms and private land.
• Responsible public access to the countryside, including a call to incorporate the Countryside Code in the educational curriculum.

Further meetings with other MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in the North are planned in the run-up to the next General Election. Members interested in hosting any of these can contact Henk Geertsema at the CLA North office.