North Sunderland Parish Council round-up

In terms of specific incidents in the past couple of months, a youth had smashed a window in the centre of the village while another had gone onto the building site in the harbour area.

Chairman, Coun Geoffrey Stewart, reported that the gatherings in the latter area seemed to have stopped recently.

Since the last meeting of the council in January, there had been two reported incidents of harassment and a theft from a motor vehicle.

The area’s Neighbourhood Sergeant, Andy Pullen, is moving to Berwick and it is not known who will replace him at this stage.

• Resurfacing the roads rather than filling in potholes one by one is the best approach – that’s the message from parish councillors in Seahouses.

The discussion followed a letter from Berwick MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan highlighting the pothole funding that had been provided to the county council by the Government.

Chairman, Coun Geoffrey Stewart, wanted members to take note of all of the potholes in the parish so that they could be reported to the county council.

Councillors agreed that many of the problem sites in Seahouses would benefit from resurfacing rather than just patching holes.

County councillor John Woodman said there was no harm in making this point to both the county council and Mrs Treveylan.

• Adding to the existing parking pressures in the area would be a key concern regarding plans to change Harbour Hill House from guest accommodation into a hotel, with more beds.

However, at Monday night’s meeting, members heard that details on how parking would be provided on the site had now been added to the application on the county council’s planning system, although there had been no mention of it in the information sent to the parish council.

Members agreed to check out the new information before making a response to the plans for the property on Main Street.

• A resident had written to the council, praising its efforts to install the new, larger bins in the centre of Seahouses. It is proposed to look at the possibility of buying more of this type of bin to add to the four existing ones by allocating funds in the budget for next year.

• Members agreed to buy two new benches for the parish – one for the top of Dunstan View and one for near the cemetery. The replacement seats are being supplied by Marmax and will be made from recycled plastic. The seat for Dunstan View will be a larger two-metre bench.

• Coun Tom Orrin reported that he is standing down from his role as the village organiser for the annual Poppy Appeal on behalf of the Royal British Legion. He has been doing the role for 17 years, but now the search is on for someone to take on the post for the future.

• Recognising the importance to Seahouses of its tourist information centre (TIC), the parish council is to demand information about what is proposed for the building, which needs £10,000 of repairs. TICs are now under the auspices of Active Northumberland.

• The parish council will make a donation of £355 – the remainder of its budget for outside groups for this financial year – to the Seahouses Development Trust. However, some members felt that some money should be held back, while others wanted to give nothing at all.