Latest news with #LynnHall
BBC News
18-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Wildflowers planted for £75 after Stockton Council quotes £2k
Councillors spent £75 of their own money to plant wildflowers in a village after being quoted more than £2,000 by a council. The three Conservatives said they took matters into their own hands when they were quoted £2,300 by Stockton Council to plant wildflowers on land at the junction of Birkdale Road and Darlington Road, Hall, Niall Innes and Jason French said they wanted to "deliver a colourful and environmentally friendly project themselves, without the sky-high costs proposed". The Labour-run council's environment lead Nigel Cooke said it would cost much more for the council to complete the job "properly" and maintain the patch. The councillors, along with Stockton West Conservative MP Matt Vickers, bought wildflower seeds and a seed spreader for £75 and prepared the ground and sowed the seeds said the four-figure sum "simply doesn't add up" while Mr Innes said it was "mind blowing that we've been able to achieve this for just £75".French said this year's planting was a trial and, while admitting they are "not master gardeners", they hope to improve coverage next year as some areas "are a little sparse". Care For Your Area had provided annual wildflower planting since 2017, but costs rose over the years to the latest figure of £2.38 per square metre, the Local Democracy Reporting Service Cooke said he was "not going to criticise councillors for doing work in their own time" but was "a little bit taken aback" by the criticisms of the authority. He said: "There's a lot of work in planting wildflower seeds. They have to prepare the area."Each area the council does needs two separate treatments of herbicide. Then the team have to return to rotavate the area and return again to spread the seeds."Then they'd come back at agreed intervals to pull weeds up."Clearly that's a lot more work than just buying a seed spreader and spreading a few seeds on the ground. So it costs money." Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
08-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Preston Park lodge demolition plans rejected by Stockton Council
Plans to knock down a vandalised lodge and replace it with a partial replica of itself have been refused by Council's planning committee decided the money would be better spent restoring the South Lodge, near Preston Park Museum in Stockton, after it was "left to rot and ruin".After a narrow vote, councillors rejected the authority's plan to demolish the condemned lodge and build a piece of public officers said the building was of "low architectural importance". The lodge was built between 1919 and 1939 to replace an earlier building and was used as a home until 2019, according to the Local Democracy Reporting is currently unused and boarded proposed structure would have consisted of three arch-like alloy steel structures with boards showing the history of the area. Planning officers recommended approving the scheme but Councillor John Coulson called the proposed structure "monstrous". Councillor Tony Riordan said: "I'm concerned that, once we're allowed to get rid of an asset, it's gone, it doesn't come back."Would that money not be better spent preserving what is a building in curtilage of a heritage asset."Councillor Lynn Hall told the committee: "We've left it to rot and ruin really.""I don't think we've looked at any alternatives. "Once that lodge goes, it's gone forever. We should be trying to keep it at all costs." Planning services manager Simon Grundy said the lodge was considered of "low architectural importance" and only of historical significance because of its ties to the Grade II Preston said its loss would be "marginally outweighed by the public benefits" of the sculpture voted seven to six to refuse the plan. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
