25 July 2025

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Sadly, my Saturday at Thornafest was a washout, with the event getting cancelled midway through due to the extreme weather. Hopefully next year will have better conditions and be a success for the Town Council.

This week began with a special visit to the Borough from Dame Sue Snowdon DCVO, His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant for County Durham, as part of her final official engagements before retiring from her post next year. We were delighted to welcome Dame Sue to the Borough, which began with a tour of Preston Park Museum to showcase the exciting developments underway, including the creation of a new exhibition space and improvements to the café and aviary.

We then headed to Dunedin House for a presentation on the ongoing regeneration work throughout the Borough. Highlights included updates on the transformative work at Stockton Waterfront and Tees Central. The visit concluded at Parkfield Community Centre, where Dame Sue met with children and staff involved in one of the Borough's Holidays Are Fun projects - an initiative that provides a range of enriching activities and healthy meals to young people during the school holidays.

I would like to thank Dame Sue for her longstanding service and dedication to County Durham and wish her all the very best in her retirement.

On Tuesday I facilitated a workshop on Adult Skills at Teesworks Skills Academy. We have one more session to attend, and it has been beneficial to collaborate with our partners discussing how we shape the future of adult skills in the Tees Valley. The cumulation of this work will be a report that I will present to Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) Cabinet in September.

I also attended a meeting ahead of a TVCA Cabinet meeting on Friday.

On Wednesday afternoon I attended an Education, Employment and Skills briefing session where we discussed the agenda for the upcoming meeting at Teesside Airport in early August.

Later in the day I attended the full Council meeting. This was the first meeting in our new chamber. I think there are a few teething issues that need to be resolved with the seating plan, but I am sure that these can easily be sorted. There was a packed agenda for the meeting with lots of public and member questions to Cabinet members. There were also two motions debating off road bikes and historic boundary signs.

Yesterday was a quieter day for me and I caught up with the Deputy Leader Councillor Paul Rowling and other Councillors for my regular catch up to discuss any issues they have. It was also an opportunity for me to visit my Ward and check the progress on current case work and catch up with emails.

This morning, I had an early start and met with other Tees Valley Leaders at Teesside Airport ahead of an informal Cabinet meeting.

I seem to have had a really busy few weeks with packed days and events on evenings and weekends.

This weekend, I am having a break from all things Council and am spending the weekend in Liverpool for some relaxation and down time. I am looking forward to finding somewhere to watch the Lionesses in the final of Euro 25 and will be cheering them on with the hope of an England win.

I hope you all have a great weekend.