£600,000 for scheme to combat flooding at Hartlepool's Stranton Cemetery

In total £600,000 will be spent on the Stranton Cemetery flood alleviation scheme to prevent graves flooding, after it was unanimously approved at an extraordinary meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council.

The funding plans also include £400,000 being made available for ‘urgent asset management issues’ to support council facilities and prevent any closures.

The funding is being made available through prudential borrowing as council officers said it is anticipated lower interest rates will be achieved than expected.

They said this will provide a reduction in costs of £50,000, which could therefore be used to borrow a further £1million.

Chief Executive Gill Alexander said: “We know that we can now borrow more money for the same cost to the revenue budget.”

The Stranton Cemetery project comes after a trial scheme was completed around 18 months ago to address the flooding, which proved to be a success.

However, assessing the effectiveness of the work was delayed as the first winter after installation was not wet enough and the effectiveness could not be tested until Autumn 2019.

Councillors noted many of them have loved ones buried at Stranton Cemetery who are impacted by the flooding and unanimously backed the proposals.

Coun Brenda Loynes said: “It’s been going on for a long time, and it is distressing when you see the water and people have to plough through it, it’s just not right at all.”

Coun Marjorie James said :”The Stranton Cemetery work has to happen because there are so many families in this town who are distraught on a weekly basis when they go to visit their loved ones.”

However some councillors debated whether the £400,000 funding for the ‘urgent asset management’ scheme should go ahead, with the council report noting it could be used to help sites like Carlton Adventure Centre.

Coun Sue Little said the Carlton site, operated by the council, is one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ for the authority.

However Coun James Black disagreed with the assertion, and tabled a motion to just carry out the Stranton Cemetery works and put the remaining funding on hold pending more information.

He said: “I do wonder when it last made a profit.

“Do we continue to throw money at something we aren’t very good at or we can’t make work, as opposed to letting a private sector company come in and do a better job.”

The motion failed due to receiving only 12 votes, with 18 against, before the initial motion for the £1million of funding for both Stranton Cemetery and the asset management scheme passed unanimously.

Work will now be carried out with the help of councillors looking at how the asset management scheme funding could be used in the town, including whether it should be used at Carlton Adventure.

Council bosses had previously approved prudential borrowing of £15.395m to match external capital funding for projects to improve the town, and officers stressed the benefits of the improved interest rates which have since become available.

Chief Executive Gill Alexander said: “One of the big challenges for the council has always been how we can raise funds to tackle our capital assets at a time when we were facing nine years of austerity, but the beneficial interest rates give us the opportunity to deal with long-standing issues which really do need to be addressed.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you