March 2010 - Adobe PDF - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

news
Your
<strong>Stockton</strong>
New guide to help the bereaved
A loved one’s death is traumatic
enough, so being faced with
registering the death, organising a
funeral and dealing with the Estate
can be overwhelming.
The Council’s Bereavement Service has
produced a Bereavement Guide, offering
a range of advice from the registration of
a death to dealing with probate. The allencompassing
guide is available free from the
Register Office in Balaclava Street, <strong>Stockton</strong>
and, shortly, from other Council buildings and
GP surgeries.
James Dooley, Bereavement Services Officer,
said: “Dealing with a bereavement can be
difficult but we hope this guide will help
families with some of the practicalities.
“The guide can also be used alongside
our ‘funeral wishes’ booklet, which can
be completed to record your personal
wishes for your own funeral. This could
include your choice of hymns or pieces
Council
of music, readings, named people to speak at
the funeral, choice of flowers and where your
cremated remains should be scattered.”
Both documents are free and
available by contacting
Bereavement Services
on (01642) 527341 or
527342.
Page 37
The way
forward…
In the last edition of
<strong>Stockton</strong> News we
gave details of the way
forward for the Council’s
‘executive arrangements’
for how the Council is
run – either by a Council
Leader or a directly
elected Mayor and
Cabinet.
All residents will be receiving
a letter explaining in detail
how the arrangements would
work and asking for views.
Those views will be taken
into consideration and taken
forward to the Council’s
Cabinet meeting. The final
outcome should be known by
September.
A sound plan for
the Borough
A strategy for future
development in the
Borough has received
the green light from an
independent Planning
Inspector.
The Core Strategy
Development Plan Document
is the first in a series of
planning documents
prepared under a new local
planning system. It sets out
the Council’s broad strategy
for future development for
the next 10 to 15 years.
In January, the Inspector
declared the plan as being
right for the Borough –
the culmination of several
years’ work and extensive
consultation with residents
and other organisations.
As well as the Council’s
vision and objectives for the
Borough, the Core Strategy
has policies on sustainable
transport, travel and living,
the economy, town centres,
the provision of community
facilities, housing, the
environment and planning
obligations.
Policies set out how the
objectives will be met and,
in some cases, give broad
locations where development
should take place.
The strategy will now
be used to inform other
documents and determine
planning applications.
Work will now focus on
other Local Development
Framework documents, in
particular the Regeneration
Development Plan Document
and Yarm and Eaglescliffe
Area Action Plan.
The Core Strategy will be
available from mid April. For
a copy or to find out more
visit www.stockton.gov.
uk/spatialplanning or call
(01642) 526197.
It’s a wrap
The Council’s Animal Welfare Service needs
donations of bedding for the dogs in their care.
The service, based in <strong>Stockton</strong>’s Church Road, takes in around 70
dogs each month. If you have any old blankets, towels, duvets or
sheets you could donate, please contact Animal Welfare Officers
on (01642) 526575 or email animal.welfare@stockton.gov.uk