Cant access a public variable from a public class anywhere in my solution (VS, C'#)

i have taken over a project and I am struggling to access a public variable from a public class. (Strange).

I am relatively new to C# having only done some MVC, ASP.NET stuff so i dont know if im being a bit of a clown but:

public int AlertCount
{
    get { return Convert.ToInt32(alertCountTextBlock.Text); }
    set { alertCountTextBlock.Text = value.ToString(); }
}

/// <summary>
/// Property which represents the number of new alerts the project currently has 
/// </summary>
public int NewAlertCount
{
    get { return Convert.ToInt32(newAlertCountTextBlock.Text); }
    set { newAlertCountTextBlock.Text = value.ToString(); }
}

These are the two variables i am trying to access from another class inside my solution (above)

namespace Intelligence_Gathering_System.Pages.Project.Controls
{
    /// <summary>
    /// UserControl which acts as a selection button for each project. It displays the projects name and
    /// current alert item totals along with providing methods for sharing and selecting of the project
    /// </summary>
    public partial class ProjectHeaderControl 
    {
        private readonly ProjectPage _parentReference;                    //Reference to the controls 'parent' Project Page       

        /// <summary>
        /// Overloaded constructor which initialises the controls members
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="projectName">The name of the project</param>
        /// <param name="alertCount">The total number of Alert Items in the project</param>
        /// <param name="newAlertCount">The total numebr of New Alert Items in the project</param>
        /// <param name="parent">A reference to the controls 'parent' Project Page</param>
        public ProjectHeaderControl(string projectName, int alertCount, int newAlertCount, ProjectPage parent)
        {

this is the class structure (namespace, partial class and constructor) which the variables reside,

I am simply trying to call from another piece of code (within the same solution and project ) to alter a count to increment and decrement

I have tried inside the class i need to increment and decrement (there are multiple classes i need to do this) putting the full namespace path then the variable to pinpoint it exacty and the class. variable (example of one seen below)

int x = Intelligence_Gathering_System.Pages.Project.Controls.NewAlertCount;

or

int x = ProjectHeaderControl.NewAlertCount;

neither of them are working and im a bit baffled as to why.

Am i missing something obvious here or.... Is it syntax related due to C# i'm unsure.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

Jordan