The City of Durham Parish Council has launched a crowd funding campaign in its fight against Durham County Council’s proposed new Council Headquarters being built on the Sands in the centre of Durham.
The move comes after solicitors acting on behalf of the Parish Council issued the County Council with a pre-action letter on 23rd April requesting that planning permission for the new Headquarters be quashed. In its correspondence to the County Council, Richard Buxton solicitors stated there were four grounds for objecting:
• Unlawful imposition of condition 3 and consequent failure correctly to assess traffic impacts as part of the EIA;
• Failure to consider all relevant alternatives as part of the sequential assessment;
• Failure to take into account and give reasons for not accepting the advice of Historic England and the Council’s Design and Conservation Officer relating to the design of the multi-storey car park;
• Failure to provide “clear and convincing” justification for the harm to the designated heritage assets.
Despite overwhelming local opposition to the plans, Durham County Council’s planning committee voted 8-6 on 5th March in favour of moving County Hall from its current home at Aykley Heads to a new building based on the current Sands car park.
At an extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council on 10th April, Councillors voted unanimously in favour of seeking a judicial review of the scheme and to investigate funding options for carrying out the legal action, after receiving a number of offers of donations from members of the public towards legal costs.
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council, Cllr Elizabeth Scott said, “the public clearly recognise that the Parish Council is committed to fighting this proposed scheme all the way and a number of members of the public had even offered donations to support us in fighting these plans. As a result, in deciding to move forward with legal action, we also decided to investigate the option of crowd funding. This is a real community-led effort in a bid to try and stop these proposals and get the County Council to go back to the drawing board on this ill-thought out £50million scheme which will have a devastating impact on our City, our local amenity, our environment, traffic, local residents and businesses and our much-loved world heritage site”.
Anyone wishing to donate to the campaign can do so by following the link below and pledging their support:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/legal-challenge-against-dcc-sands-hq/

At its Full Council meeting on the 25th April, the City of Durham Parish Council voted
unanimously in favour of entering into a service level agreement with Durham County Council to
provide additional Neighbourhood Warden services for the Parish area.
The move comes following a recommendation by the Parish Council Environment Committee.
The Committee has received a number of complaints from residents relating to dog fouling,
littering, bins being left out for long periods of time and dangerous car parking, etc.
The benefits of the Council taking up this offer could be significant due to the heightened
responsiveness to environmental issues and a substantial increase in proactive environmental
enforcement. This has already benefitted other Parish Councils which have signed up to this
arrangement including Stanley and Spennymoor.
The Neighbourhood Warden would deal with all local incidents in relation to fly-tipping,
littering, dog fouling, nuisance parking, waste accumulations, graffiti and waste duty of care
offences. They would also carry out proactive work in relation to dog fouling and littering and to
identify specific neighbourhood problems at an early stage. The Warden will work closely with
the Parish Council to identify hotspots and areas that are causing concern for residents and
businesses. The Warden will also be involved in publicity and education of the public in all
aspects of environmental issues within the Parish area and be able to carry out mini-campaigns in
problem areas to tackle local environmental problems in particular problem areas.
Fixed Penalty Notices can be issued by the Neighbourhood Warden to those who commit an
offence.
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council Environment Committee, Cllr Victoria Ashfield said,
“the City of Durham Parish Council was established to be a voice for residents in our area and
this project will respond to some of the most significant concerns expressed to us. It has therefore
been high on our list of priorities to address and I am so pleased that this is now going ahead. We
will continue to listen to residents to help us to pinpoint precisely where and when the worst
problems are happening so that we can focus the Neighbourhood Wardens on these times and
areas. We hope residents will continue to keep in touch with us and we hope that the programme
will encourage the offenders to change their behaviour”.

At an extraordinary meeting of the City of Durham Parish Council this week, Councillors voted unanimously in favour of seeking a judicial review into the proposed new County Headquarters scheme.
The extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council was called after Councillors received legal advice from Richard Buxton Solicitors that certain aspects of the scheme were legally flawed and there were a number of grounds for a judicial review into the proposed new County Headquarters and the process by which the decision to approve these plans was made.
Last week, the City of Durham Parish Council vowed to continue the fight against the new £50 million County Headquarters on the Sands after the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire MP decided not to call in the application.
The plans to relocate the County Council Headquarters from its current site of Aykley Heads to a new building on the Sands car park have faced overwhelming opposition from across County Durham and beyond. In addition to a call-in request from the City of Durham Parish Council and other local bodies, a change.org campaign amongst residents requesting that the Secretary of State call in the application had reached over 4,700 signatures.
Members of the public attending the extraordinary Parish Council meeting on Wednesday expressed anger at the impact the proposals would have on the local area and the City.
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council, Cllr Elizabeth Scott said, “throughout all of this, what we have seen from this County Council is well-established and Saved Local Plan policies being disregarded and an avoidance of any accountability whatsoever to the welfare of the residents of Durham City and the fabric of our City. For many of us who have fought these plans, there seems to have been a sense of pre-determination from the outset, with the County Council operating a ‘one stop shop’ in its determination of these plans. Last week we vowed to continue our fight and fight on we shall. As such, the Parish Council has now resolved to seek a judicial review of the scheme, with the aim that the County Council goes back to the drawing board on its plans for a new headquarters. People far and wide have expressed their opposition to these plans and we want them to know that the City of Durham Parish Council will continue to be a voice for this City. The impact of the proposed new £50m County HQ on our much-loved World Heritage site, our local amenity, traffic flows, parking, local residents and our environment will be hugely damaging.”