A big thank you to everybody who has donated to our appeal. We reached our initial target of £4,000 in only four days, with donations ranging from £10 to £1,000. This shows the breadth of support we have. With matched funding from the Parish Council we now have enough to apply to the Court for permission to apply for a Judicial Review. Getting permission would mean that a judge agrees the Parish Council has an arguable case to take forward.

Our solicitors have already written a formal letter to the Council setting out our case and asking them to quash the planning permission. The Council have promised a reply by Tuesday 7th May and, while we hope they will concede at this point, our solicitors are already building the case to put to the judge to make sure we get permission. We have until 13th May to file the papers with the Court.

Once permission has been granted, and we are hopeful that if it gets that far it will be, then it will be several months before the full case comes to Court. This will cost many tens of thousands of pounds, and our further, more ambitious ‘stretch’ target of £45,000 is to help fund this.

There is more information about the judicial review process on our solicitors’ website at https://www.richardbuxton.co.uk/the-law/judicial-review-process
Please continue to share, promote and donate to our CrowdJustice campaign using the link below:

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

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/

The City of Durham Parish Council’s Grant Award window for 2019/20 is open from 1st April. Any organisation wishing to submit an application for funding may find a copy of the application form here: City of Durham Grant Application Form 2019-2020

Once complete, please submit this application form along with all other supporting documentation to us via e-mail at parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk

Please note that your application must follow the procedure as set out in our grant award policy; a copy of which can be found here:
City of Durham Grant Award Policy

The Parish Council is also keen to understand which of its key priorities your grant application is aligned with. Details of the Parish Council key priorities are set out below:

Priority 1: Enhancing the wellbeing and prosperity of our Parish
Priority 2: Creating a Neighbourhood Plan and representing the Parish on planning matters
Priority 3: Being a voice for the City and working with key partners
Priority 4: Supporting the business community and encouraging tourism
Priority 5: Enhancing the physical environment of our Parish

A full copy of our draft Parish Council strategy for 2019/20 can also be found here: DRAFT_City of Durham Parish Council Strategy 2019-20

Please note: the deadline for all grant applications is the 31st May and funds for successful applications will only be released following the Full Parish Council meeting in June.

Solicitors acting on behalf of the City of Durham Parish Council have written to the County Council to say that, if it were to approve the planning application for a new HQ building on The Sands on the basis of information currently before it, that decision would be unlawful.
This is because the proposal to build the new HQ on The Sands is an integral part of the much larger proposals for Aykley Heads. The accompanying Environmental Statement should have covered all of this. In not doing so it is inadequate and fails to meet both European and National regulations.
The lawyers also add that the proposals do not meet either National or Local plan policies. The consideration of traffic and air quality impacts is inadequate. The alternatives have not been properly considered, and the Council does not have enough information on which it can properly reach a decision.
The Parish Council decided to oppose the proposals at a special meeting on 5 September and lodged its first objection. The Full Council meeting on 27 September discussed this application further and unanimously decided to seek professional legal advice as to whether there are any grounds on which this planning application for the proposed new County HQ could be challenged. The Parish Council commissioned an experienced and well-established law firm in Richard Buxton Environmental and Public Law to provide the Council with legal advice.
“Our solicitors have advised that such grounds for challenge do indeed exist and set these out in a twelve page letter” explains Roger Cornwell, who chairs the Parish Planning Committee. “As the legal advice received also highlights that to determine the application at present would be unlawful, our Planning Committee decided unanimously on 4 January that the proper course of action was to submit this letter to the County Council. That was done later the same evening.”
The planning application is currently on hold, awaiting comments from the Environment Agency which has statutory responsibilities on flooding and air pollution issues.
In submitting this letter, the Parish Council hopes that Durham County Council will reconsider its proposals for the future location of its HQ and listen to the views of hundreds of residents from across the County and the many businesses who have submitted objections to this planning application.

A copy of the solicitors letter can be found here:

Solicitors Letter to DCC

The City of Durham Parish Council have submitted a proposal to amend the Durham City Neighbourhood Area boundary, in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2017 and the Localism Act 2011.

The amendment is being sought to ensure the neighbourhood plan area aligns with the new parish boundary.  An area to the north west near Aykley Heads is being removed from the currently designated neighbourhood area, while additional land in Gilesgate to the east of the proposed neighbourhood area is being included.

The consultation is scheduled to run from Thursday 13th December until Thursday 31st January 2019. Any comments in relation to this matter should be made to the County Council by 5.00pm on 31st January 2019.

If you wish to make a comment on this, the consultation is currently hosted on the county council’s website at: http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/18184/Neighbourhood-planning-what-s-happening-

 

Public notice for the meeting of the City of Durham Parish Council meeting taking place on 20 December 2018

The public notice for the meeting of the Environment Committee being held on 13 December at 6.30 p.m. has been published.

The public notice for the meeting of the City of Durham Parish Council Licensing Committee taking place on 7 December 2018 2pm has been published.

The City of Durham Parish Council has requested that the national Planning Casework Unit calls the planning application for the erection of a new County Council Headquarters with associated car parking (inclusive of a multi-storey car park) with associated landscaping, highway and infrastructure works and demolition of existing structures into their office and that a decision is made by their unit. View the call-in request.

This will allow an Independent Inspector to make a decision on this application. This is based on the grounds that the parish council considers there is a conflict with national policies on important matters; substantial national controversy; and public confidence in objective, transparent and impartial planning decision-making.

Pending the County Council making a decision, we are ask the Planning Casework Unit to issue a holding direction.

Election information for the new City of Durham Parish Council is now available via Durham County Council’s website. This includes important information for both voters and potential candidates.

Please visit http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcityelection