The City of Durham Parish Council is currently inviting bids to carry out a one-time piece of research into the current and permitted operating hours of all licenced premises within the City of Durham Parish Council boundary area.

The Parish Council requires the production of an evidence document which illustrates any discrepancies between approved operating hours in planning permissions, approved opening hours in licensing permissions, opening hours advertised on premises’ websites and opening hours in practice for approximately. 163 licensed premises in Durham City.

A full list of all licenced premises within the City and their respective addresses will be provided by the Parish Council.

This work will require the compilation of a chart with 5 headings:

• licenced premises name and address
• published operating hours of the premises (on internet/front door)
• operating hours in planning permission document(s)
• operating hours in licensing permission document(s)
• additional brief information (only where required)

This research will involve the effective use of several online resources, e.g., research on internet into published opening hours of premises, research on Durham County Council planning portal into opening hours in planning permissions as well as potential visits to the Council’s Licensing Department at Annand House (DH7 8RS) to go over any licensing documentation for premises.

The work may also include some visits to licensed premises whose opening hours are not available online.
All bids should include a fixed fee for producing this document as well as time expected to be spent on its production. All bids should be submitted to the Parish Clerk by no later than 5pm on Wednesday 24th May 2023 via email to parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk

All bids should be supplemented by evidence that the individual has a research background, has experience of data management, is able to navigate their way around the Council’s online planning portal and is proficient in the use of Microsoft office tools e.g. Word, Excel, etc.

In addition, knowledge of Durham County Council planning and other procedures would be an advantage.
It is hoped that this document may be produced by no later than mid-July 2023 but the Council is able to be flexible with this deadline.

Should you have any queries about the bid process, please do not hesitate to contact the Parish Clerk Adam Shanley via email at parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk

(Local walking enthusiasts braved the rain in March and had a fabulous day of activity and discovery)

A new walking trail is being promoted featuring the history, architecture and landscape of Durham City. The new leaflet is a result of a partnership between City of Durham Trust and the City of Durham Parish Council to mark the Trust’s 80th anniversary.

The trail around the World Heritage Site is about 8km long and takes less than three hours at a gentle walking pace. There is an extension along the River Wear to the Old Durham Gardens taking a further half an hour. Given average fitness and enthusiasm for a good walk, it makes the perfect solo walk with the dog, a great family ramble, and even a super outing for a rambling club. Also featured is shorter route for wheelchairs around the Peninsular where there are fewer steep slopes and the surfaces are more suitable for wheelchair users and others with limited mobility.

John Lowe, the Chair of the City of Durham Trust said: “The Trust is certain that this fine trail around the Cathedral, Castle and riverbanks of the World Heritage site will become a popular route round the City’s many heritage sites and buildings. It is just one of several ways we are celebrating 80 years of commitment to the care for the City’s heritage.”

The Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council’s Environment Committee Coun. Carole Lattin said: “We are delighted to be publishing the leaflet with the Trust which will help both local people and visitors to enjoy more fully what Durham has to offer. It is also just what the City economy needs to encourage visitors to stay longer and boost tourism expenditure. We are indebted to David Miller, aided by other Trust members, for devising the trail and designing this exceptional leaflet.”

The leaflet will be distributed to local groups, businesses, and organisations and will be available to the public at the Town Hall in the Market Place as well as other public buildings across the City.

The City of Durham Parish Council is delighted to provide assistance and support to local community organisations which are set up to promote community life for our residents. The Council’s financial support is provided by way of grants, which are decided against criteria set by the Parish Council each year.

The funding window for grants is now open and will remain open until Friday 2nd June 2023. A decision on whether to award a grant will be made at our Full Council meeting on Thursday 22nd June 2023.

There is no limit to what each organisation can apply for but please bear in mind that the total grants fund for 2023-24 is £15,000 and we like to support as many organisations as we possibly can.

In order to receive a grant from the Parish Council, your organisation and the project for which you are seeking funding must comply with our agreed small grants policy.

You can see if the project for which you are hoping to apply for funding is in our parish area via this interactive map.

To apply for a small grant from the Parish Council, please complete this application form and return it to our Parish Clerk Adam by no later than 5pm on 2nd June 2023.

Please also remember to include the latest copy of your organisation’s audited accounts.

All application forms and accounts can either be returned via email to parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk or via post to: City of Durham Parish Council. c/o Office 3, Clayport Library. 8 Millennium Place. Durham. DH1 1WA.

You can find out more about some of the most recent fantastic local projects the Parish Council has supported via this report from previous grant award winners.

We are delighted to work in partnership to deliver a better City of Durham parish area for all.

What is a precept?

Each year in January, the City of Durham Parish must decide its budget for the forthcoming financial year and submit a precept request to Durham County Council. The Precept is a tax that Parish Council’s charge their local electors to meet their budget requirements. Parish Councils do not receive any direct funding from central government and rely on their Precept plus any other income they generate from services or facilities they provide. The Parish Council Precept is part of the Council Tax and is collected from local electors via their Council Tax payments.

How is it Calculated?

The Precept requirement is the difference between the Parish Council’s estimated income and its anticipated spending requirements for the financial year (its budget). The financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March. The Parish Council needs to agree a budget before it can set its Precept and both must be agreed by the full Parish Council.

When calculating the Precept, the City of Durham Parish Council takes into consideration:

– current year’s spending levels – for ongoing services for which it is responsible e.g. recreation facilities, lighting, cemeteries, insurance and cost of the Parish Office
– costs of any additional spending plans or projects
– provision for contingencies and reserves
– levels of anticipated income – from services for which it is responsible e.g. rental income, allotment fees, burial fees, grants

Currently there is no cap on the amount that Parish Councils can raise via their precept (District
Councils and County Councils are capped at 4.99%). Parish Councils should be able to explain and justify larger precept increases.

Tax base and Band D equivalent

Part of the Precept Calculation is the ‘Band D equivalent’. Band D is the middle band of Council Tax and is supposed to represent the amount of Council Tax paid on an average property in the area. Council Tax base is calculated by taking the number of houses in the City of Durham Parish Council area, allocating a weight to them based on their council tax banding and adding up the total of the weighted households. For example, higher council tax band properties carry a higher weighting and lower council tax base properties carry a lower council tax weighting. The Council Tax Base can therefore fluctuate from year to year based on the number of properties in each area. For example, council tax base will increase if any new houses have been built and the occupants have started to pay council tax but may decrease if for example any houses have been demolished in an area or have changed their use from Use Class C3 to Use Class C4 or sui generis (non-tax paying Use Classes).

City of Durham Parish Council budgets and precept

Financial year 2023/24
City of Durham Parish Council budget 2023-24
Total precept and charge by Council tax band 2023-24

Financial year 2022/23
City of Durham Parish Council budget 2022-23
Total precept and charge by Council tax band 2022-23

Financial year 2021/22
City of Durham Parish Council budget 2021-22
Total precept and charge by Council tax band 2021-22

This year, the City of Durham Parish Council will once again be organising and judging the Durham City ‘Best Christmas Business Frontage Competition’. The competition aims to add an extra level of sparkle to Durham City during the festive season and hopes to promote businesses in the City of Durham Parish area as a whole to shoppers and visitors of our great City. The winner of each of the business categories will win a prize of £500.

Eligibility

Any business within Durham City and which has indicated that they wish to take part in the competition by completing and returning the application form is eligible to take part in this year’s competition. Please complete this application form and return it to us via email at parishclerk@cityofdurham-pc.gov.uk by 5pm on 6th December 2022.

Judging and Judging Criteria

The window display that is judged must be the same as the display that will continue to be in the business window(s) throughout the Christmas period.

The competition is between individual businesses in each of the following categories:

• an independent business;
• a chain store;
• an indoor market stall; or
• a non-retail business

Whilst businesses may choose to adopt a theme of their own, it is individual business displays that will be judged.

We will judge against the following criteria:

• Innovation and creativity. How new or different is the window display?
• Spirit of Christmas and festivity. How well does the display convey the ‘Spirit of Christmas’ and a festive message?
• Merchandising (not included in the non-retail category) how well does the business show case its merchandise to shoppers.
• Overall impression and visual impact. E.g. how well is the window lit up?

Judges will award up to 5 points for each of the criteria (a total of 20 for independent business, a chain store, an indoor market stall and 15 for the non-retail business). Judges will work together and will agree the score against each criterion and therefore the total score. The highest score from each of the business categories will win a £500 prize.

Judging

Judging will take on Thursday 8th December from 2pm so please have your windows complete by this time. The results will be announced on Friday 9th December 2022.

Awards Presentation

The Awards presentation will take place at the City of Durham Parish Council Christmas Civic event at Durham Town Hall on Monday 12th December between 6:30pm and 10pm. All winning businesses in each category will receive an invitation to the awards ceremony with further details after the final judging.

The City of Durham Parish Council is here to represent all residents of our community – whether student residents or year-round permanent residents – we are here to support all of our neighbours.

The Parish Council has been shocked to see the scenes of students queuing outside estate agents in the City in the desperate hopes of securing accommodation for next academic year. The scenes have hit national headlines and are a cause of great concern to us all.

The City of Durham Parish Council will be writing to Durham University, Durham Students Union, Durham County Council and the local Member of Parliament to seek an urgent meeting to try and resolve these issues.

No individual or organisation should rush to the conclusion that this housing crisis is caused as a result of a lack of private-rented HMOs in the City. Indeed, the statistics below show otherwise and in fact we have seen outlying areas of the City also experience an increase in private student accommodation. A statement last month from the University that there had actually been a reduction in private-rented accommodation in the City has no basis in fact and has yet to be retracted.

Be in no doubt that this issue is caused primarily as a result of landlords releasing their properties into the market almost immediately and the University’s obsession with an unsustainable expansion policy, which is driving permanent long-term residents out of the City. This expansion policy is in no way accommodation-led and the University’s aims of having 50% of students ‘living-in’ University accommodation is nowhere near to being achieved.

The Parish Council is calling on the University to move forward urgently with the six PBSAs it promised the residents of Durham at the Examination in Public into the County Durham Plan in 2020 and to make these affordable. It is deeply concerning to see the proposed accommodation places in these PBSAs slowly falling by the wayside; with the numbers at James Barber House already being reduced and a planning application for an independently funded PBSA at Mount Oswald to house 850 students, which was submitted two years ago, has not progressed since June 2021.

The crippling and exploitative costs of College accommodation is also pushing students into the Durham housing stock and it is time for the University to take action on this and put people ahead of profit.

The stress and mental strain this must all be causing our student residents is appalling.

Stats on private-rented student lets in DH1 as of April 2022:

The City of Durham Parish Council has today launched a consultation with local residents seeking their views on priorities for the forthcoming financial year.

The City of Durham Parish Council’s activities are funded by a precept which forms part of your council tax. Each year since 2018, the Parish Council has opted to freeze the annual Parish Council precept charge at £34.87 (Band D) – one of the lowest in the entire County. This budget was originally allocated to us by the County Council upon our formation following a referendum of residents.

The City of Durham Parish Council represents a wide geographical area from Akyley Heads down to Burn Hall which includes the electoral wards of Elvet and Gilesgate, Neville’s Cross and Durham South.
To help deliver services for local residents, the Parish Council has established a number of Committees, each with a specific area of focus. These include: a Planning Committee (representing the parish on all planning matters and delivering a Neighbourhood Plan for our community), an Environment Committee (delivering a cleaner and greener community), a Licensing Committee (representing the parish on all licensing matters), a Finance Committee (ensuring the delivery of cost-effective services and advising the Parish Council on grant allocations to local voluntary and community organisations) and a Business Committee (supporting businesses and promoting Durham city as a place to visit and shop).

We would like to hear your views on what the Parish Council has already achieved, what you would like us to do more of and what we can do differently, for example, an enhanced late-night neighbourhood policing and safeguarding service for our area. We would like to know your views as to whether you would be willing to pay a slightly increased precept to deliver these additional services.

Local residents know that the Parish Council will always act wherever it can to address their issues and concerns. Please take a moment to complete the survey below and let us hear your views on this proposal. Together, we want to preserve and improve our community for years to come.

City of Durham Parish Council consultation

The deadline to respond to this consultation is 17th November 2022.

Councillor Alan Doig
Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council

The City of Durham Parish Council has responded to the County Council’s consultation on a draft ASB Strategy produced by the Safe Durham Partnership.

The Safe Durham Partnership (SDP) has worked to prevent and tackle ASB, since its formation in 2009, and is continually reviewing the way in which it achieves this goal. The SDP has been working with partners to develop a draft strategy which outlines a proposed approach to tackling ASB over the next three years.

Further details about this public consultation can be found here:
https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/28103/Consultation-on-draft-strategy-to-tackle-anti-social-behaviour

Ahead of responding to the consultation, the Parish Council consulted members of its Community Residents Association Forum (CRAF). A full copy of the Parish Council’s response to this consultation can be found here

The closing date for comments on this consultation is 11.59pm on Sunday 13 November 2022.

The feedback from the consultation will be considered and the strategy will be updated before it is agreed and adopted by the Safe Durham Partnership in the new year. An action plan will then be developed based round each of the eight principles.

A hand-crafted mosaic by a local artist has been donated by the City of Durham Parish Council to NHS staff in Durham in recognition of their extraordinary work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artist Susan Warlock spent 8-10 hours a day for 18 days to hand craft The Tree of Life Mosaic which has been unveiled in the main entrance at University Hospital of North Durham for visitors, patients and staff to enjoy.

Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council’s Environment Committee Coun. Carole Lattin (pictured) said: “The Parish Council is delighted to be donating this magnificent tree of life mosaic to the University Hospital of North Durham as a very small thank you to its amazing staff who worked, sacrificed and saved soo many lives during the pandemic. The tree of life offers a message of hope to everyone, and I hope that staff and patients appreciate this as they attend the hospital”.

She added: “We were delighted to commission the services of talented local artist Susan Warlock who produced this mosaic for us. Her breath-taking work can be seen in Wharton Park as well as the hospital. We thank her enormously for producing something so beautiful”

Speaking about the generous donation, Trust Chairman, Professor Paul Keane OBE said: “This is an amazing piece of work by Susan that we are so grateful to accept from her and the City of Durham Parish Council. The COVID-19 pandemic has been incredibly difficult for our Trust colleagues who have been on the front of it, our patients and visitors to our hospitals. This beautiful tree of life mosaic signifies hope and reflection and certainly brightens up the entrance to the hospital – thank you.”

Susan created the mosaic to feature a tree of life to symbolise a message of hope and to be life affirming. She has two sisters who work for the NHS and her daughter is a consultant in Australia and was thrilled to be commissioned to produce this labour of love as a thank you to the NHS.

Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Medical Director Jeremy Cundall added: “We are hugely grateful to the City of Durham Parish Council and talented artist Susan Warlock for this wonderful piece of artwork which is such a generous donation. Colleagues have been sharing positive feedback since it was installed at the entrance to University Hospital of North Durham which can be enjoyed by all who pass through our doors.”

The mosaic was officially unveiled by Trust Chairman, Professor Paul Keane OBE, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Medical Director Jeremy Cundall, Executive Director of Nursing Noel Scanlon, artist Susan Warlock and representatives from City of Durham Parish Council on Friday 21 October 2022.

Susan Warlock said: “When I was commissioned by the City of Durham Parish Council to create this artwork, I wanted it to be something that would be life affirming and positive and something which would lift the spirits of people who see it as they enter the hospital, I hope it is also seen as a memorial for all those who have lost their lives to covid. “

Preparations for Durham’s annual Remembrance Parade are well underway, with hundreds of serving members of the Armed Forces expected to arrive from all parts of the UK for this great event.

The parade is once again organised by the City of Durham Parish Council and will be led by the Band and Bugles of Durham Army Cadet Force which will lead a strong detachment from our county Regiment the Rifles proud successors to the Light Infantry and the Durham Light Infantry.

This year’s parade will march past the memorial to the Victoria Cross holders of the Durham Light Infantry to pay respects those great heroes of Durham.

The heavy drill elements of the parade which will feature some 200 plus troops will be led by two Cavalry regiments, the Light Dragoons and Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth’s Own).

Also included in the heavy drill elements of the Army will be the Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Military Police.

The civilian services which will include nurses, prison officers, paramedics, police officer and fire service Standard Bearers from throughout the UK, will be led by the Durham Constabulary Brass Band and Durham University Brass Band.

The parade will march through the Market Place at approximately 11:20am on Sunday 13th November and the Salute will be taken by Mrs Sue Snowdon His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for County Durham.

In addition to the Remembrance Sunday activities, Durham City will gather in the Market Place on 11th November – Armistice Day – at 11:00am, where wreaths will be placed at the Durham Light Infantry Memorial statue.

Chair of the City of Durham Parish Council’s Business Committee, Coun. Elizabeth Scott said: “Durham has an incredible history of armed forces service and this Remembrance Day, the Parish Council is exceptionally keen to play its part in ensuring that we do everything we can to commemorate the sacrifices made by that brave generation. We are delighted to once again take on the civic duty of hosting this important event this year and I hope that all of County Durham can come together and pay our respects at this event.”

The people of Durham are invited to witness the Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday parade and cheer on His Majesty’s forces past, present and future.