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 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

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. “

A message from Durham County Council via the Community Champions Project

The cost of living continues to put financial pressure on many of our residents. With this in mind, I would like to remind you of the services to which your teams can signpost residents to for help and support. I would ask that you please share this information with your services, include in your newsletters and discuss at your team meetings – it’s important that this information is cascaded throughout the Council and also to our wider partners, anyone you may work with or speak to who is facing financial difficulties and encourage them to seek help as soon as possible.

We have recently received a further allocation of £4.6m from the Government’s Household Support Fund. This will be used to support residents between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023. We will continue to work with our partners to provide support to households in need, particularly those struggling with the cost of energy. The fund can also be used to support with costs associated with food, energy and water bills and wider essentials. In cases of genuine emergency, it can also be used to help with housing costs. If you are aware of anyone who is struggling with these essentials, please encourage them to contact us.

Applications for the council tax energy rebate payment have now closed. However, a large number of households who receive Council Tax Reduction have not yet applied for the rebate. Where this is the case, we have credited their council tax account with £150. We would encourage any household that has not yet applied for this support to contact our customer services team on 03000 26 0000 or by emailing help@durham.gov.uk so we can process this payment. When visiting a client, please ask if they have received their council tax energy rebate and signpost them to our customer services team if not.

We continue to update our information as things change to make it as easy as possible for anyone experiencing financial difficulty to access the information and support, they need. The most up to date information can be found on our Help with your money page on our website. We have also printed a quantity of financial support leaflets which have been circulated to libraries, leisure centres and our partners to ensure information is available to all residents.

All households will receive a £400 discount this winter to help with their rising energy bills. The government has now confirmed that support equivalent to this amount will also be available for households who will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, including those that do not have a domestic electricity meter and heat network consumers on a private wire system. More detailed information on how residents can save on their energy bills can be found on our help with your heating page and energy bills web page. There is also more information in the winter edition of our Durham County News magazine, which will be distributed to residents in November. Meanwhile, those entitled to the winter fuel payment will receive an extra £300 from November 2022.

Further information on the support outlined above can be found here Cost of Living Payment – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Our Welfare Rights Team can help by offering benefit checks to ensure people are claiming all the support they are entitled to and support those faced with difficulties when claiming benefits. The team also produces factsheets on benefits and their advice line number is 03000 268 968. Please also remind residents that our customer services team can help complete forms or access online information in relation to financial support

If someone has immediate short term needs or needs help to maintain their independence in the community, they may be able to get support through the council’s Welfare Assistance Scheme.

Residents struggling with debt can access a free-to-use MoneyHelper service. Residents can also find further debt advice on our website, including details of organisations in Durham and their areas of specialism.

We are working with NEfirst Credit Union to promote affordable loans and a cashback loan scheme for the purchase of furniture and white goods to support residents who don’t qualify for our Welfare Assistance Scheme.

We are also working alongside the County Durham Community Foundation to offer funding to the voluntary and community sector to create a network of warm spaces where people can get warm. Both the council and CDCF are contributing to the funding, with £200,000 available to support premises, with a grant of up to £1,000 for their warm space offer. Once confirmed, residents will be able to access a directory at Durham Locate. Further information on the warm spaces network can be found here: Warm spaces – Durham County Council

Finally, County Durham Fire and Rescue Service is also reminding people to ensure they have working smoke alarms and to check these are working each week. For any household that has a heating appliance which doesn’t run off electricity, the fire service recommends installing a carbon monoxide alarm. Regular services should be carried out on boilers and gas appliances and households should also ensure they use the correct fuel for woodburning stoves and open fires to reduce the risk of toxic fumes, chimney fires and carbon monoxide poisoning.