AN MP has slammed what she regards as the “wholly objectionable” proposal to move a town's wedding ceremony rooms out of the area.

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman is against Durham County Council's plan to move archive and registry facilities to Grade II listed Durham manor house Mount Oswald, which would include moving the town's ceremony rooms there.

Whilst people would not be able to marry in the Bishop Auckland register office, there would still be a facility to register births and deaths locally.

She said: “We have a crisis in the smaller towns across the county and local people are fed up of the state of their local town centres. All of them are suffering from a serious hollowing out of jobs in retail, banks and local services in our town centres.

"Durham County Council must take a lead on ensuring that investment is shared fairly across the county and not just in the wealthiest parts of City of Durham.

“Instead of spending money doing up Mount Oswald the council should use the funds to build a new facility in Bishop Auckland to house the county archives and renovate the listed buildings in Bishop Auckland to provide a new local register office."

Ms Goodman said the town would be ideal to house the new facility, especially as it had just been awarded Heritage Action Zone status.

She added: "This is an opportunity to seize. It would be much better to use the heritage graded buildings in Bishop Auckland and put the new facility for the archives there either by a revamp – or as at Mount Oswald with a new facility to maintain the 900-year-old archive.

"Furthermore some of the listed buildings in Bishop could be done up to have new ceremony rooms locally. Putting the Archives and History Centre would also fit with the re-development of Bishop Auckland and the Castle.

"Durham County Council has not contributed much to Bishop Auckland recently. Local people are very fed-up with the state of the town.

"Here is an opportunity for Durham County Council to think again, be flexible not just as a gesture of good will but also to make a real difference."

Jenny Haworth, the council's head of strategy, said: “We are aware of Ms Goodman’s comments and will consider them alongside the rest of the feedback we have received during the consultation on the proposed Durham history centre and the facilities it will provide.

“While we are considering changes to registration services which would mean an enhanced offer at the Mount Oswald site we would ensure that facilities would still be available in Bishop Auckland for people to register births and deaths.”