Durham County Council HQ motion defeated

The ruling Labour group want to move from Aykley Heads to a new building at The Sands car park in Durham City Centre.

The plans, submitted last year, have already attracted significant opposition with more than 800 public comments.

At Wednesday's full council meeting, Conservative councillors launched a motion in an attempt to stall the planning process, to reveal background papers and start a new public consultation on the plans.

Group leader, Coun Richard Bell, said: “The decision was made in principle in 2015 and every report since then has contrived to justify that position but there is no evidence to justify it.

“It is surely beyond time for Durham County Council to publish all the reports and background papers and revisit this decision.”

He also added the Aykley Heads site had better bus and rail links than ‘The Sands’ and was a better fit for the council’s base.

“The fact is by choosing the site with poor access you’re effectively discriminating against residents from outside the city, or off major bus routes, from accessing council jobs and council services,” he said.

The decision to relocate the HQ was taken in July 2015, followed by an outline business case in July 2016 and final business case in January 2018.

However, the final decision rests with the council’s area planning committee.

If given the go-ahead, the development would include a council chamber, cafe and new civic square linking to the Penny Ferry Bridge and 277-space car park.

As part of the council’s transformation plan, 1,000 staff could move from County Hall to the city centre with 850 relocated to “strategic sites”.

Council bosses say the move will boost businesses in towns across the county as well as increasing staff productivity.

Cabinet member for economic regeneration, Coun Carl Marshall, speaking on the motion, said the proposed business park on the Aykley Heads site would provide “best value” for the council.

“The rationale to move the HQ was about us as a council taking control of our own destiny in these times of Tory cuts and doing all we possibly can to drive economic growth for our county,” he said.

“By developing the best new business park in the region we will create the opportunity for more than 6,000 high-quality jobs.

“This project is about the future of young people and generations to come in County Durham.”

At the meeting, Lib Dem councillor David Freeman, raised concerns about potential air pollution and flooding issues around The Sands site.

Lib Dem councillor Richard Ormerod also claimed the new HQ could influence residents to sell up or move with homes replaced by student accommodation.

“If the new HQ goes ahead on The Sands it will mark the end of Durham City as a residential area, it’s that serious,” he said.

“It will be an irreversible step on the way to Durham City becoming a giant university campus and this is not the balanced community that residents, nor those who love Durham City, want.”

Following debate, the motion was defeated with 28 in favour, 52 against and two abstentions.

Calls by the Durham County Council Independent Group to scrap the new HQ plans were also voted down during the 2019/20 budget setting process earlier in the meeting.

Labour councillors stressed that the cost of the new building and planned history and heritage centre will be cheaper than repairing and running its existing site.

And council leader, Simon Henig, added a U-turn on the plans could have several impacts, including a multi-million pound maintenance bill.

“We don’t believe that spending tens of millions of pounds on County Hall is sensible particularly as it will mean we will miss the opportunity to attract thousands of jobs to Durham,” he said.

“If County Hall remains here in the way it is now, it effectively removes the possibility to develop the Aykley Heads site.”

To view the new HQ plans, visit: publicaccess.durham.gov.uk/online-applications and search DM/18/02369/FPA

The defeated motion called on cabinet to:

Suspend activity on planning for and building the new HQ at The Sands, Durham;

Immediately make public the advice and reasoning which caused it to choose the Sands and dismiss other sites, including the Part B reports from the cabinet meetings of 13 July 2016 and 17 January 2018, and the background papers behind those reports;

Complete a new public consultation on building a new HQ at the Sands and Aykley Heads within a month;

Re-evaluate the options of building a new HQ at the Sands and Aykley Heads within two months.