IT IS time that we had an ambitious devolution deal that puts Durham first.

Right now, behind closed doors in County Hall, a deal is being worked up that could see a politician based in Newcastle or Stockton have a bigger say over life in Durham than any resident reading this.

Durham County Council bosses are looking at several options for a devolution deal that would see the Government merge Durham into a bigger combined authority, with investment decided for us by a mayor in Tyneside or even Teesside. The council is negotiating with both camps in secrecy, and apparently, failing to develop the Durham-only deal offered by Government.

Devolution is a long overdue idea, but are we really sure the council has it right when it says we should join in with others?

It doesn’t have to be that way. Last year, the Government offered Durham a new county deal that would devolve funding and powers just to us.

For some reason we have seen no progress at all on this county deal, even as councils across the country start to catch up with Manchester on the devolution journey.

Some in County Hall might question if Durham is big enough to go it alone.

For me, there is no doubt that Durham has huge potential to be a powerhouse of the North.

We have half a million people who feel deeply proud of their local identity. Over the last decade we have secured hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment at the likes of

Bishop Auckland town centre, the largest logistics centre in the region at Integra 61, and Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe.

We have two UNESCO world heritage sites and a cultural offer second to none that attracts 20 million visitors a year spending £1bn annually.

We are the largest economy in the North East. We shouldn’t be second best on anyone’s plan for the region!

And we had a plan for the county that would have paved the way for 30,000 new jobs over the next decade, a plan now shelved by the council.

If you look across the rest of England you can see how we are missing out. Cornwall had a devolution deal in 2015 that gave it control of EU investment funds and is now pushing for a new county deal with transport powers and job creation funds.

Or look closer to us at North Yorkshire. The county council there, and the districts and the City of York, could have gone into a deal with Teesside, or West Yorkshire, or even one for all of Yorkshire. Instead, they decided to be ambitious for their own locally-defined area and have secured a £750m devolution deal as a result.

I think it’s great that Tyne and Wear are in talks to get a proper mayor. But I think a patch that would cover Berwick down to Bishop Auckland is big area, and a mayor for all of that would inevitably overlook some of us.

A year ago, Durham had a plan for £750m worth of investment in its towns and villages. There is simply no way a mayor in Newcastle could match this.

I’m a big advocate of devolution. We need to take power out of the hands of officials in London and bring it back to the North. But a one-size fits all approach will never work.

It’s time to put Durham first.

L Cllr Carl Marshall is the leader of the Labour Group on Durham County Council