I REFER to the letter from Mr Madgin (HAS, Sept 1).

In July 2016, Durham County Council’s Labour-run Cabinet agreed to commit the spending of almost £551,000 on a survey on County Hall, carried out by Deloitte. That report purports that the current building will cost £75.8m to bring up to modern day standards.

If you, the public, look at the building, is that figure believable? Possibly not, but to agree to spend in excess of £65m on a new building in the most inaccessible place possible for the general public beggars belief.

The almost-£70m would make a big difference to repairing the £200m pound backlog in highway repairs from which everyone would benefit.

The suggestion that the relocation of County Hall will create more than 6,000 jobs is yet another unbelievable statement. So next time you get a knock on the door and someone says, “will you vote Labour, pet”, you know what to tell them, probably ending in ‘off’, like they did in Northumberland last year, on the same issue.

County Councillor John Shuttleworth, Durham County Council