Between 1889 and 1974 Durham consisted of an administrative county governed by a county council, and several county boroughs with their own councils. In 1974, as part of reforms to local government in England, Durham was reconstituted as a two-tier non-metropolitan county governed by a county council and eight district councils. In 1997, the Borough of Darlington was reconstituted as a unitary authority, making it independent of the county council. Durham County Council was itself reconstituted as a unitary authority in 2009, when the seven remaining district councils were abolished and the county council took on their responsibilities.
History
Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland were considered large enough to provide their own county-level services and so they were made county boroughs, independent from Durham County Council. The county council was elected by and provided services to the rest of the county, which area was termed the administrative county.[6]
Additional county boroughs were later created at West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. In 1967 West Hartlepool merged with the neighbouring borough of Hartlepool (which had just covered the old town), with the enlarged county borough thereafter being called Hartlepool. Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham and surrounding areas were removed from the administrative county in 1968 to become part of the County Borough of Teesside.
Durham Crown Court, formerly Shire Hall: Council's first meeting place 1889–1898
The first elections took place in January 1889 and the county council formally came into being on 1 April 1889. On that day its first official meeting was held at the old Shire Hall on Old Elvet in Durham, the courthouse (built 1811) which had served as the meeting place of the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.[7] The first chairman of the council was John Lloyd Wharton, who was the ConservativeMember of Parliament for Ripon (in Yorkshire); he had also been chairman of the Durham Quarter Sessions since 1871.[8]
Durham was the first county council to be controlled by the Labour Party, which won the most seats in 1919.[9]
In 1997, Darlington became a unitary authority, removing it from county council control.[13] Durham County Council itself became a unitary authority on 1 April 2009, when the seven remaining non-metropolitan districts of the county were abolished and the county council absorbed their functions.[14] The legislation which made the county council a unitary authority allowed the council to omit the word 'County' from its name to become 'Durham Council', but in the event the name 'Durham County Council' was kept.[15][a]
Comparison of districts within Durham, 1974-2009 (left), and from 2009 (right) County council area Unitary
Since 2009, Durham County Council has provided both county-level and district-level services. Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a lower tier of local government for their areas.[17]
Durham was the first county council to be controlled by Labour, who took power in 1919. Between 1922 and 1925, the council was under no overall control with a Labour minority administration. From 1925 until 2021, Labour held a majority. Political control since 1919 has been as follows:[19][9][20]
Of the twelve independent councillors, seven sit with the Green Party as the "Durham County Council Independent Group", two form the "Spennymoor and Tudhoe Independent Group", and the other three are not aligned to any group. After two Reform UK councillors stepped down, one of the seats was taken by the Lib Dems in a by-election in July.[33] The other seat remained vacant until a by-election on 7 August[34] that was won by Reform UK.[35] The next full council elections are due in 2029.[36]
From the previous boundary changes in 2013 the council comprised 126 councillors representing 63 electoral divisions, with each division electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.[37] New division boundaries were drawn up to take effect from the 2025 election, reducing the number of councillors to 98.[38]
Premises
Shire Hall, Old Elvet: Council's headquarters 1898–1963
The council is based at County Hall at Aykley Heads in the northern suburbs of the city of Durham. The building was purpose-built for the council and was completed in 1963.[39]
When first created the council met at the courthouse on Old Elvet, which at the time was known as Shire Hall. A few years after its creation the council decided to build its own headquarters on a site nearby, also on Old Elvet, which was also given the name Shire Hall. The new building was completed in 1898, after which the old Shire Hall became known as the Assizes Court, and since 1971 as Durham Crown Court.[40]
The council has announced plans to move to the Rivergreen building, also in the Aykley Heads area of Durham, in 2025, with the intention that County Hall would then be redeveloped.[41][42]
Azure, a Cross Or square pierced of the field between four Lions rampant Argent each ducally crowned Or and grasping in the dexter claw a Sword in bend sinister proper pommel and hilt also Or as many Lozenges Sable in the fess point a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper
↑Like most unitary authorities, the way County Durham was legally made a unitary authority was by creating both a county and a district which cover the same area and then directing that only one of them should have a council, which performs both district and county functions. Unusually, the county and district have different names in this case: the non-metropolitan county (which had been created and named in the Local Government Act 1972) is called 'Durham', the non-metropolitan district created in the 2009 reforms is called 'County Durham'. The district does not have its own council, but the county council has been given district-level functions in addition to the county-level functions it already had.
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