Durham County Council

Durham County Council is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of County Durham in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over district-level functions when the county's districts were abolished. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county of County Durham, which additionally includes Darlington, Hartlepool and the parts of Stockton-on-Tees north of the River Tees. The county council has its headquarters at County Hall in Durham.

The council has been under no overall control since the 2021 election, being run by a coalition of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Derwentside Independents, Green Party, and most of the independents, led by Liberal Democrat councillor Amanda Hopgood. The council is a member of the North East Combined Authority.

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.

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.

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. The first chairman of the council was John Lloyd Wharton, who was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ripon (in Yorkshire); he had also been chairman of the Durham Quarter Sessions since 1871.

Durham was the first county council to be controlled by the Labour Party, which won the most seats in 1919.

In 1974, the county was redesignated as a non-metropolitan county under the Local Government Act 1972. As part of those reforms the county ceded territory in the north-east to the new county of Tyne and Wear and in the south-east to the new county of Cleveland, but gained the former Startforth Rural District covering the part of Teesdale south of the River Tees from the North Riding of Yorkshire, and Darlington was brought back under the county council's control.

Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. The districts were also reorganised in 1974 into eight non-metropolitan districts: Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Derwentside, Durham, Easington, Sedgefield, Teesdale, and Wear Valley.

In 1997 Darlington became a unitary authority, removing it from county council control. 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. 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.

In 2024 a combined authority was established covering Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland, called the North East Mayoral Combined Authority. It is chaired by the directly elected Mayor of the North East and oversees the delivery of certain strategic functions across the area.

Governance
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.

Political control
The council has been under no overall control since the 2021 election. Labour is the largest party, but a coalition of all the other parties and most of the independent councillors formed to take control of the council, led by Liberal Democrat councillor Amanda Hopgood.

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:

Administrative county

Two-tier non-metropolitan county

Unitary authority

Leadership
The leaders of the council since 2001 have been:

Composition
Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2024, the composition of the council was: Of the independent councillors, six sit with the Derwentside Independents, North East Party and the Green councillor as the "Durham Group", nine form the "Durham County Council Independent Group", three form the "Spennymoor and Tudhoe Independent Group" and three form the "County Durham Independents". Each of these groups form part of the council's administration. Of the other four independents, three sit as the "Unaligned Group" which is not part of the administration and the other does not belong to a group. The next election is due in 2025.

Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2013 the council has comprised 126 councillors representing 63 electoral divisions, with each division electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years. New division boundaries have been drawn up to take effect from the 2025 election, reducing the number of councillors to 98.

Premises
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. 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.

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.