Durham County Council

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 Reform UK majority control since the 2025 election.

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:

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1989 have been:

Composition

Following the 2025 election, and subsequent changes up to June 2025, the composition of the council was:

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. The other seat remained vacant until a by-election on 7 August that was won by Reform UK. The next full council elections are due in 2029.

Elections

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. New division boundaries were 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.

Coat of arms

References

References

1. (30 July 2021). "Durham County Council set to appoint John Hewitt as chief executive". Northern Echo.
2. Durham County Council, webadmin@durham gov uk. "Local MPs and MEPs - information and advice".
3. {{cite legislation UK. (1888)
4. {{NHLE
5. (2 April 1889). "Durham County Council". The Shields Daily Gazette.
6. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
7. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
8. {{cite legislation UK. (1973)
9. {{cite legislation UK. (1995)
10. {{cite legislation UK. (2008)
11. {{cite legislation UK. (2009)
12. {{cite legislation UK. (2024)
13. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey.
14. Manning, Jonny. (2025-05-02). "Durham County Council election results: Reform UK takes seats".
15. Bulmer, Martin. (2015). "Mining and Social Change (Routledge Revivals): Durham County in the Twentieth Century". Routledge.
16. Bloom, Dan. (2021-05-09). "Labour lose control of Durham Council heartland for first time in a century".
17. "Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
18. (11 March 2016). "Tributes paid to former Durham Council leader Don Robson". Sunderland Echo.
19. (26 June 2001). "Ken is new county leader". Sunderland Echo.
20. (26 April 2006). "Homes row forces change of leader". BBC News.
21. "Council minutes, 10 May 2006".
22. (10 May 2008). "Labour suspend five in poll row". BBC News.
23. (6 April 2010). "Ex-county council leader dies". Local Government Chronicle.
24. "Council minutes, 23 May 2008".
25. (10 May 2021). "Durham Council Leader to stand down after local election results". Rayo.
26. "Council minutes, 26 May 2021".
27. (2 May 2025). "Reform take Durham as Farage warns council workers". BBC News.
28. (21 May 2025). "Council roles renamed as Reform takes charge". BBC News.
29. "Council meeting, 21 May 2025".
30. "Council's political make-up".
31. "[https://www.durham.gov.uk/media/47062/Declaration-of-Result-Benfieldside/pdf/DeclarationOfResultBenfieldside.pdf Declaration of Result - Benfieldside"] ''Durham County Council.'' Retrieved 4 July 2025.
32. (2025-07-04). "Durham by-election: Lib Dems win seat off Reform UK".
33. "Date set for by-election to be held in County Durham".
34. (8 August 2025). "Reform retake ward in council by-election win".
35. "Durham". Thorncliffe.
36. {{cite legislation UK. (2012)
37. {{cite legislation UK. (2024)
38. (8 August 2009). "Durham County Hall proposed for listed building protection". Northern Echo.
39. {{NHLE
40. (18 October 2023). "Council buys Rivergreen for £11m". Place North East.
41. (8 September 2023). "Durham County Council to demolish County Hall in relocation". Northern Echo.
42. "Durham". Heraldry of the World.