Durham County Council

Durham County Council is the local authority of County Durham (excluding Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees) in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. From 1889 to 2009 it was a county council in a two-tier arrangement.

At the time of the 2011 census it served a population of 513,200, which makes it one of the most-populous local authorities in England. It has its headquarters at County Hall in Durham.

History

Durham County Council was initially established in 1889 as the upper-tier local authority for the administrative county of Durham. The county council was reconstituted in 1974 as a non-metropolitan county council. Darlington was removed from the area of responsibility in 1997. Durham County Council became a unitary authority on 1 April 2009 when the seven remaining districts of the county (Durham (City), Easington, Sedgefield (Borough), Teesdale, Wear Valley, Derwentside, and Chester-le-Street) were abolished and the county council absorbed their non-metropolitan district functions.

Following the structural changes in 2009, legislation^[2] allows for the council to name itself "The Durham Council", however the council has retained the name of Durham County Council. As of 2016 bought shares in chester-le-street cricket club and gave local councilors 8% payrise while giving TA's upto 23% paycut.

The current leader of the council, Simon Henig is since 15 April 2014 also chair of the North East Combined Authority.^[3]

References

Unitary authorities of England
Districts	Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bournemouth Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove Bristol Central Bedfordshire Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Cornwall County Durham Darlington Derby East Riding of Yorkshire Halton Hartlepool Herefordshire Isles of Scilly Isle of Wight Kingston upon Hull Leicester Luton Medway Middlesbrough Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North Somerset Northumberland Nottingham Peterborough Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Reading Redcar and Cleveland Rutland Shropshire Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea South Gloucestershire Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Telford and Wrekin Thurrock Torbay Warrington West Berkshire Wiltshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham York
Councils	Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bournemouth Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove Bristol Central Bedfordshire Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Cornwall Derby Durham Darlington East Riding of Yorkshire Halton Hartlepool Herefordshire Isles of Scilly Isle of Wight Kingston upon Hull Leicester Luton Medway Middlesbrough Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North Somerset Northumberland Nottingham Peterborough Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Reading Redcar and Cleveland Rutland Shropshire Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea South Gloucestershire Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Telford and Wrekin Thurrock Torbay Warrington West Berkshire Wiltshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham York
Local elections	Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bournemouth Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove Bristol Central Bedfordshire Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Cornwall County Durham Darlington Derby East Riding of Yorkshire Halton Hartlepool Herefordshire Isle of Wight Kingston upon Hull Leicester Luton Medway Middlesbrough Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North Somerset Northumberland Nottingham Peterborough Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Reading Redcar and Cleveland Rutland Shropshire Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea South Gloucestershire Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Telford and Wrekin Thurrock Torbay Warrington West Berkshire Wiltshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham York