Durham City Neighbourhood Plan

The Annual General Meeting of the City of Durham Trust will take place on Wednesday 10^th May at 7:15pm in Room 141, Elvet Riverside 1, New Elvet. It will be followed at 8pm by a talk An update on the City of Durham Neighbourhood Plan. This will be given by Roger Cornwell, who chairs the Durham City Neighbourhood Planning Forum as well as the Trust.

The Forum has responded to the University’s consultation on their plans for developments on St Mary’s Field and Maiden Castle. The response is available here Durham City NPF response to Masterplan. The Forum expressed a number of concerns, e.g. pedestrian and traffic issues, loss of trees, building on the Green Belt, poor design of buildings.

Durham City Neighbourhood Planning Forum will be holding their Annual General Meeting on 17th February 2017 at 6.00 pm in St Nicholas’ Lower Hall. Non-Forum members are welcome to attend as observers.

The Durham City Neighbourhood Planning Forum have been building an evidence base as to whether there is the need to improve facilities for the arts and culture within Our Neighbourhood. Results from the priority survey carried out in June/July 2015 included issues relating to the arts and culture. In addition, in August 2016, 100 new questionnaires relating just to the arts and culture and asking what was good, bad and needed to change, were distributed in the City, including all businesses with links to the arts. Of these, 28 were returned. Both these sets of results are now available: ArtSurveysResponses

People who live and work in Durham were asked ‘What needs to change in Durham regarding the artistic and cultural life of the City? Their suggestions have been organised under these headings:

• The need for community art spaces for all residents, tourists and students
• The need for exhibition spaces
• Use of existing spaces
• Events
• Need for a central information ‘hub’/ better signage
• Need for a City or County Museum / better interpretation of history of the City/ protection of historic buildings
• Impact of the University on the City
• The built environment
• The natural environment
• The need for more independent shops
• The County Council
• Community

The Forum made a response ( north-road-regeneration-and-a690-improvements) to Durham Council’s North Road Regeneration and A690 Improvements – Revised Proposals (October 2016).

The need and potential for regeneration of North Road is considerable. There are buildings of great architectural and historic quality and interest, and most of the others are of townscape value with the exception of the unsympathetic and outdated 1960s shopping redevelopments. Retaining and refurbishing most of the existing buildings while redeveloping the 1960s eyesores is the key to a successful scheme. However, the case for a new bus station in a new location is unconvincing. The view of the Forum is that an improved bus station on its existing site is likely to be less costly, less intrusive, more convenient and more popular than the current proposal.

The Forum took a stall at the Eco-Festival at St John’s, Neville’s Cross on 19th June 2016. Visitors to the festival were encouraged to mark up an outline map of the neighbourhood to show places where the walking environment could be improved, and to write comments on the back of the map to give any further detail or context. Twelve maps were completed over the course of the afternoon, but more than one person contributed in many cases. The points in the survey document (pedestrianconsultation) are collated from the maps and the written comments. They will be used to help develop a map of pedestrian improvements needed across our neighbourhood.

The Forum has carried out a study of young people’s views of Durham City. The results are now available: npf-young-peoples-consultation-report-2016-pdf

All respondents had a positive appreciation of Durham City, its heritage, environment, and community, which is evidenced by their comments, and on the whole they thought the City was a good place to live.

Through discussion the pupils identified the following issues as the main priorities:

• Traffic and road safety
• Bus station & public transport
• Environment & streetscape
• Leisure – including Retail, Heritage & the River

Our thanks go to pupils from St. Margaret’s C of E Primary School, St. Oswald’s C of E Aided Primary & Nursery School, St. Leonard’s Catholic School and  Durham Sixth Form Centre.

We have made a response to the County Durham Plan Issues and Options consultation  Many of the questions asked by the Council have relevance to Durham City and to the Neighbourhood Plan. For example in answer to the question about ‘How Much Development and Where’ (Question 13) we felt that the following options: (b) Sustainable Communities; (c) Sustainable Communities with Central Durham Villages; and (d) Wider Dispersal, seemed to offer the best distributions in the interests of towns and villages across County Durham. We could not support the over-development of Durham City envisaged in Option (a) Main Town Focus.

NPF Response to DCC Issues Options

We also responded to the Durham City Sustainable Transport Strategy consultation. Sustainable transport is of key importance to the Durham City Neighbourhood Plan.  The Durham City Sustainable Transport Strategy sets out priorities with which we strongly agree, namely 1st people on foot, 2nd people on bikes, 3rd people on public transport, and lastly people in cars.

NPF Response to Durham City Sustainable Transport Strategy

Durham County Council has recently published the DCC’s Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which “sets out how and when you can contribute in the planning process, including the Local Plan and planning applications. It also sets out our advice on how Town and Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Forums should seek to involve local people and groups in the preparation of Neighbourhood Plans.”

The City of Durham Trust and the Neighbourhood Planning Forum have made a joint response to the consultation on this document: Response Statement of Community Involvement Consultation 2016.

The Durham City Neighbourhood Planning Forum held its Annual General Meeting in the Miners’ Hall, Redhills, on Friday 18 March. It was chaired by Roger Cornwell and attended by 30 people, including local MP Roberta Blackman-Woods. She was thanked for her work in chairing the Forum during its formative stages.

Roberta said “I was delighted to be able to attend the AGM of the Durham City Neighbourhood Planning Forum, and it was great to see so many people in attendance. I was hugely impressed by the work carried out by members of the Neighbourhood Planning Forum so far.

I think it is really important that as many people as possible engage with the Neighbourhood Plan making process so they have a greater say over planning decisions in their area.

The Neighbourhood Plan also provides a great opportunity for residents to shape the future of the city moving forward. If you live in the designated area I would urge everyone to get involved.”

The Forum had consulted widely and then developed a vision that Durham City’s potential as a beautiful and historic City will be realised through policy and action to improve and protect its qualities and by creating a diverse and resilient economy with attractive and affordable places to live. It will be supported by modern infrastructure and enriched by community engagement in its future. It will be resilient to climate change.

Forum members are currently elaborating each of these themes with a view to presenting ideas for another round of consultation in May and June. After further refinement the plan will be presented to the County Council, to a government inspector and finally to a local referendum. The area covered by the plan is the unparished area of the City: the electoral wards of Neville’s Cross, Elvet and Gilesgate, and the part of Durham South ward on the City side of the River Wear. Anyone who lives or works within the area can be a member of the Forum and contribute to its work.

In November the Forum had appointed Ros Ward as its Project Manager. Officers elected at the meeting were:

• Chair: Roger Cornwell
• Vice Chair and Secretary: John Lowe
• Treasurer: Sue Childs
• Engagement Officer: Pippa Bell

Roger Cornwell commented: “I am pleased the meeting endorsed the approach we are taking, and the roadmap we set out. Now to get on with drafting the Neighbourhood Plan itself.”

Anyone wishing to contact the Forum can do so by emailing