Durham County Council
09-Mar-07
County Durham Profile
Durham County Council is the county planning authority for County Durham. In County Durham there are two tiers of local government (the County Council and seven District and Borough Councils) and town and country planning functions are subdivided between them. The County Council has responsibilities for strategic planning and for minerals and Waste development as well as the Local Transport Plan
Link to Durham County Council website
http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/Planning - Planning Homepage
CountyDurham has six Districts:
Teesdale,
WearValley,
Derwentside,
http://www.derwentside.gov.uk/
Chester-le-Street,
http://www.chester-le-street.gov.uk/
City of Durham,
Easington
http://www.sedgefield.gov.uk/ccm/portal/
The District and Borough Councils are responsible for deciding most planning applications in each of these areas, including those for new buildings, extensions or changes of use related to housing, industry, shops, offices etc
The County Council is required to replace its existing Minerals and Waste Local Plans with a new style County Durham Minerals & Waste Development Framework (MWDF) comprising a suite of minerals and waste and local development documents. Preparation of the minerals and waste development plan documents and other local development documents that will comprise the MWDF will form the majority of future work within Planning Policy.
Geography and Population
County Durham is predominately a rural County, covering some 223,000 hectares. The conurbation of Tyne & Wear and the County of Northumberland lie to the north, Cumbria lies to the west and to the south are Darlington, the TeesValley conurbation and North Yorkshire.
In 2001 the County Durham had a population of 493,470, representing approximately 20% of total population of the North East region. It is relatively sparsely populated, only 2.2 persons per hectare compared with the national average of 3.5 persons per hectare.
More than half of the County’s population living in some 290 settlements of less than 10,000 people with the largest urban centre of nearly 38,000 residing in Durham City, and the remainder being in the County’s other main towns including Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street, Consett, Crook, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Seaham, Sedgefield, Shildon, Spennymoor and Stanley. The County, to the west of the A68, comprises the upper valleys of the River Wear and the River Tees and is sparsely populated. The majority of the population living within this part of the County being located within the many small towns and villages, with the main service centre being the market town of Barnard Castle which has a population of around 5,000.
- Author:
- Kay Lough
- Publisher:
- The Royal Town Planning Institute
- Date:
- 09-Mar-07
- Categories:
- Nations & Regions
- Sections:
- Events, Awards & Networking
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