What is the Council doing?


In May 2009 Durham City Council was succeeded by the new unitary authority Durham County Council. The new authority has inherited development sites from the old council and we understand that the City-owned land at Elvet Waterside has been transferred to the Durham Villages Regeneration Company/Keepmoat who hold the land until it is sold to the developers. This land is part of a number of various parcels of land that Durham City Council used to raise money against to build the new city swimming baths Freeman Quay. The accumulative debt for building the swimming baths now stands at many millions of pounds.


The position of Durham County Council in relation to the Elvet Waterside development is not yet known. In December 2009 we sent a letter to summarise our campaign to date


  • Durham City Council and the University of Durham had deliberately allowed this area to become run down since 2001 (although they had been maintaining it until as recently as the summer of 2007, and also during Regatta week for use by sponsors of the event)) then used this fact to argue for it's development.

  • In June 2009 we met with Durham County Council officers at the bowling green to discuss on-going maintenance of the site, which they agreed to carry out and is now a regular occurrence.

  • Durham City Council stated that it did not require the capital from the sale of the bowling green and other land at Elvet Waterside to fund the new swimming pool. We now know this not to be the case, the City Council had relied on the potential sale of the land to make a big contribution to the financing of the new swimming pool at Freeman’s Quay.

  • By enabling development on the Riverbanks in Durham City the Council are setting a precedent for other developers for developers who may wish to develop other parts of the riverbank including the Hild and Bede College site should this ever be vacated by the University, which has been mooted in a Durham City Council Local Development Plan Document.