Agenda item

The Leader informed Council that he had attended a number of events across County Durham including Brass, Kynren and the Miners Gala, chaired a meeting of the Cabinet held at Crook and a meeting of the County Durham Partnership Forum in Newton Aycliffe, celebrated the award of twelve green flags to County Durham and marked the latest stage in the expansion of NetPark at Sedgefield, as well as attending an event looking forward to Lumiere this autumn.  He had also attended the recent LGA annual conference in Birmingham.

The Leader informed the Council that as he had travelled around the county in the past month it was pleasing to see the amount of economic development which continued to take place, including developments on Durham City riverbanks, Salvus House at Aykley Heads and continuing developments at NetPark, Aycliffe and Seaham, all of which brought jobs to County Durham.  Much of this activity had been supported by Business Durham, the Council’s economic development arm, and the Leader noted the key contribution made by Simon Goon as Managing Director who would leave Business Durham at the end of the month.

The Leader reminded the Council that the County Durham Plan had been paused at the turn of the year to take account of proposed changes in the Housing White Paper.  The key issue was a change to the method for calculating housing figures which could have had significant implications for the amount of land required in County Durham.  The changes had been delayed due to the General Election but the Secretary of State had announced that consultation on the methodology would commence before the summer recess.  The Council was keen to progress the Plan and this consultation should bring this a step closer.  If the consultation did not materialise then the Council would need to review progress in the autumn as it was vital to find a way forward with the Plan as soon as possible.

A meeting had taken place with Unison and further meetings had been arranged with the recognised trade unions to discuss the current position regarding teaching assistants and the next steps.  The Council would consider the next steps when these meetings had taken place.

The Leader was pleased to report that the Council had been successful in securing Arts Council funding from their national portfolio funding programme for the next four years for County Durham.  This included substantial funding to underpin Brass, the Durham Book Festival, and Lumiere.  There was also substantial funding for both Beamish and Bowes museums as well as two other arts groups, News Writing North and Tin Arts.  This good news justified the investment the Council was making in securing match funding from a national source and would ensure the Council could keep producing a high class programme of festivals and events which brought people into County Durham.

The Leader wished all Members a good summer recess.