Durham County Council has recently decided to move its headquarters from Aykley Heads to Durham City centre. The site which they have chosen to build is The Sands car park. This new headquarters would not be the same size as County Hall but is likely to be similar in size to the Passport Office building on the old ice rink site. It will cost at least £40 million to build. A planning application is likely in the summer.

Residents will understandably have concerns about further building in the area. While we believe other options could have been better for the new headquarters location this is a decision which has already been made by the council’s Labour Cabinet. Residents may also be concerned that when the council is making budget cuts it can none the less build a new headquarters for itself.

What we can say at present is that a planning application is likely later this year, that a contractor has been selected and that the new building is expected to be completed in winter 2020. It will hold 1000 staff (similar to the Passport Office) and be four storeys high (as the other two office buildings are).

The Sands parking provision will be moved to a new car park on the old Post Office Sorting Office site at the bottom of Providence Row, adjacent to Durham Sixth Form Centre. The bus park will be moved out of the city.

Building anything next to the green space of The Sands is going to be a challenge. We need to ensure that the council gets it right. We are already having meetings with planners and the Chief Executive’s team to ensure that they get this right. The issues we have raised so far are that the green barrier between The Sands and the present bus park needs to be preserved as much as possible to ensure a barrier between the building and The Sands.

We are also very concerned that the development will have 200 car parking spaces. Around 50 spaces will be on the new HQ site but the others will be added to the 132 lost spaces in The Sands car park at the Old Post Office Sorting Office site. This will mean a multi storey car park having to be built which could be very unsightly and out of proportion to its surroundings and will lead to more cars leaving the area up Providence Row and into Claypath.
If any new car park is not built before the new HQ is built we are very concerned about where cars will go. Many years ago The Sands itself was used as a temporary car park. We have told Council officers this would be unacceptable.

There are many issues we believe residents will have and we therefore want to hear what you think about the plans.