AFTER growing complaints about the state of the River Wear, Durham County Council has obtained the necessary licences and permits to begin work removing debris from the River Wear in the centre of Durham.

The city's MP, Mary Kelly Foy, has said the Wear is in a "disgraceful state" but nothing, of course, is new. In 1964, there was a similar, bigger build-up, which oozed and smelled, which was labelled by Alderman Andrew Cunningham as an "awful slum".

The Northern Echo: The "oozing sludger hump" in March 1964 was 80 yards long and contained an estimated 3,000 cubic yards of decaying matter. "It acts as a grotesque foreground to Durham Cathedral and Castle when viewed from the east," said the

The sludge hump in 1964 in Durham

It was 80 yards long, contained an estimated 3,000 cubic yards of decaying matter, and was named the "sludge hump".

"It acts as a grotesque foreground to Durham Cathedral and Castle when viewed from the east," said The Northern Echo.

But, in early 1964, neither the water board nor the city council wanted to act to remove it.

"The sludge hump is a quiescent monster no one wants to be responsible for," said the Echo.

However, complaints grew and a revolutionary piece of German hump remover machinery was drafted in - as these pictures from our archives show.

The Northern Echo: "German machine tackles the hump" was the headline above this picture of July 1964. The story attached to it said: "A push-lift operation on the River Wear is ridding Dureham City of a smelly eyesore. Gouging out the 'sludge hump'

"German machine tackles the hump" was the headline above this picture of July 1964. The story attached to it said: "A push-lift operation on the River Wear is ridding Dureham City of a smelly eyesore. Gouging out the 'sludge hump' which has grown over the years near Framwellgate Breidge is one of the latest type of excavators - the Liebherr. It is fully hydraulic, without wires which usually operate a bucket scoop." The wonder machine had been imported from Germany at a cost of £6,200

The Northern Echo: The scaffolding going up in the Wear in June 1964 as construction on the Milburngate Bridge began. The first poles were driven into the "sludge hump", as it was known locally, which was a smelly patch of the river where flotsam and jetsam

The scaffolding going up in the Wear in June 1964 as construction on the Milburngate Bridge began. The first poles were driven into the "sludge hump"

The Northern Echo: The £840,000 Milburngate bridge begins to take shape in January 1965 over a frozen Wear with the remains of the sludge hump on the righ

The £840,000 Milburngate bridge begins to take shape in January 1965 over a frozen Wear with the remains of the sludge hump on the right

The Northern Echo: "You would think that some giant dentist had gone made in Durham, tugging out chunks of houses and shops like so many bad teeth," said the Advertiser's sister paper, The Northern Echo, in August 1965. "But the gaps that are left give

"You would think that some giant dentist had gone made in Durham, tugging out chunks of houses and shops like so many bad teeth," said the Advertiser's sister paper, The Northern Echo, in August 1965. "But the gaps that are left give some comfort to motorists stuck in the city's inevitable traffic jams, for they mean progress on the £1.5m road. And that road, it is hoped, will end Durham's reputation as the stop-go city by diverting traffic away from the ancient market place, where at present a policeman sits in a box with two television monitors before him and does his best to sort things out.” This rather confusing view shows the Milburngate Bridge taking shape as it drives east over the river into the heart of the city. What was the riverside building with the three circular potholes immediately to the left of the new bridge?

The Northern Echo: Debris clearance on River Wear, in Durham, observed by Cllr John Shuttleworth, left, and Alan Patrickson, of Durham County Council Picture: DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL

Debris clearance begins on the River Wear, in Durham, last week observed by Cllr John Shuttleworth, left, and Alan Patrickson, of Durham County Council 

READ MORE: CLEARANCE OF DEBRIS BEGINS

The Northern Echo: An aerial view, with the wing of the plane in view on the right, of the Milburngate bridge taking shape on the left of the picture, with demolition plucking out the houses and shops that were in the way of the A690. This was the view on October 19, 1965

An aerial view, with the wing of the plane in view on the right, of the Milburngate bridge taking shape on the left of the picture, with demolition plucking out the houses and shops that were in the way of the A690. This was the view on October 19, 1965

The Northern Echo: The view from Framwellgate bridge in October 1960 looking at the derelict land on the western side of the river prior to redevelopment. Can anyone tell us anything about the bus on the right?

The view from Framwellgate bridge in October 1960 looking at the derelict land on the western side of the river prior to redevelopment. Can anyone tell us anything about the bus on the right?

The Northern Echo: The late Andrew Cunningham

ALDERMAN Andrew Cunningham (above) was the most powerful man in County Durham when he complained about the "sludge hump" in 1964. He'd just been unanimously elected as the chairman of the county council and, aged 51, had become Durham's youngest alderman.

The son of a Tyne coal trimmer, he'd made his name as the youngest chairman of Felling Urban Council, which he'd joined in 1939.

His entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) says: "In his heyday, Cunningham was known as 'Handy Andy', admired for the 7,000 houses, Olympic-size swimming pool, arts centre, library, and schools constructed during his leadership of Felling council."

As well as leading Durham in the 1960s, he became regional secretary of the General and Municipal Workers' Union, regional chairman of the Labour Party, and the chairman of Durham Police Authority, the Northumbrian River Authority and the North-East Regional Airport Committee, to name but a few of the pies he had a finger in.

The ODNB says: "Square-jawed, heavily built and utterly ruthless, Andy Cunningham was the virtual dictator of Durham politics." In 1976, the Echo dubbed him the "Lord High Everything of County Durham".

He lived a lavish lifestyle of foreign holidays, the best bungalow with panoramic views in Chester-le-Street, furs for his wife, Freda and a white Jaguar for himself, as he said the working people wanted to see their elected representatives "looking something".

Then the ODNB says: "By the early 1970s, with growing rumours of corruption and anger over the poor building quality of local tower blocks, he was increasingly referred to as 'Andy Backhandy'. His arrest as part of the Poulson scandal in 1973 came to many as no surprise."

The Northern Echo: Alderman Andrew Cunningham and his wife, Freda, in 1974

Alderman Andrew Cunningham and his wife, Freda, in 1974

In 1974, he was jailed for five years for his part in the Poulson scandal - he and the leader of Newcastle City Council, T Dan Smith, with whom he ran the Northern Economic Planning Council, had been feeding multi-million pound contracts to architect John Poulson in return for gifts.

"Britain now couples corruption with the North-East," the judge at Leeds Crown Court told the three men as they were found guilty of corruption.

Eighteen others were convicted along with them, and the careers of many prominent figures were tainted by their close proximity to them, most notably the deputy chairman of the Tory party, Reginald Maudling.

However, just three weeks after Cunningham's release from prison in 1976, Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan called on his bungalow for tea, in a meeting brokered by his son, Jack Cunningham, the MP for Whitehaven in Cumbria. This caused further controversy.

The ODNB concludes: "Unlike T Dan Smith, who regained something of a public persona through charity work, Cunningham was largely shunned in the region, where he could be seen cutting a lonely figure, walking his dog around the estate."

He died in 2010 in the University Hospital of North Durham, aged 100. His son Jack served as a cabinet minister under Tony Blair in the late 1990s and was made a life peer in 2005 as Baron Cunningham of Felling.