Durham Council slammed for alleged lack of Chester-le-Street funding

Chester-le-Street independent councillors have launched a scathing attack on non-elected officers at Durham County Council, who they claim have power over the majority of key investment decisions instead of local members. 

Cllr Paul Sexton and Bill Moist say an alleged lack of key decision-making suggests officers are ignoring Chester-le-Street and want it “to die” by focusing on other areas of the county instead. 

Both have campaigned for more investment and greater local control to help revive the town’s ailing high street, which is currently beset by several empty units. 

The town's Poundland store closed recently (Image: Billy Atkinson)

“This has to change and unless it does we will not get change here in Chester-le-Street,” said cllr Sexton as he set out his call for a reshuffle at County Hall. 

“It feels like they want Chester-le-Street to die. They don’t know our towns and they aren’t accountable to the public.”

Read more: New vision to transform Chester-le-Street after claims town is 'dying'

The pair propose introducing specialist town teams, made up of local people, to listen to better understand the needs of residents. This new team would also help create better masterplan documents, which they claim are currently unsatisfactory. In a recent document for the town, Cllr Moist said the A693 road was drawn in the wrong place. 

He added: “The planners and people that make the decision would get a much better idea of what’s going on instead of sitting in the Ivory Towers of County Hall doing masterplan after masterplan.”

The former pub - a key building in the town centre - remains closed after shutting its doors last year (Image: Billy Atkinson)

The council says it creates these documents to detail investment and work in towns, as well as plans for the future but the councillors say more needs to be done. 

“All we need is a knee up and some co-operation but we’re being completely ignored,” Cllr Sexton said. “The organisation is not allowing elected members to make decisions - we have no say in Chester-le-Street.”

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In response, Council Leader Amanda Hopgood said: “We completely reject the unfounded allegations made by Cllr Moist and Cllr Sexton. As we have previously set out, the council is committed to supporting town centres across the county and has directly supported 20 businesses in Chester-le-Street over the last two years.

“The comments demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of how any local authority works, including the decision-making process, and could undermine the strong working relationships between officers and members, which are essential to good governance, the operation of the council and the delivery of its objectives.

“Members have a strong working relationship with officers at County Durham who do an excellent job, working within extremely difficult and challenging financial circumstances.”