County Durham residents will have a better say in improving their communities under new plans to involve local voices. 

Durham County Council will replace the current Area Action Partnership (AAP) programme with a new Local Network Model. The new process aims to improve the focus on community development and enhance the capacity of local communities and individuals to become more involved in improving their area. 

Local Networks (LNs) will develop focused four-year local action plans to help identify priorities and guide key investments. However, the council has been urged to ensure the new local budgets are not “mopped up” by larger towns and settlements. 

The new model is intended to be fully operational in April 2025 after it received cabinet approval yesterday (Wednesday, November 13). 

Geographically, the new operating model will replace the existing 14 AAPs with 12 LNs in response to the outcomes of the recent Local Government Electoral Boundary Review. LNs will aim to attract the involvement of a greater number, and a broader range of residents and local stakeholders through increased use and the repurpose of the current AAP Forum and its 15,000 members, relaunched as the County Durham Community Network.

Local decision making, transparency and financial accountability will be improved with new Funding Criteria and Guidelines (FCG) and increased transparency on funding applications

Sedgefield councillor Chris Lines praised the previous AAP programme for its impact in improving the community. 

He said: “Although diverse, the settlements are well-connected and not of hugely different sizes. In recent years, decisions about priorities and investment have been made collaboratively, leading to a fair distribution of funding. I believe that every town and village in the AAP has had a voice and benefited from the work that it does.”

However, Cllr Lines questioned whether that would continue under Local Networks. 

The Independent member added: “Under these proposals, communities in the Sedgefield ward would be dwarfed by the size of Newton Aycliffe - and I’m worried about the consequences of that imbalance, particularly when decisions are made about the Local Network action plans. 

“I note the irony that these proposals are being made soon after the physical connection of a bus service between the Sedgefield ward and Newton Aycliffe has been discontinued. I find it hard to accept that the county council expects these communities to work together when residents cannot even travel directly from one to another on public transport. 

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“If these proposals do proceed then safeguards must be put in place to prevent the Local Network funding budgets being mopped up by individual areas within each network.”

But responding to the concerns, councillor Alan Shield said the new format is designed to be a fairer process. “One of the key principles driving the move to a new Local Network model is to ensure that the funding is spent in a strategic way and is used to address locally agreed priorities,” he said. 

“This will ensure that funding is used to tackle issues that have been identified as priorities across the Local Network area. The four-year funding cycle will allow more time to be spent understanding an individual area.”