THE DURHAM GREEN BELT
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The Green Belt encircling Durham City was formally designated with a detailed boundary in 2004, as required by the County Structure Plan Review 1999. Prior to this, a draft Green Belt and Area of Great Landscape Value around the west, south and east sides of the City had given green belt protection since 1957.
The new County Durham Plan is being prepared in a series of stages by Durham County Council. In the “Issues and Options” stage last year the County Council came down in favour of Durham City being the “economic power-house” for the County, and proposes the addition of 5,000 new houses in and around the City.
The subsequent consultation report issued in December 2010 considers seven potential major housing development sites in and around Durham City. These are shown on the map. The County Council has made a technical assessment of all 7 sites and concluded that some should go forward to the next stage of more detailed assessments, and that the other sites should not go forward at this stage.
Sites to go forward at this stage
Site 1: Sniperley
Site 2: North of the Arnison Centre and Newton Hall parts I, ii, and iii
Site 5: Sherburn Grange, south of Belmont part i
Site 6: South of Sherburn Road
Site 7: Merryoaks and Mount Oswald
Sites to not go forward at this stage
Site 2: North of the Arnison Centre and Newton Hall parts iv and v – Brasside
Site 3: Whitesmocks
Site 4: Ramside
Site 5: South of Belmont part ii
Note about Site 7 – Merryoaks and Mount Oswald
All but one (Site 7 – Merryoaks and Mount Oswald) of the sites to go forward at this stage are in the statutory Durham Green Belt. Site 7 was excluded from the Durham Green Belt because it was already allocated as a prestige employment site. The County Council is now proposing housing instead of employment development. Although not in the Green Belt, it is a highly attractive green entrance to the City and this is recognised and protected by the policy requirement that no more than 10% of its area becomes built development.
Note about Aykley Heads
A separate consultation exercise is to take place on the future of the County Council/Police Authority’s Aykley Heads estate. At the “Issues and Options” stage the Aykley Heads estate is proposed as a strategic employment site including national headquarters offices, housing and some other uses. The stated intention is that 500 houses are to be built under the proposed Aykley Heads Master Plan. The northern half of the Aykley Heads site is not in the Durham Green Belt. The southern half of the site is in the Durham Green Belt.
Note about housing needs in Durham
Many more houses are needed nationally and locally, even without any population increase, because more and more young and old people are living on their own instead of staying in the family household. In Durham City this phenomenon has been massively compounded by the more than tripling of numbers of undergraduates and postgraduates in the University of Durham without a matching increase in University accommodation. The result has been the conversion of family homes into student accommodation in such numbers that in some parts of the town there is only a handful of families left. So Durham does need affordable family houses to be provided, and there are many ‘brownfield” sites within the city where these houses could be built rather than in the Green Belt.
If you are interested, contact the campaign at: “mailto:htmldurhamgreenbeltcampaign@gmail.com”
