Help shape Durham City's future

Background

Since 2009, we've regularly updated town masterplans to guide funding and investment. In the past five years, we've secured over £100 million for the county's main centres, based on these plans. We all want a lively city centre that attracts people and supports businesses. However, changes in shopping habits, leisure activities, and transport mean it's time to update Durham City's strategic plan.

A Vision and Strategic Place Plan (SPP)

An SPP will replace the 2020 Durham City Framework. It will be developed with input from you, making sure that local people, businesses, and communities are involved in the city's future. This shared vision will help to write spatial, economic, and action plans tailored to Durham City's needs.

Eventually, there will be an SPP for each of our towns, and be in line with the Inclusive Economic Strategy.

The boundary map combines the Durham City centre boundary and the proposed Conservation Area boundaries. It also includes some of the areas linked to the city centre and which will have an influence on the Vision.

What's happening now

The first step is to agree a Vision. We're inviting everyone who lives, works, studies, or visits Durham City to share their views on its strengths, opportunities, and areas for improvement. We want to know what you envision for Durham's future.

Have your say

To gather your input, we're also going to be asking people for their views on the streets of Durham City, visiting primary and secondary schools, colleges and the university, and holding workshops with partners.

If you have an interest in the conservation area status of the city, we are also asking people about our draft Conservation Area Management Plan - see Have your say to help us protect the cultural heritage of Durham City.

Update and what happens next

The co-design of the Durham City Vision began with a launch on 30 September 2024 and continued to 25 November 2024. We talked to 1,331 people and captured input from residents, students, businesses, and other partners through surveys, drop-in events, one to ones, small group interviews, and school sessions. We had a good spread of respondents across demographic groups, broadly representative of the wider community of Durham.

The passion for the city and its opportunities came through strongly. A critical issue will be ensuring the harmonious existence of the student population with the permanent residents of Durham. The presence of the university and its students is of significant and wide-ranging benefits to the city and is central to its success, story and future. However, the feeling that the city is now geared too much towards students at the expense of residents is widespread.

View the full Durham City Vision consultation report (PDF, 3 MB) by Urban Foresight that undertook the engagement work on our behalf. A Cabinet agenda and minutes 15 January 2025 was approved by Cabinet on 15 January 2025, detailing the draft Vision, and key themes and priorities for the City.

Durham City Draft Vision

Durham City, a captivating blend of ancient heritage and contemporary culture, will be a beacon of warmth and vibrancy. Our vision is to foster a city where residents and visitors alike feel welcomed, inspired, and connected to the rich tapestry of our history and the beauty of our natural surroundings.

Priorities identified during the co-design with the community and partners are:

• friendly city that welcomes all
• events and attractions
• business and tourism
• clean and invested in
• proud of world class university
• river, walks and green spaces
• transport and connectivity
• a city centre where people work, live, learn and play
• heritage

What happens next

During the next stage, we will be working with interested groups and organisations to take forward:

• a study of retail and leisure gaps and capacity is underway and will help us understand how we compare against other cities, and what we can do to increase the retail and leisure offer in the city
• a spatial plan will be prepared showing land use and development which will link to the Conservation Area Management Plan, Strategic Context and Management Strategy
• an investment plan that helps to support the vision of the Inclusive Economic Strategy, including:
  • People - we will support people into education, training, jobs, and to excel in business and their careers
  • Productivity - we will support business innovation, growth, and higher levels of productivity
  • Places - we will improve places and plan infrastructure so that people and businesses can access opportunities
  • Promotion - we will promote our county, assets and opportunities to businesses, investors, visitors, developers and residents
  • Planet - within each of the above headings we have specific actions related to green growth. The target for County Durham to become net zero has been brought forward to 2045. The Climate Emergency Plan sets out how we need to be at the forefront of the clean, green, industrial revolution. This strategy needs to complement these plans by investing in people, technologies, research and development, and business.