The closing date to apply for a primary school place for September 2025 is midnight on Wednesday 15 January 2025. See Primary school places for more information on how to apply for a place.

Our online payment services and 24 hour telephone payment line will be unavailable on Tuesday 14 January 2025 due to essential system maintenance. You will not be able to make a payment during this time.

Open access in County Durham

Extensive areas, mainly in the west of the county, have been designated as Open Access land.

To find out where you can go and what you can do, take a look at the Natural England website. Two guides regarding user rights are also available from Natural England or can be downloaded from this page.

Two leaflets entitled 'Open Access in the North Pennines' and 'Discover Open Country' have been produced by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which provide general information about Open Access in the North Pennines area with suggested walks. These leaflets are available from local Tourist Information Centres, the Walks in the countryside web page and the North Pennines AONB or alternatively they can be downloaded from this page.

The areas of Open Access are shown on the newly published Ordnance Survey Explorer series of maps.

The County Durham Local Access Forum advise both the County Council and Natural England on related access issues.