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BATTLES over land use have hit a major charity donor in Durham city, a public inquiry has heard. The Durham City Freemen give hundreds of pounds to a range of good causes every year, with cash raised from its historic interests in the city. But bosses at the organisation, which is attempting to halt Durham County Council’s (DCC) plans for a car park on protected land at the Sands to serve its new £50 million HQ, claim disputes with the local authority have hampered its philanthropic efforts. “The land for the car park is a modest area of the wider Sands, the Freemen have common rites of grazing going back for centuries, and they have been recorded since at least 1860,” said Nicola Allen, a planning law specialist acting for the City of Durham Parish Council and the Freemen.
An artist\ s impression of planned Durham County Council HQ at \ The Sands\ Development chiefs have admitted failure to secure permission to build on protected land would not halt controversial plans for a new council HQ. Durham County Council (DCC) secured approval for the multi-million pound riverside base at the Sands, in Durham City, in 2019. But the local authority is now having to fight to prove it can construct a car park for staff and councillors on ‘common land’ formerly used as a coach park. Today (Tuesday, April 27) marked the first day of a public probe into the scheme, led by an independent government assessor, to rule on whether the council should be allowed to revoke the site’s status to make way for the 60-space car park.
Old plans of the retirement homes Planners reduced the scheme from 45 flats after panel members rebelled against officer’s recommendations and refused the original plan on the grounds the designs ‘were out of keeping’ with the area’s Victorian scenery, ‘poor quality’ designs, loss of trees, and parking overspill. The developer did go to appeal – but it was dismissed by the planning inspectorate in January 2021 due to the development’s effect on the character of the area and on nearby trees. Speaking on behalf of an objector, Stephen Whale urged members to refuse this application again as it was ‘disappointing to see that ‘so little has been done’ to amend the ‘overly dominating’ designs to keep it more in keeping with the area.