Enhancing County Durham’s towns and villages

May 11, 2022

Communities are benefiting from a number of projects aimed at enhancing County Durham’s towns and villages through a local area programme.

Durham County Council’s Cabinet agreed to allocate £4.2 million to its 14 Area Action Partnerships (AAPs) in February last year, supporting the regeneration of communities as part of the council’s Towns and Villages Investment Plan.

Each AAP was allocated £210,000 to spend on projects in their area, while each elected member was also allocated an additional one-off £10,000 for their Neighbourhood Budgets to support the enhancement of their local communities.

Towns and Villages Investment Plan

The Towns and Villages Investment Plan aims to have a meaningful impact on local areas. Projects must meet one of a set-criteria, which include: enhancing the local environment or community resilience; improving IT connectivity; improving accessibility or walking and cycling infrastructure; helping people feel more secure; building on a centre’s ability to attract new users to a location; creating vibrant community hubs; and supporting new and existing businesses.

Teesdale, Newton Aycliffe and Durham City are home to some of the first projects which have come to fruition, and these are helping to support new and existing businesses to thrive and helping residents to lead more active lifestyles.

Teesdale

In Teesdale, £65,000 has been awarded to enhance and expand the current Barnard Castle and Middleton in Teesdale Business Improvement scheme, delivered by the Community Economic Development Team. This additional funding will support a wider range of new and existing businesses to improve premises or bring vacant premises back into use, with a particular focus on those in the retail, tourism and services industries. More information on retail business support can be found here.

Newton Aycliffe

In the Newton Aycliffe area, £12,750 has been awarded to a scheme that will provide lighting on the Burnhill Way footway, using energy efficient lighting units. As well as enabling residents to access local neighbourhoods, community venues and nearby bus stops safely, the project also encourages people to make more active choices, supporting health and wellbeing.

The Great Aycliffe and Middridge AAP has also awarded £25,000 to improve facilities at Newton Aycliffe Cricket Club, which it is hoped will help attract new players of all ages, sex and ability and increase community involvement. Meanwhile, School Aycliffe Community Centre has benefitted from more than £20,000 to install disabled toilet facilities and upgrade existing facilities, to ensure the centre is accessible to all.

Durham City

And, in Durham City, over £10,000 has been offered towards the installation of new play equipment and safety surfacing at the play area in Bearpark. It is hoped that the new equipment, which children from Bearpark Primary School helped to choose, will offer health and wellbeing benefits from toddlers up to junior school-aged children, improving their strength, balance and coordination skills.

Cllr Elizabeth Scott, Cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “It was important to us to allocate money for our Towns and Villages plan, via our AAPs, to help residents address their own local priorities and recover from the impacts of the pandemic. We are delighted to see that communities are already benefitting from this investment.

“These first projects are fantastic examples of how we can work together to ensure our towns and villages thrive, cater to the needs of nearby residents and welcome more visitors. As well as helping to regenerate communities right across County Durham, the projects are also encouraging a healthier lifestyle and supporting residents to live long and healthy lives, which is one of our key aims.

“We now look forward to seeing a wide range of projects come to fruition across the remainder of our AAP areas and responding to the challenges and opportunities identified by our communities.”