This text is provided by Durham County Record Office
Chairman's Foreword
There have been major adjustments to council responsibilities over the years and financial restraints have left their mark, but throughout the hundred years of their existence, county councils have continued to adapt, develop and respond to the changing needs of their communities.
Durham County Council today provides or supports a range of diverse services for the 600,000 people it represents. They include personal services such as education, library and recreational facilities, consumer protection, as well as the social services themselves.
Councillor J. Graham
They include the maintenance of law and order, the protection of the public from fire and dangerous goods and tackling peacetime emergencies.
They include waste disposal, broad land use planning, the protection of the countryside for all to enjoy and the promotion of employment and economic prosperity. They also include responsibility for much of the road network and for fostering local transport arrangements.
In addition, the County Council, with its general concern for the well being of its citizens, is able to encourage and co-ordinate the efforts of voluntary and statutory bodies.
Durham County Council faces new challenges. Community care, education reform and new competitive tendering arrangements will all make heavy demands on county administration. So too will the impact of the development of a single European Market, targeted for 1992.
There will be other new challenges but with one hundred years of hard-won experience behind it, tried and tested by decades of unprecedented social, economic and technological change, the County Council is well placed to be able to adjust to the future and seize the opportunities it offers.
Our Centenary offers the opportunity to give thanks for the efforts of thousands of people who have worked in and for Durham County Council in the past, and to dedicate ourselves anew to the cause of local government itself and that service to the community which is the hallmark and ultimate justification of county government.
