Consultation

The Government conducted a 12 week consultation on the proposal, which ran from 27 March 2007 to 22 June 2007.

The consultation was open to anyone who wanted to make representations about the proposal.

For further information on the consultation, please visit the Department of Communities and Local Government website.

To raise awareness of the proposal under consideration and to encourage people to take part in the consultation, the Council distributed the attached public information leaflet to households in the County.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this information.

Durham County Council public information leaflet (2 pages, 439kb)

Prioritisation Consultation

As well as consulting upon the specific unitary proposal for County Durham, the Government also consulting upon the proposed method for prioritising between all of the different unitary proposals under consideration. This consultation ran from 6 June 2007 to 18 July 2007. Further information is available from the relevant page of the Department of Communities and Local Government website.

Announcement

On 25 July 2007 the Government announced that the single unitary council proposal for County Durham should proceed towards implementation, subject to the enactment of the necessary legislation. For further information, please visit the Department of Communities and Local Government website.

Implementation Consultation

Between 22 August 2007 and 28 September 2007 the Government consulted on a discussion paper on the approach to implementation, if reorganisation proceeds.

The county and district councils wrote to local stakeholders to highlight the key issues involved.

Implementation discussion paper joint county and district council consultation letter 12 September 2007.pdf (5 pages, 131kb)

The County Council considered its own response to the consultation at a Cabinet meeting on 27 September 2007.