Durham County Council

Durham County Council
Type
Type	Unitary authority
Leadership
Chair	Joan Nicholson, Derwentside Independents since 29 March 2023[1][2]
Leader	Amanda Hopgood, Liberal Democrat since 26 May 2021[3]
Chief Executive	John Hewitt since December 2020[4]
Structure
Seats	126 councillors[5]
Political groups	Administration (66)   Conservative (21)   Independent (21)   Liberal Democrats (17)   Derwentside Ind. (4)   North East Party (2)   Green (1) Other parties (60)   Labour (56)   Independent (4)
Joint committees	North East Combined Authority
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	1 May 2025
Meeting place
County Hall, Aykley Heads, Durham, DH1 5UL
Website
www.durham.gov.uk

Durham County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of County Durham in North East England. The council is a unitary authority, being a non-metropolitan county council which also performs the functions of a non-metropolitan district council. It has its headquarters at County Hall in Durham.

The council has been under no overall control since the 2021 election, being run by a coalition of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Derwentside Independents, Green Party, and most of the independents, led by Liberal Democrat councillor Amanda Hopgood. It had previously been under the control of the Labour Party continuously since 1925. The council is a member of the North East Combined Authority.

The identically-named ceremonial county of Durham is larger than the non-metropolitan county, and includes Darlington, Hartlepool, and the parts of Stockton-on-Tees north of the River Tees.