The Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to discuss council land management, including corporate property and land, as well as the management of woodland, parks and amenity land. Councillors were expected to note the information provided in the presentations.

Council Land Management - Corporate Property and Land

The committee was scheduled to review a report and presentation on Council Land Management from a Corporate Property and Land (CPaL) perspective.

The report in the Public Reports Pack noted that the council is a significant landowner required by law to manage its land and property. The presentation was intended to detail the extent and type of land holding that the council manages, along with the strategic framework and governance arrangements in place.

The Corporate Property and Land (CPaL) service was established in 2019 after a review of the former assets service by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA). The report stated that recruitment and retention across CPaL is challenging due to external market factors.

The presentation was scheduled to cover:

• Team Structure
• Corporate Asset Management Plan
• Corporate Property Partnership
• Governance
• Statutory Powers
• Portfolio Management
• Property and Land Types
• Operational Land
• Non-operational Land
• Surplus Land
• Disposal Programme
• Recruitment, retention and service challenges

The report also provided detail on the Corporate Property Partnership (CPP), stating that there is no one size fits all model for corporate landlord. To provide the strategic framework for delivery of the CPP, the council produces a Corporate Asset Management Plan (CAMP). The first iteration of this was agreed by Cabinet in 2023 and covered a 2-year period, with a focus on implementing the CPP governance and programme. Following this a 5-year CAMP was agreed by Cabinet in April 2025. The CAMP sets out a vision for the estate, overarching priorities and an action plan for the continuing implementation of the CPP.

The report stated that the governance arrangements established as part of the CPP seek to ensure delivery of the CAMP and provides a centralised approach to decision making relating to the council's property and land. Responsibility for overseeing all CPP activity rests with the Corporate Property Board (CPB). Due to the varied nature of the council's land holding a number of additional groups have been established which feed into the CPB and provide additional governance activities. These are:

• Vacant Property Working Group
• Community Assets Steering Group
• Land Use Change Working Group (LUCWG)
• Trespass Working Group

As of 16 October 2025, the council's overall land ownership totalled 22,368 acres, supporting 1,005 buildings, with a book value as at 31 March 2025 of £971.7m.

Since the introduction of CPP, the Strategic Property Management (SPM) Team have been working to ensure data quality is improved. Work is still ongoing to review issues identified during the voluntary registration process. At the time of writing the number of unregistered parcels of land total approximately 800.

Portfolios/family groups are collections of property and land assets which are held and managed to achieve a common goal/objective and share similar characteristics. In summary the council's land holdings are split into the following portfolios:

• Education Estate
• General Service Delivery Estate
• Specialist Service Delivery Estate
• Commercial and Investment Estate
• Community Buildings
• Agricultural Estate
• Housing
• Regeneration Schemes
• Countryside Estate
• Allotments
• Transport and Unadopted Public Highway
• Surplus
• Open Space
• Public Sport and Leisure Grounds
• Reclamation Land

In order to acquire land the council must have an established purpose and an Act must be identified which provides the council with the ability to acquire. General powers to acquire property and land is available to the council via the Local Government Act 1972¹. Councils may also acquire land via a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), and a copy of the council's current CPO guidance is attached at Appendix 5 of the Public Reports Pack. Excluding land in the education, housing, general and specialist estate, the portfolios that fall into operational land usage are the Countryside Estate, Allotments, Transport and Unadopted Public Highway, Open Space, and Public Sport and Leisure Grounds. These represent 49.87% of the overall portfolio - totalling 9,642.38 acres.

Excluding land that supports community buildings, is declared surplus and therefore identified for disposal, forms part of income generating properties or has been acquired for agreed regeneration purposes, the remaining land portfolios that fall into non-operational land usage are agricultural estate and reclamation land. These represent 26.63% of overall land ownership totalling 5,148.50 acres.

Land that is held as surplus has been formally declared as no longer required for operational service delivery. As at 31 March 2025 the total value of surplus land was £46.2m.

The agricultural estate is made up of land remaining from the disposal of County Farms and land acquired by the former District Councils for the purposes of agriculture or smallholdings. The disposal of the only remaining County Farm buildings, located at Frankland Farm, Durham completed in January 2025.

The Land Use Change Working Group operates alongside Property Management, to ensure that where there are any service requirements from land, representatives from service areas across the council have the opportunity to consider the most appropriate use to meet Council priorities.

The commercial and investment estate totals 449.44 acres, with the majority made up of industrial, office and retail buildings. Total income generated by these assets is currently £11.204 million.

Garage sites currently total 26.91 acres. SPM are currently undertaking a review of all garage sites, which will result in the development of the first letting policy for garage sites and a likely reduction in sites to ensure a more manageable estate.

There is a large proportion of land that continues to be held within the reclamation portfolio, which is overseen by the LUCWG. Over the last couple of years, a number of these sites have been identified for woodland planting and those that remain identified as 'reclamation land' provide an opportunity for various uses.

Management of Durham County Council Woodland, Parks and Amenity Land

The committee was also scheduled to discuss a report and presentation on the management of Durham County Council Woodland, Parks and Amenity Land.

The report in the Public Reports Pack stated that all three service areas fulfil key activities detailed in the new Council Plan, presented to full council on 22/10/25, including:

• Building Better Communities - Create communities that are safe, connected, clean and attractive places to live
• Building Better Communities - Keep our towns and villages vibrant and well maintained.
• A practical environmental stewardship – conserve, enhance and restore our beautiful natural and built heritage environment for future generations

The Council's Clean and Green team undertake grounds maintenance, horticulture, arboriculture and street cleansing around the county. The team consists of 343.3FTE staff, with a total annual budget of £16.5m. The county currently runs a two-week grass cutting cycle, ensuring that all DCC's green space on regular cycle is cut every two weeks (21 million m2). The service also has an in-house plant nursery that grows more than 1 million plants for year, both for DCC and for several other local authorities, and other organisations, generating income from growing contracts.

The cost to run the Parks and countryside service each year is £1.9m. The team achieve an income annually of £0.8m, reducing the net cost of the service to £1.1m per year. The service has 31 staff. The Parks and Countryside Service manages 55 sites covering 1,500ha of land for the council. This includes sites of high biodiversity and conservation value including Sites of Special Scientific Interest² (6), Local Nature Reserves (22), two major destination parks, country parks, picnic areas and 80 miles (129km) of the railway path network. The Woodlands and Forestry Team provides woodland management and regulatory oversight and funding to almost 2000 ha of woodland estate. Half of this estate is maintained by the Woodlands and Forestry Team. The remainder is split between Countryside & Parks and Clean & Green. The team consists of two core-funded, permanent posts, and is able to attract significant grant income through various streams for woodland management and creation and the planting of street trees. Programmes include Durham Woodland Creation, and the Urban Tree Planting Programme. The council is one of six Local Authorities that make up the Northeast Community Forest (NECF), which administers the government's Trees for Climate Fund.

The report stated that the Parks and Countryside team have been responsible for active land management of the Countryside Estate for over 50 years. The Countryside Estate natural attributes include lowland heath, ancient woods, secondary woodland and scrub mosaics, hedgerows, sand dune and sea cliffs, species-rich grassland, ponds, wetland, lakes and streams. Durham County Council's railway path network is the longest managed by a Local Authority (80 miles). The two major destination parks Hardwick Park and Wharton Park attracted over 650,000 visitors last year.

The report also detailed relevant legislation, policies and strategies, including the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006³, the Environment Act 2021⁴, Durham County Council's Vision, Environmental Statement and relevant policies within the County Durham Plan. Durham's Local Nature Recovery Strategy is well underway and is on track to be published and adopted by March 2026. Officers have been tasked with developing a biodiversity strategy for DCC's estate; however, it has been put on hold until the LNRS is published in order that the two strategies are appropriately aligned.

The wider Clean and Green Team are responsible for providing a variety of services including grounds maintenance of parks, open spaces, school grounds, cemeteries, and closed churchyards, and are responsible for around 21 million square metres of green space across the county. The Clean and Green Service has implemented a suite of biodiversity enhancements on open spaces ranging from habitat creation to changes in cutting regimes. DCC has worked with Durham University in order to study residents' perceptions of green space management.

Parks and Countryside programming is currently delivering to high numbers of visitors, and includes volunteering, community engagement, education, informal learning and events. The Service engages with over 7500 school pupils a year through facilitated school visits in our destination parks. The Service supports major corporate events including the Durham Brass Festival, as well as outdoor theatre productions.

The report stated that if a re-prioritizing of resources exercise were to be taken, sites would in effect be abandoned and only the very essential emergency works would be undertaken and only if resource was available to undertake them. Reducing DCC's green space maintenance offer has been looked at as a cost saving measure multiple times, however, it is clear from past experience how strongly County Durham residents feel about the quality of maintenance on open green spaces.

The council owns and manages over 1800ha of woodland throughout the county, about 10% of the county's total woodland resource. The Woodlands & Forestry Team provide advice and guidance on regulations from the Forestry Commission⁵ and ensure that council owned woodlands are managed and created using best practice. All council-owned woodlands now have FC approved management plans along with appropriate Felling Licences which enable thinning works that are essential for well-managed woodland. External funds have been utilised for a temporary, part time Durham Woodland Creation (DMW) role. Since 2020, around 65 ha of land has been planted, with a further 18 ha planned for this winter. New planting schemes provide the opportunity to generate carbon credits, which companies can invest in to offset carbon emissions.

The 'Trees for Children' programme was the council's commitment to plant a tree for each of the 70,000 school aged children in the county and is running in conjunction with the Durham Woodland Creation Scheme.

The NECF is one of England's 15 Community Forests, collectively forming the largest environmental regeneration initiative in England. The council was successful in Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) rounds 1,2, 3 and 5 with almost £1.4m being awarded. The total number of large standards planted in towns and villages since 2020 is now at 3000.

The report concluded that Durham County Council continues to be pro-active in its reaction to funding opportunities, new legislation and national policy development and collaborates with partners to protect natural assets which ensures through decision-making, that net gains in biodiversity through the adoption of environmentally beneficial management regimes.