At this moment, behind closed doors in County Hall, a deal is being worked up that could see a politician based in Newcastle or Stockton have a bigger say over life in Durham than any resident reading this.

The Coalition that currently leads Durham County Council is looking at a number of options for a devolution deal that would see the Government merge County Durham into a bigger combined authority, with investment decided for us by a mayor in Tyneside or even Teesside.

The Council is negotiating with both camps, in apparent secrecy, and appears to be failing to develop the Durham-only deal that was offered by Government.

Devolution is long overdue, but are we really sure the Council has it right when it says we are better to join with others?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Last year, the Government offered County Durham a new “county deal”. This deal would devolve funding and powers just to us – letting us set our own priorities and address issues impacting on the county.

For some reason, we have seen no progress at all on the county deal, even as councils across the country start to catch up with Manchester, which has thrived during its devolution journey.

Some in County Hall might question if County Durham is big enough to go it alone.

For me, there is no doubt that County Durham has huge potential. We could, and should, be a powerhouse in the North.

We have half a million people who feel deeply proud of their local identity. Over the last decade, we have secured hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment at the likes of

Bishop Auckland town centre, the largest logistics centre in the region at Integra 61, and Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe.

We have two UNESCO World Heritage Sites and a cultural offer second to none, that attracts 20 million visitors a year who spend around £1bn annually.

We are the largest economy in the North East, we shouldn’t be second best on anyone’s plan for the region!

And we – Labour – had a plan for the county that would have paved the way for 30,000 new jobs over the next decade, a plan now shelved by the regressive Tory-led Coalition running the County Council.

Look across the rest of England, you can see how we are missing out. Cornwall had a devolution deal in 2015, giving it control of EU investment funds and it’s now pushing for a new county deal with transport powers and job creation funds.

Closer to home, look at North Yorkshire. The County Council there, as well as the districts and the City of York, could have gone into a deal with Teesside, or West Yorkshire, or even one for all of Yorkshire. Instead, they were ambitious for their own local area, they backed themselves and secured a £750m devolution deal as a result.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that Tyne and Wear are in talks to get a proper mayor. But I think a patch covering Berwick to Bishop Auckland is big area, and a mayor overseeing this huge swathe of the region would, inevitably, overlook some of us.

Just over a year ago, Durham had a plan for £750m worth of investment in its towns and villages. There is simply no way a mayor in Newcastle could deliver this or match its ambition.

I’m a huge advocate for devolution. We need to take power from the hands of officials in London and bring it back to the North. But a “one-size fits all” approach will never work.

It’s time to put Durham first.

Cllr Carl Marshall
Leader
County Durham Labour