Cotherstone Parish Council

Welcome



The Parish Council serves the villages and surroundings of the village of Cotherstone, in beautiful Teesdale, in south west County Durham.



There are just over 500 electors in the Parish Council area.

We hope you find what you're looking for on this website — whether that's information about the parish councillors, what the Council does, how the Council spends the money it raises, what projects the Council is working on etc.

You'll find details of all Parish Council meeting, which are open to the public, and can see the agenda for forthcoming meetings and the minutes of previous meetings.

If there's something you'd like to know about the Council and can't find it here, then do please ask! Telephone and email contact details for the Council appear at the bottom of the menu on every page of the website.

Action Plan for 2024-2025

The Parish Council has set out what it will focus on, and its objectives for the Council year.  There are objectives for the local environment, for amenities and services, for community engagement and events and for the administration of the council.

The action plan can be downloaded by clicking on the button.

Storm overflows / pollution into the Rivers Balder and Tees

Following up local press reports, Cotherstone Parish Council contacted Northumbrian Water to ask what plans there are to improve the operation of Cotherstone Water Treatment Works and thus reduce the impact of 'spills' into the rivers. Information is awaited on this.

However, Northumbrian Water told the Parish Council the following key information about Storm Overflow assets:

• Storm overflows are a critical part of our sewer network. They are designed to operate as a relief valve during times of heavy rainfall, to help protect the homes of our customers from sewer flooding. 
• During and after heavy rainfall conditions, with permission from the Environment Agency, storm overflows discharge what is mostly rainwater (usually 96% or more), mixed with some of the contents of our sewer network. 
• We monitor these spills closely, reporting them to the EA and publish the results on our website. The SOs are permitted by the EA and we comply with all permits and are not doing anything illegal when we use SOs, in fact currently the system is designed for them to be used. The following link provides a link to a short video explaining how they work. 
• We are investing more than £90m between 2020-25 to make improvements. In 2022, we made nine pledges to improve water quality in our report, A Vision For Our Coast And Rivers. Our update published in April 2023 showed us to be on track to achieve each of these. This includes reducing average spills per SO to 20 by 2025 and investing in monitoring to provide 100% near Realtime Data to our customers on all SOs by the end of 2023. Looking further ahead, we recently published our Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan, which sets out in detail our plans to achieve new Government regulations for storm overflows. 
• Although they have been in use for decades, we understand that the number of spills from SOs is viewed as unacceptable by the public and we plan to invest £1.7bn between 2025 and 2030 to reduce the use of SOs and improve the environment. 

Any member of the public can view the current and recent spilling status of assets across the Northumbrian Water network. Click here to view the map.

Project Pipeline: County Durham and Tees Valley

At the September 2023 meeting of the Parish Council, Karen Alexander, Community Business Partner for Farrans, presented an overview of the two-phased project to install a new pipeline, including sinking two shafts and tunnelling under the River Tees, access roads, vegetation clearing, fences and drystone wall work, use of a boring machine (and a competition to name it) and road closures/traffic management. The Powerpoint slides used for the presentation can be provided on request.

If you need to contact the Project Pipeline team, or have any questions, use either telephone 0345 717 1100 or email teespipeline@farrans.com.

To receive regular updates and traffic information, register with Northumbrian Water's Community Portal.

PLEASE be responsible ...

If you walk your dog around Cotherstone, please show respect to other people — pick up the poo!

Could you become a councillor?

Do you have a bit of time to spare?

Do you care about your local community?

Do you get on well with people and are willing to speak at a meeting?

There are currently one vacancy on Cotherstone Parish Council.

If you're interested in finding out more about what being a councillor involves, then please ask one of the existing councillors, or contact the Clerk to set the ball rolling ...

Statement about bullying, harassment or intimidation

We treat everyone with courtesy and respect and ask for the same in return. We ask that you treat your councillors and council staff courteously without violence, abuse or harassment. 

Councillors and council staff have the right to carry out their civic duties and work without fear of being attacked or abused. Any behaviour whether that be verbal, physical or in writing, which causes either councillors or council staff to feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or threatened, is totally unacceptable.

The zero tolerance policy includes abuse, aggression or threats made in person, over the telephone or in written communication, including on social media. The council considers threatening behaviour to be: 

• Attempted or actual aggressive, or physical actions made towards any councillor or member of staff.
• The use of aggressive, or abusive language, (including raising of the voice, swearing, shouting or in writing) which threatens or intimidates councillors or council staff.
  

Cotherstone Parish Neighbourhood Plan

A referendum was held on Thursday 7 July 2022. The result is shown on the Neighbourhood Plan page of this website.