The Reform-led Durham County Council cabinet has voted to raise council taxes for some of the most vulnerable people in the county. Meanwhile in another controversial decision Reform have agreed that an incinerator be built while uncertainty remains regarding the future of the much-loved Durham Lumiere.
Council tax bills up for the poorest
It has been reported in the Darlington & Stockton Times that thousands more residents will pay council tax in County Durham after Durham County Council’s Reform-dominated cabinet agreed plans for council tax reforms.
On November 19, at a cabinet meeting, members of the Reform executive agreed it makes “perfect sense” to make changes to the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme (LCTRS).
It was additionally noted that, “the scheme, introduced in 2013, currently means 31,200 working-age LCTRS claimants get discounts on council tax bills. Of those, 84% claim to pay no council tax.
But the changes would see working-age residents make a minimum contribution of 10%, based on income. For someone on full support that could mean a bill of around £160 a year. The proposed changes are expected to generate around £2.2 million for the council in total.
This is happening after it was reported in early November by LBC that despite Reform pledging to cut bills, over two million households living under Reform-run councils would end up landed with tax rises of £127 million in the next year.
Indeed it was noted that, “as many as eight of the 13 local councils run by Nigel Farage’s party have hinted at plans to raise council tax by next year. In at least six of these councils, making up around 4.8 million people, bills could rise by the maximum of 5 per cent.”
Is this the last Durham Lumiere?
As Reform put up council tax for poorer families in County Durham, uncertainty still surrounds what will happen to Durham Lumiere after this year’s event. Lumiere is a beautiful light art festival in Durham, which according to the Lumiere website has “brought over 1.3 million visitors to Durham since it began in 2009 and today the biennial stands as a landmark event in the cultural calendar of the North East.”
Lumiere 2025, now in its ninth edition, took place over three evenings, from Thursday to Saturday, 13–15 November. The new programme was said to have fed the imagination with magic and joy, “transforming Durham City once again into an illuminated art gallery”.
However, despite the joy the festival brings, not to mention the visitors and money into Durham, this year’s Lumiere may be the last one. It was reported in mid-November by the BBC that Reform and event producers seemed to be at odds about the future of the Lumiere festival. Organisers had previously announced that this year’s light festival, “showcasing installations across Durham city and Shildon, would be the last due to increasing costs”.
Helen Marriage, artistic director of Lumiere, commented: “If you have to choose between bins and ballet, it’s clear what people will choose.”
Having said that they would cut council costs, Reform-led Durham County Council, which commissions the festival, announced that it would review this year’s event and that it was not “necessarily the end of Lumiere or light art in Durham”.
Incinerator to go ahead after all
The government has claimed, via the UK Health Security Agency, on its own website that modern, well run and regulated Municipal Waste Incinerators are “not a significant risk to public health, as these incinerators only make a small contribution to local concentrations of air pollutants”.
However it has also been argued, in a paper published by Science of the Total Environment, that infrequent maintenance schedules and older incinerator technology have been strongly linked with adverse health effects. And while it is agreed that “more recent incinerators have fewer reported ill effects”, that may be because of “inadequate time for adverse effects to emerge. A precautionary approach is required. Waste minimisation is essential”.
It is in this context that it has been reported by Palatinate that Reform-controlled Durham County Council (DCC) have announced that, despite previously condemning the plans and urging other councils to leave the contract, they are going to press on with plans to build a Teesside waste incinerator.
It was further noted that the project is for a facility that will produce electricity by burning non-recycled household and industrial waste. The Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TVERF) would burn waste from across seven local authorities, including part of County Durham. The incinerator should reach financial closure in 2026 and would be operational in 2029.
Much of the initial work and planning for this project, including the purchase of land, occurred under previous DCC administrations. Since Reform was elected, members of their cabinet have been critical of the scheme.
County Durham Council Leader Andrew Husband was quoted earlier this year as saying that “he had been ‘inundated’ with complaints about the project from residents and councillors”. Andrew added that “Reform has no appetite for this incinerator. We are getting scrutiny on how we spend taxpayer money and this is a significant amount of money over the years.”
And finally…
It was reported by the BBC that a litter-picking group had said that it was frustrated that it was not getting enough support from other members of their community or local councils.
It was noted that ‘Litter-free Shildon’ have often found numerous items of waste dumped in the town, including broken electrical items, unwanted furniture and even paraphernalia connected to drug-taking, including nitrous oxide canisters.
One of the group’s founders, Rebecca Morton, commented that the group had tried to get support from both Shildon Town Council and Durham County Council but they had “just faced with form filling” to borrow equipment and “little practical help”.
“I know the councils have a lot of work to do. I’d like us to work together as a team,” the mum said.
Reform rhetoric vs reality
Reform in County Durham continues to discover that their fantasy politics tends to unravel when coming up against reality. It is notable that the council tax rises will affect some of the most vulnerable families in County Durham, for this surely tells us where their priorities lie.
There also seems to be a lot of confusion around what Reform are saying and what is actually happening regarding both Durham Lumiere and the proposed incinerator, while it would be good if they could provide more help to groups like Litter-free Shildon, wouldn’t it?
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