Coxhoe Parish Council Petition for Section 106 Funding

Representatives from Coxhoe Parish Council attended the Durham County Council’s (DCC) planning committee yesterday (3^rd December) which approved the ‘Miller Homes planning application on Cornforth Lane for 99 houses, to try to ensure fair and appropriate financial contributions from the developer (known as Section 106) for the village if the development was approved.

The Parish Council made a strong case for contributions, totalling £525,850.60, to be ring fenced for our park, primary school, creating a new nursery at the school, and local open spaces, given the location of the development. It was resolved by Durham County Councils Planning Committee that this financial gain would instead be allocated to the electoral ward. We also sought opening of the ‘Park and Stride’ as early as possible in the construction phase and Miller Homes commented that they would try to get this operational as soon as the show homes on site were available.

Contributions secured includes:

• Early Years education £123,739
• Primary Education: £106,062
• SEND £83,140.20
• NHS £47,817
• Improving current play space £18,513
• Other off site Public Open Space contributions £146,579.40

The Parish Council resolved to work with County Councillors on maximising much needed improvements to the village and began initial discussions with Councillors Genner and Blakey to secure support for local projects.

The campaign for appropriate S106 funding has been a tenacious and ongoing exercise for a number of years, with the Parish Council working hard for recognition of the distance of local schools.

Under Durham County Councils own planning policies, a development is not required to make a primary education contribution to the local school, if there are appropriate spaces in schools within a safe 2-mile walking distance.

Durham County Council’s original planning report stated that other local schools in the surrounding area were under 2 miles safe walking distance from Coxhoe and therefore the developer was not under any obligation to provide any funding to primary education. At the planning committee meeting in July 2025, Coxhoe Parish Council requested a review of these calculations and presented evidence to the contrary. The decision was subsequently deferred whilst DCC sought clarification.

Coxhoe Parish Council welcomes the recognition from DCC Planning Officers regarding the distances of local schools, and the exclusion of 2 of these schools from the calculation and the requirement for appropriate Section 106 Contributions to Primary Education. The campaign will continue to ensure the school most affected, Coxhoe Primary School, will be the beneficiary of these funds.

A spokesperson for Coxhoe Parish Council said:

“We’d like to thank Durham County Council for their diligence in scrutinising the initial planning report for accuracy, listening to our evidence regarding distances to schools, and reassessing their stance on Section 106 Contributions. We are hopeful that the contributions will rightfully be used to support Coxhoe as the village directly impacted by this development.

We look forward to a continued successful partnership with County Council members and officers to ensure the best outcomes for our villages.”

Click here to watch the stream of the planning committee (from 2hours32) and here to read the speech delivered.  You can read correspondence from Coxhoe Parish Council about the ongoing Section 106 Campaign here.