Open Space, Facilities & Allotments

Open Space

Latest news

Coxhoe and Quarrington Hill receive Special Commendations in Beautiful Durham Competition

The Parish Council are pleased to announce that both Villages have received special commendations in the 2019 Durham County Council’s Beautiful Durham Garden and Environmental Competition. Coxhoe received a special commendation in the Best Large Village category. Quarrington Hill won a special commendation in the Best Village category. We lost out to Belmont and High Shincliffe who were the winners in the respective categories.

The commendation reflect the work that the Parish Council and others are doing to make our villages looking good. Thank you and well done to all concerned.

Find out more about Durham County Council’s Beautiful Durham Competition

Coxhoe Cricket Ground progress

Coxhoe Parish Council are delighted to announce that they have recently completed a 10 year lease of the disused Coxhoe Cricket Ground. This is in order to bring it back into community use after lying dormant for well over five years. The Council is working with local Builder, Ray Lawson, to completely refurbish the semi-derelict cricket pavilion. Works include re-roofing, plaster boarding throughout, replacing the windows, shutters and doors, re-wiring, re-plumbing, installation of kitchen and improvements to the toilet.

Clubs and community groups have already expressed interest in utilising the refurbished Cricket Ground. The Parish Council held an open meeting to identify others who may be interested and discuss their needs to maximise the opportunities for its full potential. Parish Council Chair Stuart Dunn said, “This will double the amount of outdoor playing surface available to the community. We have already had interest from local football teams, for baseball, archery, and for junior cricket use and community hire. We hope to make the pitch available this year for a number of sports and also restore it for its original cricket use. We hope the pitch and pavilion will be valuable community assets alongside the Active Life Centre.”

Our Open Spaces

As well as providing hanging baskets, planters and grass cutting, the Parish Council provides a range of open space services.

The Parish Council has transferred and leased various pieces of open space around Coxhoe and Quarrington Hill from Durham County Council to protect them from being sold on for development. This includes the three main areas of village green along the Front Street in Coxhoe, parcels of land around the old level crossing (the entrance to the Limes Estate), and land adjoining Bower Court adjoining the Parkhill Border. There are strong restrictions on the land to prevent the Parish Council, and future Parish Councillors from disposing of these. We are now developing proposals to improve and enhance the areas we have acquired and are undertaking consultations with adjacent residents and landowners to see what they would like to see happen with them. We will publicise our proposals here when we have agreed them.

We are also exploring another joint ‘Durham Ask’ project with local Parish Councils of the Steetley Railway line with a long term plan to turn this into yet another walkway and cycle track.

In Quarrington Hill the Parish Council has taken ownership of the Village Greens to preserve these as green space at the heart of the village and the extended allotments which are now complete. We have also finalised the ‘Durham Ask’ 30 year lease of King’s Wood on both sides of the road completing our promise to residents to take ownership of these to prevent potential disposal to developers. Our thanks to Kelloe Parish Council and Kelloe residents for supporting this.

Beautiful Durham

The Parish Council have taken ownership of key pieces of land across our villages to help improve the environment and keep these green for residents. There is still a lot of work to do. The Parish Council are proud of the appearance of our villages and entered both Coxhoe and Quarrington Hill into the Durham in Bloom 2019 competition. Each village gained a Special Commendation in its size category. If you’ve any ideas for improvements or would like to help us, please contact the Clerk or any of your councillors.

Clarence Railway Walk

There used to be two railways that ran through Coxhoe. If you are a walker hopefully you will have noticed that we got part of the overgrown Clarence Railway line next to the Tarka Centre cleared and made more accessible this year. This runs towards Cassop and Cornforth. We hope, working with the two adjoining parishes we will extend the accessibility of this route and submit another ‘Durham Ask Bid ‘ to Durham County Council to jointly take ownership of and get grant to upgrade it for walkers and cyclists a safeguard the former railway line for future generations to enjoy. The Second Railway Gate will hopefully re-appear soon, funded by planning gain from phase 3 of the Limes Development.

Improvements are taking place with your support

Coxhoe Parish Council are striving to keep their newly acquired green spaces well maintained. You will notice over the summer period that our appointed grounds maintenance team (altogether greener) will be maintaining and making improvements to all the village greens in Coxhoe and Quarrington Hill. After a number “Councillor Walkabouts” involving site visits across Coxhoe and Quarrington Hill an ambitious programme of work was devised which included:

• Replacing the broken bird’s mouth fencing along from Bower Court to the “Coxhoe” sign
• We are in discussions with the landowners of the old railway line to acquire the footprint of the original railway gate on the opposite side of the road where one once stood. We will also be in discussions with Parkhill Developers in acquiring a new railway gate as part of the next phase of the Limes Estate
• Refurbish the existing railway gate and give it a fresh coat of paint
•  On the village greens we will be installing bird’s mouth fencing in an attempt to prevent parking on the greens
• Removing all shrubs along the mature lime trees and replacing with turf to bring about a uniform tidy look
• Removal of the scrub alongside the corner of Village Care and along the limestone wall at St. Joseph’s Church
• Using grant funding for a planting scheme of shrubs along the tree line behind the sculpture at Quarrington Hill
• Current flower basket systems at Quarrington Hill have been looked at following residents’ views. It has been decided that the Council will review its current planting arrangements with the supplier and is reviewing alternative hanging system at Quarrington Hill, which would include approaching local businesses and providing them with hanging baskets. We have also instructed our supplier to plant the flower bed at Quarrington Hill where the ‘mound’ once stood
• In Coxhoe the Council have allocated one hanging basket per lamppost as an alternative to the current two baskets per lamppost, but this will be a development for the next planting season because we will have to purchase a new hanging system for the lampposts
• We have also committed to grass cutting in both villages to 14 times a year and look out for our grounds maintenance contractor doing regular work to keep our villages neat and tidy.

We would like to say thank you to all of those residents surrounding the newly acquired land who contributed their ideas about how they would like to see the land improved and used and now the new  Council is in in place your views will be taken forward. We have improved the main footpath at St Mary’s grave yard to improve much needed access to the burial grave yard. We have received a number of correspondence from residents raising concerns around this.

Wild flower meadow planned

Wild Flower meadow planned Wildflower meadows offer a diverse, and typically exceptionally attractive, habitat for the pleasure of young and old alike. The twentieth century saw a sharp decrease in the variety of wildflowers in the UK countryside. This was due to changes in agricultural policy and practice, particularly increased field drainage and herbicide use and the growth of urban sprawl. Over the past two decades, renewed interest in wildflower habitats has grown with concerns for biodiversity protection. Coupled with this concern has been an increasing interest in the restoration of old mismanaged wildflower meadows and the creation of new meadows through, for example, agricultural set-aside programmes and other countryside stewardship schemes. Allowing open habitats such as wildflower meadows in urban settings for the provision of native or naturalised grasses, wildflowers and flowering plants offers several advantages:

• Plant diversity attracts insects and other invertebrates (including butterflies, bees, spiders and millipedes), birds and mammals
• Flowering species add a changing palate of colour to the urban environment throughout the seasons
• Active involvement of the local community in managing the site encourages ownership values to be fostered – activities may range from mowing to the collection of seeds for use at a new location or for sale
• Opportunities for education and recreation abound (ranging from nature studies to art lessons.
• Even small plots of wildflower planting can change the feel of a setting, so that the creation of a wildflower meadow as part of an urban greenspace can bring a little piece of countryside into the town

We are working with Durham County Council to investigate the installation of a wild flower meadow on Coxhoe’s second village green between the limestone wall and the mature lime trees. Also it will benefit the community as we currently pay for approximately 16 grass cuts per year (dependent on the length of the growing season and weather conditions) and installing a meadow would reduce this to one grass cut per year. Preparing the ground in the first year will be cost neutral but in the following years it will save the council on ground’s maintenance whilst also being pleasing to the eye and of course support the wildlife within the village. The County Council is currently in discussions to provide us with the first seed and some initial funding to commence the project. We would hope to continue this project by working with our local primary schools to incorporate this into their curriculum and working together in implementing a wild flower planting programme to enhance the appearance of the meadow. We would also like to look at installing some educational interpretation boards for the public to access.

Allotments

We provide a small number of allotments in both Villages. Our allotments in Coxhoe are managed by the Coxhoe Allotment Association, who manage the waiting list.

We  have 15 allotments on our site at Quarrington Hill.

The allotments are managed by our Clerk who has delegated authority for routine management, to carry out inspections and deal with allocations as vacancies arise.

Waiting List

There is a waiting list for our allotments in Quarrington Hill. Residents wanting a second plot will only be allocated a plot when there are no other residents of the parish on the list.

People waiting for an allotment are given a reference number.  The waiting list is below.

Preference is given to those without an existing plot. The waiting list key is E = existing tenant and N = new prospective tenant, therefore those whose reference number begins N will be offered any plot first. The dates show the date the person joined the waiting list.

E100   27.02.17
E101   17.07.18
E102   03.04.18
E103   12.07.18
N207  24.06.21
N208  28.09.21
N209 03.11.21
N210 11.11.21
N211  13.01.22
N212 13.03.22

If you have any queries please contact the Clerk.