Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Get urgent help for mental health

For most people who experience mental health issues, your first place to get help should be your doctor, who can often refer you to other professionals.

If your mental or emotional state gets worse quickly, this can be known as a mental health crisis or a mental health emergency.

If you cannot wait to see a doctor and feel unable to cope or keep yourself safe, it's important to get support - support is still available even if services seem busy at the moment. You can find out where to get urgent help for mental health on the NHS website.

If you, or someone you know, is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can now call NHS 111 and select option 2 for 24/7 access to support.

If you are deaf or have hearing loss please use NHS 111 - British Sign Language (BSL) Service or use the 18001 111 Relay UK app.

Related information

Offsite links