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.

Legal and Democratic Services

Legal and Democratic Services perform a key role at the heart of our constitutional and governance arrangements. It provides legal advice to the council and its various bodies, ensuring integrity in the conduct of our business and providing a range of legal support services to our front-line services

The Director of Legal & Democratic Services is Helen Bradley.

Legal & Democratic Services provides essential support for the councillor decision-making process, ensuring it is streamlined and effective and exploring innovative ways to enhance community engagement in the democratic process.

The function provides the following key functions:

administration of council bodies
member support
elections management
registration of births, deaths and marriages
legal services

Legal and Democratic Services

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