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.

International partnerships

Our International Relations Team works with partners across the world to deliver projects which help prepare us all to meet the challenges of a fast-changing and global society.

Our partnerships help to deliver our priorities of:

developing skills and raising aspirations
engaging young people in purposeful out of school activity
maximising benefits of membership of the European Union
promoting community cohesion initiatives and developing community-led programmes
supporting international cultural and sporting ambitions

We are fortunate to have a network of twinned communities across the globe.

1953 - Kreis Wesel, Germany
1965 - Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
1968 - Kostroma, Russia
1969 - Tübingen, Germany
1970 - Nakskov (now part of Lolland County, Lolland Kommune), Denmark.
1980 - Somme, France
1994 - Alcalá De Guadaira, Spain
1998 - Durham County USA, North Carolina USA
2001 - Jasz Nagykun Szolnok, Hungary

Former district and borough council links with partner communities are also supported by the county council.

Bad Oeynhausen - Wear Valley
Baesweiler - Easington
Kamp Lintfort, Germany - Chester le Street
Rheinhausen, Germany - Sedgefield
Werdohl - Derwentside

International partnerships

Related information