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.

Sandbags

Property owners or occupiers are responsible for protecting their property against floodwater. We can provide sandbags in areas where there are flood or severe weather warnings.

Request sandbags. We will deal with your request as soon as possible.
If it is an emergency, please phone us on 03000 26 0000.

How to safely use sandbags and aqua sacs video

A video guide to the use of sandbags and aqua sacs on behalf of the County Durham and Darlington Local Resilience Forum.

How to safely use sandbags and aqua sacs video transcript (PDF, 130 KB)

Distribution of sandbags

Whilst we try and help with all requests for sandbags, we have to prioritise distribution. We give out sandbags based on:

the level of flooding threat to properties,
the needs of the household,
and the resources we have available at the time.

Make your own sandbags

Make your own sandbags by buying bags and sand from builders' merchants, or use alternatives such as pillowcases or bin bags filled with garden soil.

Disposal of sandbags

Property owners or occupiers are also responsible for the safe disposal of sandbags after flooding. Where possible, used sandbags should be split, with the contents spread over gardens and the bag itself placed in the household rubbish bin. Please do not place the filled sandbag in your bin.

Contact Customer Services