Moves to tidy Durham Stack 'blight' building welcomed

Measures to tidy a prominent city centre building in line for redevelopment as an entertainment venue have been welcomed, following concerns it had become a "blight".

The former Yorkshire Trading Company unit on Silver Street, Durham, is set to be turned into a Stack venue including food and drink businesses and space for live music and comedy events, with an opening date next year.

Durham County Council has vowed to clean up the existing shopfront after receiving complaints about its condition.

The authority says boards featuring images of Durham will be put up later this month while construction work takes place.

Councillor Susan Walker, chair of the City of Durham Parish Council, said: "While the unit has rightly been secured for public safety for some time, the condition of the frontage in the interim has been a blight on the historic street scene of Silver Street.

"We are sure that residents and nearby businesses will very much welcome this new temporary frontage ahead of work starting on-site in the coming months."

Andy Kerr, head of economic development at the county council, said the authority understood "concerns" about the building's appearance and staff had been on-site removing posters from windows ahead of Remembrance Day commemorations earlier this week.

Other work included painting the current boards over the doorways dark grey to match the surrounding colour.

He added: "These measures will be replaced with specially designed boards featuring photographs of Durham City later this month.

"The new boards, which are being funded by Stack, will remain in place until the development begins.

"We've agreed this approach with Durham BID (Business Improvement District) and the parish council and will continue to work with them and other partners to ensure Durham City thrives."

Stack will create more than 170 jobs , according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service .

Work on the site, which was also formerly a Marks and Spencer shop, is due to begin at Easter.