Pricing & demandA £5 charge to drive onto the peninsula
Durham County Council’s page on the Road User Charge Zone says a daily charge of £5 applies from 10.00am to 2.00am every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, with no registration needed for bicycles, motorbikes and Royal Mail vehicles, and registered exemptions for taxis, local buses and Blue Badge holders. Wikipedia’s article on the Durham City congestion charge says it began in October 2002, the first in the UK, on Saddler Street, the only public road to Durham Cathedral and Castle, where about 3,000 vehicles a day shared the street with up to 17,000 pedestrians, and that vehicle activity fell 85% a year later, to about 450 a day by our arithmetic. Neither page gives revenue, when the charge reached £5 or a current traffic count.
What would you need to know to judge whether a £5 charge changes demand for driving into a city centre, and who is least affected? Practise this in AO2 Application.
Interpreting numbersTwo ways to read a festival’s value
Visit County Durham’s report (undated) said Lumiere 2025, held on 13 to 15 November, drew over 120,000 visitors across three nights, taking attendance since 2009 beyond 1.3 million, and that it had generated more than £43m for the local economy since 2009, with about £10m likely from the 2025 edition and an evaluation still under way. £43m over 1.3 million visits is about £33 a visit by our arithmetic, while £10m over 120,000 is about £83, so the two figures imply very different spending a visit. Durham County Council commissions it with Arts Council England and the North East Combined Authority. The report gives no cost, doesn’t say how the sums were estimated and doesn’t say whether the 120,000 are separate people.
Why might £33 a visit and £83 a visit both appear in one report, and what would you ask about how they were estimated? Step by step in AO3 Analysis.
Strategy & stakeholdersA £400m business park on the edge of the city
Newton News (undated) reported that Durham County Council was leading a business park at Aykley Heads that it said would bring a £400m boost to the economy, with up to 4,000 jobs across the first two phases, an estimated 1,800 construction jobs and up to 38,468 sq m of floor space on six plots. Phase one starts with a three-storey office on Plot C, with 3,500 sq m of flexible offices and 124 parking spaces, backed by £6m from the council and £6m from the Getting Building Fund. £12m is 3% of the £400m headline by our arithmetic, and 4,000 jobs over 38,468 sq m is about one job for every 9.6 sq m. The article names no tenants and no dates, beyond saying a hybrid planning application was approved in December, and we haven’t checked what has been built.
Should a council lead a business park to attract office jobs, and who bears the risk if tenants don’t come? A real judgement for AO4 Evaluation.
Durham’s economy in the classroom
citypopulation.de’s table of North East England built-up areas gives 50,515 for Durham (2021 census). A road charge on a historic peninsula, a festival whose value can be read two ways and a council-led business park give students real contexts for demand, interpreting figures and judging who bears a development risk. We tie these themes to topics on the specification.
Sources: citypopulation.de, North East England built-up areas (2021 census); Durham County Council, Road User Charge Zone page (undated); Wikipedia, Durham City congestion charge; Visit County Durham (undated); Newton News (undated). The 450, £33, £83, 3% and 9.6 sq m figures are our arithmetic. Three sources are undated, neither charge page gives revenue, the festival report doesn’t say how its sums were estimated, and we haven’t checked outcomes.
