We today sent an open, public letter to the leader of Durham County Council asking that he seriously considers offering to accept 150 refugee families.

We feel as a County that e must do more to help with this crisis.

We have heard this evening that Labour will discuss this at their Monday meeting.

Our letter:

SENT ON BEHALF OF THE LIB DEM GROUP ON DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL TO COUNCILLOR SIMON HENIG, LEADER OF THE COUNCIL

Dear Cllr Henig and fellow Durham County Councillors

No doubt you are as distressed as we are at the scenes unfolding on our TV screens in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister has indicated that the UK will accept more refugees.

The question then is what is County Durham willing to do to help in this process?

We are confident that as a council and a county we have the capacity to assist in this crisis.

We have a population of more than 500,000 or around 0.7% of the UK population and depending on how you define them, at least 15 towns and hundreds of villages and settlements.

We have thousands of empty properties across the County, including over 1000 currently advertised to let.

We also note that we have spare capacity for  pupils in both secondary and primary schools in most parts of the County.

We strongly believe we have a moral duty to step up, be pro-active, and agree to accept a fair number of those refugees fleeing horrendous conditions.

Furthermore, there is an obligation on the government to support the Council in the resettling of refugees.

Can we therefore ask Cllr Henig, that you give serious consideration to putting forward an offer to the Government for County Durham to accept 150 refugee families, with Government support?

Kind regards

Durham County Council Liberal Democrat Group