Council secures £125k fine for company which failed to repair listed church

A construction company has been ordered to pay £124,800 after it failed to comply with an enforcement notice requiring repairs to a Grade II listed former church in County Durham.

Details: 07.Aug.2025

Purvis Construction NE Ltd, which owns the former St Aidan’s Church in Blackhill, was taken to court for a second time by Durham County Council after it failed to carry out remedial works at the site.

The company was prosecuted at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court, which this week imposed a fine of £500 per day - the maximum allowed - for the period since the council’s previous prosecution in December 2024.

The financial penalty amounts to the council’s highest ever in a planning enforcement case.

The church, which lies within a conservation area, has been closed since 1995 and had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer wind or watertight.

The council said it was also having a negative impact on the appearance of the surrounding area.

The authority first served a Section 215 maintenance notice in November 2023, requiring the company to:

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repair the roof, including replacing or fixing missing slates, lead flashings and ridge tiles;
clear and repair gutters, downpipes, troughs and pipework;
replace missing or defective window security screenings;
cut back overgrown trees or shrubs on the property’s boundary.

The company was given 16 weeks to comply, but failed to take any action. In December 2024, it was fined £10,000 at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court after failing to attend the hearing.

The council said that despite being made aware of that conviction, the company had still not begun or completed any of the required works. This amounted to a separate offence, leading to the most recent court action.

Cllr Lyndsey Fox, Cabinet member for economy and partnerships at Durham County Council, said: “We are really pleased that the court has taken this latest prosecution so seriously and has meted out what amounts to our highest ever financial penalty.

"We hope that penalty might serve as food for thought for any property owners who might not look after important heritage assets as well as they could."

Purvis Construction NE Ltd, which is based in Sunderland, did not attend the latest court hearing. It has now been ordered to pay a total of £134,800 across both prosecutions.

Adam Carey