From 1894 until 2009 the town had its own local government district. Originally from 1894, this was the Chester-le-Street Rural District, which covered the town and several outlying villages. In 1909 the inner part of the Rural District was separated out to form the new Chester-le-Street Urban District Council, which covered the town as it was at that time. By 1974, however, the town of Chester-le-Street had expanded far beyond the boundary of the Urban District and during that year's Local Government reorganisation, the Urban District was amalgamated with parts of the remaining Rural District to form the new Chester-le-Street District. The Chester-le-Street District Council was abolished in 2009 when County Durham became a unitary authority as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, a move that was controversial at the time.