Referendum is defended

Durham County Council has outlined plans to replace the two-tier system with one council to cover the county.

Every voter in Teesdale will get the chance to have a say about the proposal via a postal referendum.

Teesdale is one of six district councils across County Durham to hold a referendum.

The Electoral Reform Services has been hired to conduct the referendum and Teesdale District Council says the overall cost is expected to be one per cent of the cost of creating a single council for the county.

Council leader Ken Robinson said: "We believe that the people and communities that we serve, those who pay for the very services that we deliver, have a full and total democratic right to have their views heard.

"A single council for the whole of County Durham would take decision-making away from the local level, reducing the number of community councillors from 35 to only six to cover the whole of Teesdale."

Deputy council leader Richard Betton said: "It is a pity that Councillor Albert Nugent, leader of the county council, chooses to criticise this referendum, describing it as costly and a distraction.

"Is this already an indication that a single unitary authority for the whole of Durham will have scant regard for the views of its tax payers?

"In reducing the number of councillors for the whole of Teesdale to just six people of the proposed 126 for the new council, one can only wonder at whether or not the voice of the people of Teesdale would ever again be heard - local government should be about people."

In its proposal, the county council suggests that the cost of re-organisation will be more than £12 million.

But independent analysis by the district councils suggests that the cost could be up to three times that figure.The referendum now under way will see postal forms drop into letterboxes during the next fortnight.

Ballot papers must be returned by Monday, June 11, at the latest.