OLD mining villages in Wear Valley are being invited to join a proposed parish or town council in Crook.

Crook will be one of the last areas in Wear Valley to form its own council and hopes it can follow in the footsteps of neighbouring towns and villages like Tow Law, Willington and Bishop Auckland.

Villages originally included for the new council were Crook, Hemlington Row, Howden-le-Wear and Roddymoor, but the Crook Community Partnership decided the hill top communities needed a voice, too.

A meeting was held last week to explain the options to residents of Billy Row, Stanley Crook and Sunnyside.

The meeting was chaired by Peter Irving, chairman of Billy Row Community Association and the Hill Top Villages Partnership, and Andrew Hall, chairman of Crook Community Partnership.

Mr Irving said: "The representation of smaller rural areas is very important. Once Durham becomes a unitary authority, we really have to be in it to win it.

"Joining the Crook council, if its starts up, would be the best thing for Billy Row to do. Hopefully the council will follow suit from Tow Law and become successful and well established."

Only ten residents from the villages attended the meeting, so Crook Community Partnership are appealing for residents to attend a further meeting on Sunday.

Mr Hall said: "We need 900 signatures if the hill top villages don't join us and 1,000 if they do, but we really need this decision made, so hopefully a lot of residents will attend that meeting.

Caroline Robinson, 51, from Sunnyside, said: "I don't agree with the idea of a unitary authority and think, even if we joined Crook council, we would not have much of a voice."

The meeting is being held at 7pm on Sunday, at Sunnyside Community Centre.