THE counting may have ceased and the result announced, but the future of democracy in Darlington remains a talking point following a nail-biting mayoral referendum.

In defeat, members of the Yes campaign, lobbying for an elected mayor in the town, were left licking their wounds yesterday as the No campaign breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Although the result may appear comfortable at 59 per cent to 41 per cent, the tension in the count belied the nerves of all concerned.

Harvey Smith, of the Yes campaign, was dejected afterwards, but said the fact they had attracted nearly 8,000 people showed they had struck a chord with a significant body of residents.

"I'm disappointed," he said. "I thought it would be closer, but yesterday, as I was campaigning in the streets, I noticed no groundswell, and as I went to bed last night, I knew.

"But the people involved in this campaign are not political animals. They were only wanting something for the political good of the town.

"How can a dozen or so people operating from a front room and with no funding compete against the masses?"

Councillor Heather Scott, leader of the Darlington Conservative group, said that she was pleased the referendum was out of the way.

She said: "What we've got to do now is to make sure that the Labour group continues to be a lot more involved. This was the reason why there was a call for an elected mayor. It's up to us now that we're included in the major decisions and we'll be pushing for that all of the time."

Spurred into action through dissatisfaction at the way the Labour-run Darlington Borough Council had handled the Pedestrian Heart Scheme, Hurworth School and Tesco's town centre plans, the Yes campaign had gathered nearly 4,000 signatures to trigger the referendum.

And last night, Labour cabinet member Nick Wallis said lessons had been learned from the poll.

He said: "I don't think status quo was on offer, the question is how we move forward, how we listen better and how we engage with residents. Change has started because, after knocking on doors for the May elections, we saw the need for that."