THOSE behind the defeated campaign to bring an elected Mayor to Darlington have vowed to continue their fight to "democratize" the town.

A meeting has been called to discuss the way forward for the campaign, which suffered a 59 per cent to 41 per cent defeat in Thursday's mayoral referendum.

Stuart Hill, a leading player in the Yes campaign, said a meeting would be held on Wednesday ahead of a public meeting in late October.

He added: "I'm disappointed after all the efforts we put in. But the feeling is that we rest our feet, catch up on the house work, and then meet again on Wednesday to tie up all the loose ends of the old campaign, put it to bed, and then look at how we can make a contribution to the new campaign for democracy in Darlington."

Mr Hill vowed to continue to hold the borough council to account.

He added: "The council has said they have changed, but they have not changed one little bit. They will not listen unless they are forced to."

But Mr Hill said the group were not tempted to form a political group in the aftermath of the referendum, despite nearly 8,000 voters backing their campaign.