A PETITION of 4,600 signatures objecting to the removal of historic features in a North-East town centre may not taken into consideration by council bosses, The Northern Echo can reveal today.

Campaigners from Darlington Civic Trust have spent more than four months collecting names of people who object to council plans to demolish Victorian features on the town's High Row.

And yesterday a dozen members of the trust visited Darlington Town Hall to hand the petition to Mayor Roderick Francis.

The trust is hoping to persuade councillors not to go ahead with plans to demolish the three-tier steps, balustrades and railings on High Row as part of a £6.5m pedestrianisation scheme.

Campaigners believe if the changes are made, Darlington will lose its Victorian feel and look like any other town centre.

However, yesterday, a council spokesman warned that as most signatures were collected before the planning applications for the pedestrianisation scheme were submitted, people would have been unaware of the full details.

The spokesman said: "We have already written to the Civic Trust expressing our concerns about the validity of the comments on its petition.

"Although the petition will be presented to the planning applications committee, members will recognise that there will be difficulty in considering the views of the majority of signatories as valid comments on any of the proposals because the applications were only submitted on January 21."

Derek Bainbridge, chairman of the trust, said the plans to demolish parts of High Row had not changed - and it was this that the petition objected to.