THE Labour Party last night denied a climbdown over plans to increase its number of female councillors.

A 50 per cent women's quota, being introduced ahead of elections for Durham County Council in May, was expected to see a number of well-established councillors - including leader Ken Manton - lose the party's endorsement.

However, the County Durham Labour Party has decided only 14 seats being contested will be women only.

They will be made up of seats where sitting councillors are either retiring or standing down, and three seats will be created because of boundary changes.

This means there will be no forced deselections of sitting Labour Party councillors.

At present, the party has 48 male and four female councillors on Durham County Council.

Last night, a Labour Party spokesman said: "This is not a U-turn when you consider we are going from 7.5 per cent to something in the region of about 27 per cent, with a process to reach our objective of 50 per cent on-going in the future.

"This is a massive leap forward in terms of elected female representation in the party. All 14 seats are ones that we want to win and would hope to win."

The quota was intended to correct the present imbalance, but it caused fierce debate with some councillors saying they were the victim of personal vendettas.

The controversy over the quota has been such that Labour Party Whips have since ordered councillors not to speak to the Press on the issue.

The Northern Echo understands that some people in the party hierarchy were also angered by comments made by Rita Taylor, secretary of the Sedgefield constituency Labour Party.

She said that regardless of the quota only something drastic would prevent Coun Manton and his fellow Sedgefield councillors Bill Blenkinsopp and Terry Hogan from being removed from their seats.

Last night, Mrs Taylor said: "I have been asked not to speak to anybody about the process until it is completed."

Coun Manton would only say that he was looking forward to the campaign.

All nominations for the seats are in and selection panels will decide who will go forward to fight the election.