HUNDREDS of people eligible to vote in the regional assembly referendum have still not received ballot packs, it emerged last night.

In Darlington, up to 800 electors have been missed, in about 18 streets in the Mowden area of the town.

In neighbouring Wear Valley, large parts of the Woodhouse Close Estate, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, have not received voting papers, along with parts of the village of St John's Chapel, in Weardale, County Durham.

With the deadline for voting looming, authorities are facing a race against time to get replacement packs out.

Terry Richardson, senior administrations officer with Wear Valley District Council, said: "We appear to have patches where the ballot packs have not been deli-vered.

"We will be talking to Royal Mail about this to see if they can avoid such a problem in the future."

Darlington and Wear Valley councils are sending out letters today to every household in the affected areas.

On Woodhouse Close, this includes Dere Avenue, Murray Avenue and Weardale Drive.

Mr Richardson said: "If there is a problem, we will have to act fast.

"The trouble is, people are not coming forward quickly enough."

According to the councils' computer systems, the people affected were registered to vote and printing companies have confirmed their voting forms were sent to the Royal Mail for delivery.

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council, where 76,000 ballot packs have been sent, said: "Around 300 homes are affected, but that could be as many as 800 people eligible to vote. Clearly there has been a problem with the Royal Mail.

"But they have offered to guarantee our letters will be delivered tomorrow."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "A problem has been reported with the delivery of ballot packs on three delivery routes.

"We are currently investigating and are liaising closely with the councils and have assured them that, if they want to reissue ballot packs, we will deliver them as soon as possible."

Both councils have set up ballot pack hotlines.

The Darlington number is (01325) 388351 and the Wear Valley number is (01388) 761538.

Anyone else who has not received their pack should contact their local council.