THE Government has decided to postpone the closure of three offices of the water industry watchdog, including one in Darlington.

Staff at WaterVoice offices in Darlington, Manchester and Exeter, faced redundancies under plans to reform the organisation next autumn.

Six staff work at the Darlington office and some had chosen redundancy or retirement.

But because of a U-turn by ministers, the decision on the closures has been delayed until October next year.

The decision was welcomed by the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represent workers at the offices.

The plans had been opposed by the union and local communities, with the union arguing that office closures would mean a weakened local presence monitoring water services.

Andrea Cook, regional chairman of WaterVoice, said: "Ministers have said that as a result of the representations, they are going to continue with an office in Darlington for now, rather than consolidate an office for the whole northern region in York."

PCS branch secretary Robert Day said: "We welcome the change of mind and hope that this signals proposals to close these offices will now be scrapped altogether.

"PCS believes that public services are best delivered closest to the customer. Under the original proposals, water consumers across the whole north of England would have to deal with an office in York, instead of having an office in their immediate region. This is good news for customers."