LABOUR Party members are to select their first female candidate for a city constituency in the North-East at the weekend.

The 700 party members in the Durham constituency party will vote from a shortlist of four candidates at the end of a meeting on Saturday.

All four candidates are to address the meeting before members take part in a ballot to add to postal votes already sent by prior arrangement for those unable to attend.

The successful candidate will succeed Gerry Steinberg, Durham City MP for the past 16 years, who has announced he will stand down at the next General Election.

Durham is one of ten constituencies which the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) has identified for an all-female shortlist to bolster the 118 female MPs in the Commons.

Joyce Quin's Gateshead East and Washington West constituency is the other women-only shortlist to be imposed by the NEC in the region.

The four candidates include the party's constituency chairwoman, Roberta Woods, an academic at Northumbria University, who lives in Durham.

Former Durham Mayor, Eileen Rochford, from Esh Winning, a city councillor for the Deerness ward, and a childcare inspector with the Early Years Inspectorate of the Office for Standards in Education, is also standing.

Margaret Meling, an English language advisor for Sunderland Education Authority, of Cleadon, South Tyneside, is also among the candidates.

The other candidate is Darlington borough councillor Lee Vasey, the former cabinet member for housing, who recently took over the portfolio for leisure on the authority in a reshuffle.

All four women will address Saturday's meeting at the Garland Theatre, New College, and answer questions from the floor