WEST Auckland will get more control over local issues when it gets its own parish council next year.
Almost 300 residents of the community near Bishop Auckland backed a campaign calling for the formation of a parish council.
A petition persuaded Wear Valley District Council to back the idea and forward the plan for Government approval.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett, has already approved the plan, and if Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott formally agrees, the council will be created in spring, with elections on May 1.
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