A SMALL army of mums invaded a council meeting on Tuesday to fight the closure of their maternity hospital.

The women witnessed a special committee being established to scrutinise the closure of Guisborough Maternity Unit.

The mothers and mothers-to-be handed over a petition of 1,600 names which have been gathered in a week on the streets of Guisborough.

Other petitions, thought to be signed by thousands of people across East Cleveland, are still to be handed in.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council leader David Walsh has called on South Tees NHS Trust to delay today's closure, despite the insistence from the trust that it will be temporary.

On Tuesday the council established a new scrutiny committee that will meet the trust and will hold a public meeting at Guisborough's Laurence Jackson School next Wednesday at 6.30pm. The committee will be able to take advantage of new powers to scrutinise the NHS from January 1.

Speaking at the meeting at Eston Town Hall, Coun Walsh said: "This committee and others like it will mean the NHS managers will no longer be able to make decisions like this behind closed doors."

Campaigners Karen Rule, Irene Burke, Christine Barnard and Jane Wardley said they were not convinced the closure would be temporary.

They said it would cause serious transport problems and would mean new mothers in the area would receive an inferior service.

Irene Burke said: "My baby's due on New Year's Eve. The ambulance service will already be very busy and we're very worried."

Billy Murray, chief executive of the NHS Trust, said the trust was happy to work with the council and stressed the measure was temporary.

* What do you think? Let us know your experiences with the maternity unit and your opinions on its closure.

Send your comments to You Write, The East Cleveland Advertiser, PO Box 14, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, or e-mail you.write@nne.co.uk or call Chris Webber on (01642) 513346.