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

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

And 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 Friday's closure, despite an insistence from the trust that the closure will be temporary.

The council yesterday established a new scrutiny committee which will meet with the trust and will hold a meeting at Guisborough's Laurence Jackson School next week. 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."

Mothers Karen Rule, pregnant Irene Burke, Christine Barnard and Jane Wardley said they were not convinced the closure would be temporary; it would cause serious transport problems; and would mean new mothers in the area receive an inferior service.

Ms 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.