Billingham Regeneration Partnership has been renamed The Billingham Partnership and has adopted a new constitution.

It is now a voluntary organisation able to attract funding for regeneration projects that will improve the quality of life for people in the town.

The Billingham Partnership is an area board of Stockton Renaissance, the Local Strategic Partnership.

Elections are being organised for a reformed partnership board which will represent a range of communities and interests in Billingham.

With representatives from the community, voluntary, business and public sectors, the partnership board of 20 will be finely balanced with no single group able to dominate the decision-making.

People are invited to participate through their local residents' associations, community centres and voluntary groups, each of which is entitled to nominate candidates and vote in the partnership board elections.

Councillor Barry Woodhouse, the partnership's acting chairman, said: "I am looking forward to the partnership board becoming a more effective body that is accountable to local people and better equipped to face future challenges."

For more information contact the Billingham Forward office on (01642) 360150.