NOMINATIONS have closed for candidates to stand for a vacant seat on Durham County Council.

The by-election for the Durham South seat will be a three-way fight between the main political parties.

It follows the resignation of Labour councillor Donna Whitfield, who was elected to the new seat at May's county council elections.

She announced she was standing down prior to being appointed to a new job, with Sedgefield Borough Council, late last year.

The seat was formed following ward boundary re-structuring before the last county election.

It takes in the villages of Bowburn, Croxdale, Hett, High Shincliffe, Shincliffe Village, Sherburn House, Sunderland Bridge, Tursdale and Whitwell Grange, south of Durham city.

Long-standing local Labour stalwart Abiodun Macdonald Williams, better known as 'Mac', has won the party's nomination.

A former Durham City Council health and safety officer, he is now chairman of the North Durham Magistrates' bench.

He will be up against local Conservative activist Michael Fishwick, who is co-ordinator of the Durham and Chester-le-Street Patient and Public Involvement Forum.

Mr Fishwick is faced with improving the Conservative vote of 306 from the election last May.

The Liberal Democrats will again be running with Isabell Lunan as their candidate.

Mrs Lunan, from High Shincliffe, ran a close second in May's election for the seat, losing out to Ms Whitfield by fewer than 100 votes.

Durham South voters will go to the polls on Thursday, January 26.

The outcome will have little bearing on party standings at County Hall where Labour holds a huge majority with 53 members, compared to five for the Lib Dems, three Independents and two Conservatives.