A RURAL parish council hopes to carry on with plans to merge with a larger, neighbouring council.

Councillors on Newbiggin-in-Teesdale Parish Council have agreed that it would be in the council's best interest if it was to join with Middleton-in-Teesdale Parish Council.

They are now awaiting the results of a public meeting being held later this month to discuss how residents of Middleton feel about the proposed merger.

Newbiggin council, which only has an electorate of about 100 people, has had problems attracting councillors and has been unable to recruit a parish clerk.

A public meeting was held in Newbiggin this week to discuss the possible merger, but no residents turned up.

Newbiggin council chairman Councillor Lindsay Waddell said: "Unfortunately, this is indicative of the whole situation we are in.

"It would make sense to merge for a number of reasons. From a financial point of view, we both have standing costs in terms of audits and things.

"There's been a large increase in standing charges that we're having to pay for a very, very small number of people.

"People in Newbiggin use facilities in Middleton and so from our point of view it is logical to merge."

At its last meeting, Middleton-in-Teesdale parish council was split when it voted on whether to merge or not.

The public meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 15, at 6.15pm in Middleton village hall.

Middleton residents unable to attend can obtain voting slips from G&J Newsagents, J Raine ironmongers or the Teesdale Mercury shop in the village and vote by post.