A COUNCIL hopes to trail-blaze with its new style of government.

Wear Valley District Council is to be streamlined after voting to adopt a new system of government yesterday, which will see departments cut from eight to four and the number of meetings reduced.

The authority rejected the cabinet systems adopted by many councils in the region, including Darlington and Sedgefield borough councils, after a massive majority of people in the district supported an alternative scheme.

Questionnaires were sent out to households, industrial and commercial businesses and the voluntary sector and 1,419 replies were received.

About 77 per cent backed the streamlined committee system, an option only open to councils with a population fewer than 85,000.

A trial period of the new system will start in two weeks time, and it is hoped the new structure will be up and running by October.

Speaking after the meeting at Crook Civic Centre, where councillors voted unanimously in favour of scheme, leader of the council, Councillor Olive Brown, said: "It's a far more democratic system. I think we may be one of the first to adopt it and we could be a role model.

"I know other councils are thinking about this, but we will actually be adopting it in a couple of weeks. We want to get in first and do a trial and see how it works."