OPPOSING councillors set aside political differences to pour scorn on a 'scurrilous, spurious and dangerous' petition about accident and emergency (A&E) services at a North-East hospital.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has repeatedly insisted there are no plans to close the A&E department at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Despite these assurances – and the fact the trust recently announced a £2.5m investment in the department – almost 4,000 people have signed an online petition objecting to 'any proposal' to close A&E.

Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of Darlington Borough Council criticised the petition during a meeting of the authority last night.

Cllr Heather Scott, leader of the Conservative group, said: "Misinformation about the purported closure of the A&E department, is circling.

"Unfortunately, the petition is now appearing on Facebook and I think we have to do something about this.

"This is causing an awful lot of concern to the general public."

Cllr Linda Hughes, Labour, added: "I attended the trust's annual meeting last week and the very question about A&E closure was put to the chairman, who categorically said Darlington A&E is not closing, in fact it is to expand."

Cllr Alan Macnab, Liberal Democrat, said: "This is a scurrilous rumour and it needs to be squashed."

The debate was rounded off by Cllr Andy Scott, Labour's cabinet member for health, who said : "I completely agree, this is becoming ridiculous, things like this can easily become viral on social media, so that's quite dangerous.

"There's no facts behind it, it's completely spurious and I think we should do everything we can, collectively, to refute it."

A trust spokesman said: "It was made very clear by our chairman, at last week’s annual meeting, that Darlington A&E is not closing.

"We have just announced investment to improve and extend the A&E, which means we can fulfil a long-standing ambition to bring urgent care services from Dr Piper House onto the Memorial site.

"Our architects are currently working up plans for the building work.

"We have also just appointed an additional A&E consultant to work at Darlington, bringing our team of senior doctors up to seven."