BOOS rang out at a packed extraordinary meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council last night as councillors voted against holding a referendum objecting to the town's loss of hospital services.

There was broad agreement among all councillors at the meeting at the Town Hall Theatre that a new committee be established to work with the NHS on a local health plan for the town and surrounding areas in a breakthrough move.

It is hoped the committee would be chaired by Lord Ara Darzi who a decade ago led a review of acute services across Teesside and North Yorkshire and there was real hope the process could end with services like A&E returning to Hartlepool's hospital.

It is highly unusual for councils to have a direct say on NHS policy, although the Government has recently announced that councils in Manchester are to become involved in health care.

However there has been major protests over the issue in the town after services have progressively moved over the last six years to the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

The campaign has intensified recently because a plan for a new £300m hospital in Wynyard, between Hartlepool and Stockton, has been put on hold.

Leader of the council, Cllr Christopher Akers-Belcher, Labour, recently led a delegation to London to meet minister for health Jeremy Hunt and said he was hopeful the situation would improve once a local care plan had been worked out with delegates from the NHS Clinical Commission Group (CCG).

Recommending the special committee be set up, he said: "This is what the people of Hartlepool want and I don’t believe that any councillor would question that this is the will of the people which we represent.”

That was welcomed by Independent councillor Jonathan Brash but he also recommended two referendums be conducted: one a vote of no confidence on the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust to be held on General Election day on Thursday, May 7. The other would be held to establish if the public approved the local health plan once it had been worked out.

Cllr Akers-Belcher pointed out the council had already held two votes expressing a lack of confidence in the NHS Trust and the referendum, which would cost about £70,000, would "only tell us what we already know." The proposal for the referendum on no confidence was voted down by 19 votes to 11.

The idea for a referendum on the local health plan once it was worked out was tied at 15 votes to 15 after some Labour councillors agreed with the idea. However Cllr Stephen Akers-Belcher used his casting vote as mayor to defeat the proposal.

That led to boos from the audience and chants of "Labour out" as about 200 members of the public filed out.