REPRESENTATIVES from several town and parish councils have held informal talks about the possibility of breaking away from Stockton Borough Council.

Councillors from Yarm Town Council and Thornaby Town Council, which have already held referendums about becoming part of Yorkshire, joined colleagues from Kirklevington and Ingleby Barwick to discuss the option of forming a smaller Stockton South council, or to join Yorkshire.

Thornaby and Yarm residents voted to break with Stockton Borough Council in official polls, but the referendums were not legally binding.

There have not been any official polls in Ingleby Barwick or Kirklevington but some councillors are understood to be examining their options.

Campaigners have been pressing for a boundary review which could pave the way for the Stockton South area to separate from Stockton North - but Stockton Council would need to request the review.

Terry Chapman, one of the campaigners behind the Thornaby for Yorkshire poll, held earlier this year, said: "Officially, we decided that Thornaby and Yarm will work closely together to progress this matter and to pressure Stockton Council to listen to the views of residents in the town towns.

"In addition we are going to ask for a meeting with Stockton South MP James Wharton to ask for his advice.

"We want to break away from Stockton and in order to come up with something which is sensible we need the Boundary Commission to look at it."

He said that with more homes being built in Yarm, Eaglescliffe and Ingleby Barwick, Stockton South may just have enough people - 60,000 - to form its own council in the future.

In a postal poll earlier this year just under 73 per cent of those who voted in Thornaby were in favour of splitting from Stockton Council. In Yarm last year, 89 per cent voted in favour. However, voter turnout was not high in either poll.

Mr Chapman said the relationship between Stockton Council and Stockton South was "not just strained, but broken".

He said planning decisions such as approving 350 homes on farmland at Morley Carr Farm, Yarm, had upset residents, as well as rejecting plans for a hotel at Teesside Park, in Thornaby, because of the impact it would have on Stockton town centre.

He said the introduction of parking charges in Yarm town centre proved the town was just a "cash cow" for the borough council.

"No part of the borough should put its interests above the interests of another," he said.

But Bob Cook, Leader of Stockton Borough Council, denied the claims. He said: "We care about all of our residents and are absolutely committed to delivering the best services we can for everyone regardless of whereabouts in the Borough they live.”