A CAMPAIGN group will bring Hartlepool mayor Stuart Drummond to Darlington to speak at a public meeting.

The Darlington Referendum Group wants to collect enough signatures on a petition to trigger a referendum, which would ask the people of Darlington if they wanted an elected mayor.

To do this, the group has to collect at least 4,000 names - or five per cent of the people on the electoral roll in the borough.

If people voted in favour of an elected mayor, it would cause a shift in power away from the council's cabinet.

Referendum group member Harvey Smith said he hoped the group would have all the signatures it needed early in the new year.

The petition was launched in March last year by disaffected members of different campaign groups.

The Darlington Referendum Group is non-political and will disband once a referendum has been held.

Mr Smith, who has lived in Darlington since 1972, said: "We are aiming for 4,500 signatures to cover ourselves and we are half way there."

Mr Smith joined the group in September. He said: "I have thought for a long time that the manner in which Darlington Borough Council is run is scanda*ous. I think that it is a great shame how this town is being run."

The group is to host a public meeting on Wednesday, December 6, at 7.30pm. Mr Drummond will be present and a representative from all the political parties in Darlington will be invited to speak.

The Central Government has recently set out plans to encourage more elected mayors across the country.

The meeting, which will be held at the Friends' Meeting House, in Skinnergate, will be chaired by the Venerable Granville Gibson, former Archdeacon of Auckland.

Mr Smith has written to the borough council's solicitor, Catherine Whitehead, to inform her of the petition.

In it he said: "It is my intention to have a sufficient number of signatures ready to justify its submission sometime after the new year."

A spokesman for the council said: "We haven't received an approach as yet, but if one was received we would look at the detail."

For more details on the referendum group, log on to www. darlingtonrefereundum.org