I AM delighted that Darlington council leader Bill Dixon has taken my advice and signed up to a deal supporting devolution to a locally elected person to ensure the Tees Valley gets its fair share of the government offer under the Northern Powerhouse agreement.

The Tees Valley Enterprise Partnership has been very successful in accessing funds for the area and this is a great opportunity to build on that success.

The public need to understand that the "mayor" is something quite different from the previously elected mayors in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool and is more a figurehead to administer locally rather than in Whitehall any powers that are devolved to the area.

We need to work with other areas but also to retain our control locally and not be in a situation where that is centred in either Durham or Newcastle.

This is truly a cross-party, non-political progress and hopefully it will have the full support of the public.

Heather Scott, Conservative Group leader, Darlington Borough Council