HEALTH service managers have held talks with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to discuss the controversial closure of a maternity hospital.

The 'useful and informative' meeting between the council and South Tees NHS Trust lasted for more than two hours.

The council set up a special committee to examine the closure of Guisborough Maternity Unit, which the Trust stresses is temporary, although no re-opening date has been set.

The unit was shut in November due to staff shortages. Since then mothers and mothers-to-be across East Cleveland have mounted a massive campaign with thousands of people signing petitions to ensure it is re-opened.

At the meeting at Eston Town Hall the council's nine-member all-party health select committee posed questions collected at a well-attended public meeting held in November.

Speaking afterwards, chairman Vilma Collins said the talks were 'very, very useful and informative.'

She said: "It is clear that the Trust is making every effort to reopen it. I'm not saying I'm more convinced it will reopen - I have always believed the Trust would do everything they could to reopen it. I didn't think they would close a facility unless they had to. There is no doubt, though, that there is a national shortage of midwives."

Trust chairman John Foster said: "We had a very constructive meeting where I felt everyone concerned got their points over."

The committee plans to hold another meeting, inviting other interested bodies, before drawing up a report hopefully by the end of January.