PROVISIONAL updated figures for teenage pregnancies in Darlington suggest that rates have dropped below five per cent.

However, one councillor has questioned the amount of resources used for what she described as "frustrating progress".

A joint meeting of Darlington Borough Council's health and well being scrutiny committee and the children and young people group discussed a number of health factors among youngsters.

As well as teenage conception rates, they included child obesity, smoking, under-age drinking, hospital admissions and disabled services.

Miriam Davidson, director of public health in Darlington, said the town still had higher than national averages for teenage conception. Figures show there were 53 conceptions per 1,000 15 to 17year-olds, compared to 41.2 nationally.

However, she felt "encouraged" that provisional data for 2009 revealed that the rate was down to about 50 per 1,000.

Councillor Heather Scott said the rates had been discussed by the council for 15 years.

"We are making progress but it's slow progress. We are putting lots of resources into it. The frustration is that we are not making the progress that we wanted to, " she said.

Councillors heard that a number of programmes were in place to reduce the rate, with staff also in place in Darlington College and Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

Officers also reported that the number of teenagers sexually active was lower than perceived - a similar report was made about the number of under-age drinkers.