Sir, — This week's news that Darlington will be included in the new Tees Valley Combined Authority could provide much needed funding for the town.

However, the consultation process does seem to have been slightly flawed. With a total population for the new authority (Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, Darlington and Hartlepool) of nearly 700,000, I am surprised that a consultation survey which produced only 1,900 replies (1,235 in favour) should be sufficient to bring about this important change to the region. A response of 0.2 per cent would indicate that 99.8 per cent were not consulted.

Despite these misgivings Darlington does need any funds available as the local council has proved incapable of attracting sufficient monies for all its schemes which has led to an increase in the town's debts over the past 20 years to nearly £200m plus interest payments.

Only last week we were informed of the new estimate for the building of the Beaumont Street multi-storey car park. The original idea was for the car park to be paid for by the developers but in 2012/2013 the council agreed to pay and made a guess the cost would be £6m – this increased in 2013 and again in 2014 and now stands at £8m-plus. We need more than guesswork to attract government funds.

The initial cost to the council tax payer for this new authority (to cover office expenses, allowances etc) has not yet been supplied but I note that the initial intent is for this Unelected Combined Authority to comprise just the Leader of the Council from each town.

We can only hope that this will not be just another quango and that democracy will prevail to eventually allow input from representatives of all the elected council members.

JEAN JONES

Darlington.