COUNTY Durham will be the North-East's "poor relation'' unless a region-wide development plan is changed, a leading councillor has warned.

Ken Manton, Labour leader of Durham County Council, the region's biggest local authority, has criticised the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) produced by the North-East Assembly.

The document, which would be the masterplan for development from the Tweed to the Tees, aims to boost the regional economy and reduce the North-South divide.

But the county council and other members of the County Durham Association of Local Authorities fear its policies would channel jobs and developments to the region's biggest towns and cities, damaging their efforts to regenerate the county.

They will seek major changes to the blueprint before it goes to the Government for approval in March.

Councillor Manton described the draft strategy as "seriously flawed" because it concentrated jobs, growth and development in Tyne and Wear and Teesside.

He said: "It fails to recognise the county's potential to contribute to the economic renaissance of the region and hinders our efforts to tackle the severe problems of deprivation, which exist in large parts of the county.

"It leaves County Durham as the region's poor relation."

The council's cabinet is due to discuss the strategy today.