IT'S a boundary shake-up unlikely to impress anyone - which put Newcastle firmly in the middle of Yorkshire.

Exam chiefs have admitted they made an error in the positioning of Tyneside on a map included in a GCSE geography paper.

The 10cm diagram which put Newcastle south of Hartlepool also removed the Black Country from the West Midlands and positioned the M6 too far west.

Examiners claim the error - reported by a teacher - will not have affected candidates' answers.

The question set by OCR, Oxford and Cambridge and RSA examinations board, was about national parks and access to them from major urban conurbations and motorways.

An OCR spokesperson said: "On a map of the scale used in this question, exact location is often a matter of interpretation and we accept that Tyne and Wear would have been better placed 3-4mm further north.

"We would like to reassure pupils, parents and teachers that we are confident that no candidates were disadvantaged in their ability to answer the questions posed."

John Hall, a teacher at St Mary's Comprehensive in Newcastle and a representative of teaching union NAS/ UWT, said: "I think it's disappointing that this could happen and it reflects the general concern which NAS/UWT have about the large number of different exam boards which are difficult to regulate."