OPPOSITION members may complain to the district auditor over Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's decision to spend £10,000 promoting Yorkshire.

The council dropped associations with the former Northumbria Tourist Board and joined forces with the Yorkshire Tourist Board in April.

Last year, it voted to include Yorkshire as part of its address and to recognise the borough as part of Yorkshire for all cultural, ceremonial and sporting purposes.

Now, the council is to participate in the Yorkshire Festival, held on the weekend of Saturday, July 31, and Sunday, August 1, the official Yorkshire Day.

It also plans to promote the council's affiliation to the County of Yorkshire through a series of cultural events and promotional activities, largely centred on Redcar.

Labour opposition councillors say the £10,000 cost of this should be spent on improvments for local residents and are considering referring the matter to the district auditor for investigation.

Labour councillor Mark Hannon said: "An awful lot of time and effort is being spent by Tees Valley regeneration officers, part-funded by this council, to promote the Tees Valley and the North-East to attract jobs and investment we need.

"This work is undermined by the cabinet wanting to import long-gone traditions from the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

"The only alleged Yorkshire tradition the coalition is really following is tight-fistedness - cutting the children's play provision programme, increasing costs of concessionary travel for pensioners and putting up council tax."

Labour leader George Dunning said: "We won't stand by and see people's money wasted when there are so many deserving alternatives in Redcar and Cleveland."

But Coun Dave Fitzpatrick, cabinet member for culture, leisure and tourism, said the council had endeavoured to keep a foot in both the Tees Valley and Yorkshire camps and said that the move would benefit the area by bringing in more tourists.

"Shopkeepers, especially in Redcar, are complaining about a lack of business," he said. "It will give them a good injection of cash if we can promote the festival successfully.

"If we can bring in a few thousand more visitors to the area, the £10,000 will be a drop in the ocean."