Government inspectors have been challenged to go back to school - to learn how to spell.

The reproach to red-faced Whitehall officials follows the award of Beacon status to Middlesbrough for its work in cutting crime.

The assessors' report, recommending the award, is littered with spelling errors.

Councillor Hazel Pearson, leader of Middlesbrough Council's opposition Tory group, said that civil servants in Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's office should take a crash course in spelling.

The report consistently misspells Middlesbrough as Middlesborough. It gets the name of the mayor, Ray Mallon, wrong, calling him Mallan, and also refers to the former detective superintendent as an ex-detective inspector.

The town is described as being "streaks ahead" rather than "streets ahead" of everyone else.

Although the howlers do not appear on the Government's official website or follow up glossy publication, they pepper the inspectors' actual score sheet, a copy of which has been passed to The Northern Echo.

Coun Pearson said: "I would suggest they come into our local education authority schools and have lessons in spelling.

"It's deplorable they write a report and make so many mistakes."

An embarrassed Government spokesman said: "I am not trying to excuse the spelling mistakes: it would have been better if in the draft form (of the report) they would have been correct, but we would not want them to detract from Middlesbrough's achievement.

"It was an administrative issue, a first draft report which was due for editing and it was tidied up. We would certainly make sure things are corrected before they are released into the public domain."