Q I NOTICE that signposts around Darlington say 'Darlington in the Tees Valley'. Is Tees Valley a county or should Darlington still be regarded as part of County Durham? - J Marshall, Darlington.

A A DISTINCTION should be made between the traditional, historic counties and the administrative counties. The traditional counties have retained consistent boundaries for hundreds of years, whilst administrative counties have been subjected to regular boundary changes in recent decades.

The media often defines counties according to administrative boundaries. Where new administrative councils were created with brand new names, such names were quickly adopted to define locality and despite their non-traditional nature, such names have often outlived the counties themselves.

For example, Tyne and Wear and Cleveland were created in 1974 from parts of Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire. However, they were very short-lived. Tyne and Wear was abolished in 1986 and Cleveland ceased to function as a county in 1996. Some people considered them to have rather unfortunate names.

The American writer Paul Theroux described the name Tyne and Wear as sounding like 'time and wear' - something that is worn with time. Cleveland, a county that straddled both sides of the Tees, had a more ancient name, but the real ancient Cleveland was something quite different. It was a part of Yorkshire that lay entirely south of the Tees.

Guisborough was, for example, part of this ancient region, but Hartlepool and Stockton were not. Strangely the Yorkshire town of Carlton-in-Cleveland was never included within Cleveland County Council's boundaries.

The absurdity of defining a place's identity or locality by its administrative region has become more apparent in recent years with the creation of many smaller 'unitary' administrative authorities in urban regions. The removal of Darlington and its borough from the administrative realm of Durham County Council and Darlington's elevation to unitary status has brought changes of identity.

Darlington has established close economic relationships with neighbouring unitary authorities including Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees that were formerly part of Cleveland County Council.

These authorities along with Darlington are described as the Tees Valley, but Tees Valley is not a county.

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