A ONE-MAN protest over the cultural identity of Redcar sparked off heated debates between townsfolk yesterday.

Barry Gorman triggered the discussions after standing in the middle of the High Street with a banner declaring 'Teessiders Support the Boro, Not the Yorkshire Separatist Mafia'.

The 51-year-old from Redcar said that he staged his protest over concerns that a group of councillors on Redcar and Cleveland Council may succeed in preventing the district from participating in any North-East regional assembly.

The council's Tory group recently tabled a motion that the district rule itself out from joining a proposed North-East assembly. The motion was defeated, mainly by Labour councillors.

Meanwhile the Independents have said the area would be better off under Yorkshire, even though the district has been part of Cleveland since 1974.

Mr Gorman said: "It is worrying that we could be excluded from a North-East assembly.

"If that happened we could lose out big-time with the rest of the region running themselves and us still dictated to by London.

"The other thing is the whole of the Cleveland council south of the Tees would lose its distinct identity if it became part of Yorkshire again.

"It would be a remote area as far as Leeds would be concerned. We need to develop the idea of a city of Teesside."

Several people engaged in debate with Mr Gorman, one middle-aged lady saying: "I was born in Yorkshire, why do they want to mess about with it?"

However one group of younger men, some wearing Middlesbrough Football Club colours, agreed the town and district should maintain its current identity.