THE people of East Cleveland have lost out on up to £20m in the past ten years because the Government got its figures wrong, it was claimed yesterday.

Now Redcar and Cleveland Council leader David Walsh has called on Gordon Brown to come to Eston Town Hall with a massive back-dated cheque for the borough.

The 2001 census has shown that the Government underestimated the population of East Cleveland by 2,700 people.

Population is one of the main parts of a formula used by the Government to work out how much money to grant councils each year.

Financial staff at Redcar and Cleveland have made a rough calculation that up to £20m could have been lost to the people of the area.

Mr Walsh said: "It would be very nice if Gordon Brown called with a fat cheque back-dated for ten years, but it is extremely doubtful that that will happen. However, I would hope that the new population figures will give us a very good chance of receiving more help from the Government ahead of next year's budget as long as they don't change the goal posts again."

A spokesman for the Government Office for the North-East confirmed the people of Redcar and East Cleveland would not receive any back-dated money. He said: "We will be considering the implications of the new population data alongside all of the other issues as we operate the new grant distribution system. We have already guaranteed that no authority will get less grant next year.

"We have to use the best estimates available at any given time. We cannot act retrospectively to reallocate money that has already been spent."

The census revealed that 139,100 people are living in the borough, although the Government's Register General put the figure at 136,400.

Statisticians use the census as a starting point to work out populations in the ten years between each count.