THE bare facts are impressive. More than 12,000 jobs were created by the TDC.

Some £1.1bn of private sector investment was also attracted during its reign to parts of the region battered by industrial decline.

And 1,300 acres of wasted, derelict land were brought back into constructive use.

But behind the headlines, the suspicion always lingered that the corporation was playing fast and loose with public money and "flying a kite" for some projects that never made it off the ground.

Nevertheless, even its harshest critics, among them MPs and the local councils over whose heads it went, are forced to recognise its legacy.

Developments, such as the revamped Hartlepool Marina and Quay and Teesside Retail and Leisure Park, brought renewed vitality and hope with them.

The TDC was behind Middlesbrough Football Club's move to the £16m Riverside Stadium on the banks of the Tees.

An upfront commercial approach to regeneration - less formally known as "letting the market rip" - also led to the creation of the University of Durham Queen's Campus at Stockton, complete with new housing and offices.

Other successful projects included the £54m Tees Barrage and a multi-million pound offshore base for the oil and gas industries at the old Smith's Dock, in Middlesbrough.

With its gung-ho attitude, made possible by limited public accountability, there were always likely to be some failures though.

A number of high-profile schemes simply stalled or never got out of first gear.

The £100m Middlehaven project, a proposed mix of leisure, housing and offices in Middlesbrough's docklands, was championed by the TDC, but has been a stop-start affair.

A proposed Asda hypermarket has been the subject of legal wrangles and was called in for inquiry by the Government earlier this year.

The lack of progress meant no cash was available to pay for an international Tall Ships Centre, which would have been the centrepiece of the development, but went sailing down the river.

Government organisations, the local council and development partners have been trying frantically to pick up the pieces ever since.

Other failures included a plan to bring the Imperial War Museum to Hartlepool and projects for a £100m "energy" park, a £10m ten-storey glass pyramid shaped hotel, and a shopping galleria and bridge over the River Tees.

Local authority opposition also led to the dropping of a £20m motor circuit plan at Cargo Fleet.

Opponents of the TDC said some of its grand visions failed to address the urgent needs of inner city areas and manufacturing industry.

It was also accused of riding roughshod over anyone who stood in its way with the sweeping land use and planning permission powers it was granted by the Government.

And things didn't come cheap. More than £462m of public money was spent, which equated to almost £38,000 for every job created during its ten-year life

The losses also piled up to some £40m, with many multi-million pound deals going ahead without official sanction.

Ultimately, the costs to the tax payer were an additional £13m and a deficit of £23m. Not so impressive bare facts