A GOVERNMENT agency is being challenged to go public on the extent and reasons for river bank erosion at a Teesside town.

Worried residents of Yarm point the finger of suspicion at the £50m Tees Barrage built at Stockton in 1994, which turned what had been a tidal stretch of the river into a lake, permanently pegged at the high water mark.

Stockton borough councillors Brian Jones and Marjorie Simpson claim physical measures taken by Northumbrian Water to prevent erosion are in a very poor state of repair while the Environment Agency and British Waterways are "sweeping the matter under the carpet".

The Northern Echo has seen a summary of a consultant's report following 11 years of monitoring the banks.

The report says: "To date, the monitoring has not highlighted any movement which could be deemed to be over and above the natural regression and erosion of a river bank."

River manager Alan Slater said: "People have to take into consideration the climatic changes we have gone through in the past seven years, the frequency and volume of floods. All these things create scour.

"The fact has been the size of the floods we have had in the past seven years, which have affected the river from top to toe - not just the areas above the barrage."

Coun Jones said: "Surely, from a public relations perspective, such a large organisation as this would see it as a duty to produce this data.

"If they made this data available to the borough council we could have our officers validate it.

"Having done that we could address questions to them which, hopefully, they may be able to answer. Following on from that, it would be of great benefit to hold a public meeting."

He said: "I would be more than happy to arrange a public meeting where their officers and all those who have concerns may be able to address those concerns and, hopefully, allay fears or lay out a blue print as to what can be done.''

An Environment Agency spokesman said the owner of the river bank had responsibility for maintaining the bed and banks of the watercourse, the agency only becoming involved in combating erosion if it threatened flood defences