OF ALL the natural phenomena threatening the very structure of the region's famous landmarks one stands out as particularly unsavoury.

For our most famous landmark of all, the Tyne Bridge, has been corroded by the build up of ten years of bird droppings and animal corpses.

So much so that £45,000 of tax-payers money is to be spent on installing wire meshing to prevent birds from re-inhabiting the bridge.

When you consider that the average bird desposits 14kg of droppings every year most tax-payers in Newcastle and Gateshead probably won't begrude the cash hand-out to preserve their bridge.

But the Tyne Bridge isn't the only famous landmark with serious structural problems.

The North-East landmark currently in most serious trouble is the 900-year-old Durham Castle which experts estimate needs between £3m and £4m spent on restoration work. The castle has been placed on English Heritage's 'At Risk' register as a result of decay to its sandstone.

And management at The Grade I listed building have struggled to raise that cash. Yesterday director of development at the college Scott Hayter reiterated a plea for help to save the world heritage site.

Staff at the even more famous neighbouring Durham Cathedral constantly have to find money for to fund never-ending renovation work also soft sandstone battered by the North-East weather. A tower was closed in recent years and renovation work is currently on-going at the Nine Altars Chapel. Structural improvements to the north and west towers are planned in the future.

But an altogether more modern North-East landmark lasted for a much shorter period than the cathedral before structural restoration was needed.

The Transporter Bridge in Teesside, thankfully now repaired, had to be closed for two years while cracks to the bridge itself and broken rails which supported the passenger gondolier were repaired. An estimated 100,000 motorists and 30,000 pedestrians a year were unable to use the historically important bridge at all until last year.

It isn't nature but the very man-made problem of 180,000 tourists constantly tramping up and down North Yorkshire town Whitby's 199 church steps - famously ascended by Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel - which has led to church wardens threatening to close them down unless they receive council money for their upkeep.

Given all that perhaps the makers of the North-East's latest outstanding public work of art, the decidedly rusty Angel of the North, were simply being wise when they maintained that its life would remain, strictly, limited.