ONE of the UK's worst places to live is right here in the North-East, according to TV property experts Kirstie Allsop and Phil Spencer.

Poor educational standards, high unemployment and lack of industry has placed Easington, in County Durham, firmly in the top ten of the least desirable areas - alongside Methyr Tydfil, Salford and Hackney.

The Channel Four show ranked local authorities using statistics in five categories to produce the lists.

It names Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, among the best places to live, saying that it basks in above-average sunshine of 1,680 hours per year.

But Alan Burnip, who represents Easington Colliery on Easington District Council, said it was easy to ignore the positives.

Taking issue with Allsop and Spencer - best known for presenting Location, Location, Location - he said: "We have the Dalton Park retail and shopping complex built on old colliery ruins, and if you look along our coastline, it is the jewel in our crown. We have a view to die for."

The accolade came as no surprise in Harrogate, which last year won the Europe in Bloom award.

"It's clean, it's green and it's just a lovely place to live and work," said the town's communications manager, Lynne Mee.

"It's even been called the graveyard of ambition - because when people come here they are content to stay rather than move on elsewhere."

Harrogate was ranked alongside Stratford-upon-Avon and West Oxfordshire. It was praised for having 73 per cent of its students gaining five or more A-C grade GCSEs. The equivalent for Easington is 36.7 per cent.

But it is not all doom and gloom for potential Easington homebuyers - it does concede that it is famous as the location for the Oscar-winning film Billy Elliot.

* The Best and Worst Places to Live is on Channel Four tonight at 8pm.