PEOPLE across the region have reacted strongly to news that The Northern Echo has been banned from organising a campaign to encourage youngsters in sport.

The newspaper was forced to drop its Olympic Dream campaign after it was told it could be prosecuted for using the Olympic logo or any other associated words or symbols.

The campaign, which had won national support, aimed to raise funds for talented youngsters through the sports charity Sports Aid.

It was hoped to identify talented youngsters and promote their achievements to secure funding for training and development.

Last night, Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon, said the campaign would have helped improve crime figures, as well as health.

He said: "Tackling anti- social behaviour has to be the top of this country's agenda and sport can play a vital role in combating crime.

"It is also crucial in the fight to improve national health, and the Olympic movement surely has to show more flexibility than it has done so far in terms of the Northern Echo's campaign."

The 2012 organising committee has said nobody is being allowed to use the Olympic symbols, to protect its commercial rights.

Keith Cotgrave, headteacher of Longfield School, in Darlington, a specialist sports college, said the decision was disappointing.

He said: "The Northern Echo has got a long history of running successful campaigns, and anything that would have helped the young people of the North-East would have been extremely welcome."

Robin Rutherford, the chairman of the Darlington Harriers athletics club, said: "The Olympics has changed. It's in a commercial world and its become a commercial situation.

"There's a lot of red tape now and they have made it very difficult.

"Even lottery funding is difficult to get - you have to tick all the right boxes and the boxes change shape every year."

However, Max Coleby, a former Great Britain marathon runner who now works helping to organise the Great North Walk said he sympathised with the organising committee.

He said: "There has got to be millions of people wanting to latch on the back of the Olympics.

"Even a large organisation like the Olympic committee has limited resources and they just don't have the resources to check every single application."