THE organisation that promotes Hadrian’s Wall as a tourist attraction – once delivering a £3m economic boost from a single event – faces the axe because of Government cuts.

The likely fate of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Limited is the starkest evidence yet of the impact of scrapping development agency One North East, a process to start within weeks.

Agency bosses have been ordered to draw up disposal plans for its £180m of assets – business parks, industrial estates, former collieries, a stately home and part-owned organisations – amid growing fears of a “fire sale”.

Ministers have slapped a secrecy order on One North East’s assets and liabilities plan, but a copy was leaked.

The secret plan – seen by The Northern Echo – has warned of an “orderly wind-down” of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage if a £1.2m funding gap is not plugged.

Last summer, the organisation won widespread praise for staging an 84-mile line of light along the landmark, estimated to have generated £3m.

The threats to the organisation were condemned by Tom Blenkinsop, the MP for Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East, who said: “The Government uses the language of encouraging tourism in the North-East – but its policies are clearly destroying it.”

To add to the controversy, the Department for Business , Innovation and Skills has said it will start the disposal process next month – even though the development agency is not due to be dismantled until next March.

The 82-page assets plan includes the following recommendations for specific sites: 􀁥 Middlehaven, Middlesbrough – transfer to Homes and Communities Agency (HCA); 􀁥 Old Shire Hall, Durham City – sale at market value; 􀁥 Former Durham Ice Rink, Durham City – open market sale; 􀁥 Evans Incubator centre, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham – sale at market value; 􀁥 Belmont Business Park, Durham City – sale to Durham County Council; 􀁥 Imperial Park, Middlesbrough – sale at market value.

Of 48 land and building assets, 13 would be transferred to local authorities, to ensure their development before sale, with a further 15 sold directly to councils. Ten would be sold.

Crucially, the plan made this plea: “The agency will be seeking written agreement from the Department for Communities and Local Government/ HCA that proceeds received by them under this solution will be utilised for the economic development and regeneration of the North-East.”

However, suspicions that assets will be sold to fill Treasury coffers grew after ministers admitted their aim was to “maximise receipts to departments”

and help with “national deficit reduction”