FOR two decades, the North-East has burned with a feeling of injustice about the Barnett Formula.

Scotland is better off than this region, yet it gets more central Government spending due to a formula which was drawn up in the dying days of the Labour government of the late Seventies with the intention of bribing the Scots into dropping their demands for greater devolution.

It felt unfair.

Today we have the first absolute, bricksand- mortar, proof of that unfairness.

The formula decrees that should there be a major public investment in transport infrastructure in England, then Scotland will get one as well.

In England, £16bn is being spent on Crossrail, a new underground link beneath London.

So, Scotland has to get proportionate expenditure: £500m is going towards a new bridge over the Forth – a £2.3bn project that without the Barnett Formula would not be going ahead.

Spending in London triggers spending in Scotland, and the North-East misses out.

This is even more unfair because of the state of our transport infrastructure. The Tees Valley has just lost its airlink to the capital, while the East Coast main railway line is becoming increasingly crowded and worryingly expensive (if last night you booked to get into London today before 10am and return home this evening the cost would be £243.50). The A1 is a congested dual carriageway through County Durham and a dangerous single track north of Newcastle.

This is without mentioning the transport schemes planned to open up the deprived areas of east Durham and Teesside.

How the North-East could do with its fair share of that money.

The Scots are getting historic favours from this formula to the detriment of this region.

The formula must be reformed to bring fairness into the equation.