ALL power to the North-East newspapers’ campaign to press the Government to help the region in a new way.

In the 1960s, a drive by The Northern Echo under editor Harry Evans was called Spruce up the North-East and it helped to get pit spoil heaps cleared.

A particular target was “The Wilderness”, a desolate area between Middlesbrough’s Newport Bridge and Stockton racecourse. It is now the busy Teesside Park shopping and leisure centre. This, of course, was created nearly 30 years later by Margaret Thatcher’s Teesside Development Corporation.

Another successful newspaper campaign was in the early 1970s when the Teesside Evening Gazette joined with local councils, businesses and unions to send a trainload of people (500 I think) to London to lobby banks, embassies, Government departments and big business to locate jobs up here. The “Target Work” campaign’s successes included the go-ahead for Redcar’s steel complex, Teesside university and Barclaycard’s big office at Stockton.

It’s great that rival newspapers are joining to campaign for the region. It badly needs a lift.

Mike Morrissey, Saltburn

ARE the North-East newspapers, business leaders and politicians aware that the North-East voted a resounding no to the regionalisation of the country?

On that basis, what mandate do they have to pressure a democratically-elected UK government with their demands!

Who exactly does this rag-tag bunch of people represent?

Certainly I am at odds with most elected political parties in this area having “unionist” intentions to vote Ukip next year.

The distinct recent left-leaning of The Northern Echo ostracises those of the right of politics in this region. Only the business leaders have an important independent outlook.

If these groups are to represent the region, then the leaders of the collective group should be democratically elected by the people standing on this issue in a Police Commissioner type referendum.

If not, the campaign does not represent the people and there should be no demands made of the UK government without ordinary people’s representation.

M Anderson, Middleton St George