I WAS struck by a mixture of concern and outrage to read about the proposed effective scrapping of regional development agency One North East if the Tories were to achieve power next year (Echo, Nov 4).

Concern, because it would be typical of the party’s centralising tendency and laissez faire attitude to regional development, which would undoubtedly hurt the region’s chances of investment. Not that the Tories have ever been very interested in the fate of a region they see as irreconcilably against them.

But it’s more than this – you might expect us to disagree on policy. I’m outraged because it’s more than a political stunt. In making the announcement that they would not continue with the selection of a chairman under current terms, they are clearly trying to sabotage the recruitment process of a democratically legitimate body.

Who’d apply for a job that might conceivably disappear within a few months?

The Tories are playing politics with real people and real jobs, both in One North East itself and the companies for which it helps secure investment.

Beneath the veneer of party chairman Eric Pickles’ recent charm offensive towards the region perhaps this demonstrates more accurately the Tories’ true contempt for the North-East.

Rob Marchant, contender in the Darlington Labour parliamentary candidate selection process.