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BYLINE: BY SANDY MCKENZIE

SECTION: NEWS LOCAL; Pg. 10

LENGTH: 230 words

Debate continues to rage over Redcar and Cleveland Council's decision to identify itself more closely with Yorkshire.

Labour opposition councillors in the authority want the public consulted on the issue.
But a leading member of the coalition administration in the Eston Town Hall, Chris Abbott, says a referendum could cost pounds 60,000.

This week Councillor Abbott said: "There was a referendum on May 1 - the council elections.

"Both political groups and all the independents who formed the coalition that now controls the council included using Yorkshire as our postal address in their manifestos. Labour didn't and they lost."

He said that in the late 1980s two referendums were held in Loftus and Guisborough. Both backed the Yorkshire connection and in Guisborough the vote was 4,950 to 853 in favour of Yorkshire.

But Councillor George Dunning, leader of the Labour group, accused the coalition of not wanting to consult on anything - saying the way it had pulled out of the road safety committees was an example.

He said there were other ways of consulting without a full-blown referendum costing pounds 60,000.

"My own view is that I am a Teesside person and I will always align myself with Teesside and the Tees Valley area. What the coalition is doing is sending out all the wrong messages to the rest of the Teesside area," he said.