THE new £4m pedestrian and cycle bridge to span one of the region's great rivers has been chosen.

However the bridge to cross the Tees at Stockton is not the design voted for by most Teessiders in a poll conducted by commissioners Tees Valley Regeneration.

Work on the new bridge between Durham University's Queen's Campus in Thornaby and the planned multi-million pound Northbank business park development is expected to begin in the new year.

Money to build the latest eye-catching North-East landmark will come from the European Union, development agency English Partnerships and regional regeneration agency One NorthEast.

The chosen design by Spence Associates came second in a recent poll of more than 4,000 Stockton people who were asked to choose from five bridges.

Bridge D was the public's favourite with 1,532 votes in a September poll but Tees Valley Regeneration chose Bridge C, second favourite with the public with 911 votes.

Peter James, director of development at Tees Valley Regeneration, explained the bridge was needed as an important part of the planned Northbank development and to enable Durham University to expand on the north side of the river. It would also simply improve links between the Princess Diana Bridge and the Tees Barrage.

Mr James said the public had played an important part in selecting the bridge but other issues including cost and engineering considerations had to be considered.

Mr James said: "The public had a strong preference for two of the designs and we chose one of them. However we had nine difference items to consider including sustainability, cost, how easy a given design was to build and it's strategic impact - while the public obviously had to base their decision solely on the picture. The third most popular design had mesh over it and, although a fantastic bridge, could not be built because children would climb on it. Those kind of considerations had to be taken into account."

One of the losing entries was designed by Wilkinson Eyre who were responsible for Tyneside's award-winning blinking eye Millennium Bridge.