PIERCEBRIDGE will continue to have a foothold on both sides of the River Tees - to the chagrin of purists who want a North Yorkshire road reinstated as part of Cliffe.

Brian Jefferson, who lives on the Darlington side, had high hopes that his views would prevail when he saw highway engineers take down the old sign during recent improvement works.

He had written to North Yorkshire highways authority in April pointing out that the stretch of road running south of the river alongside the George Hotel was actually marked Cliffe on maps.

"Now I accept that Cliffe does not have much in the way of habitations, but there are a number along the B6275 and adjacent to Cliffe Hall," said Mr Jefferson.

He maintains the George ought to be described being in Cliffe, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, and its postal town should be Richmond not Darlington.

"The Richmondshire part of Piercebridge pays taxes to Richmondshire, not Darlington as the northern - true - village of Piercebridge does. Children south of the river go to Richmondshire schools, not Darlington or Durham.

"The MP south of the river is different from the one who serves people north.

"So why is the quarter of a mile or so of the B6275 road south of the river in Cliffe titled Piercebridge?"

A sign for people travelling north from Scotch Corner proclaims they have entered Piercebridge before the bend at Blue Bell Cottage. The road passes the George Hotel, swings right on to the bridge over the river - and only when it is half way over the bridge does it enter Darlington and the village of Piercebridge.

"Maybe it has been customary to term the Cliffe part of the road, past the George Hotel, as Piercebridge for so long that by default it has assumed that name in perpetuity," he went on. "Maybe it is time to correct the misnomer."

He wondered whether there were documents showing the land from the bridge boundary to beyond Blue Bell Cottage had been handed over to Richmondshire or North Yorkshire to form the curtilage of Piercebridge.

If that was the case, it meant the same village was in two different counties, dioceses, parliamentary areas, parishes and district areas.

That also applied to police forces, refuse collection services, vicars, bishops, MPs, Euro-MPs, medical services, road de-icing gangs and school systems.

"It all seems to be a crazy situation and could be solved so easily," he went on. "The Piercebridge sign in Richmondshire could be changed to Cliffe and Darlington could place a Piercebridge sign on its stanchion poles on the northern side of the river."

Alas, Mr Jefferson's hopes have been dashed by Manfield with Cliffe Parish Council.

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire County Council said: "There has been some traffic calming measures along the road during which the existing name place was taken down.

"Highways had heard from Mr Jefferson and had decided to change the name plate. First they wrote to the parish council asking if it was happy if they replaced the old sign with another saying Piercebridge.

"Unfortunately, they agreed, saying there was no such village as Cliffe anyway, so the new sign is still going to read Piercebridge.