EAST Cleveland should be back in Yorkshire, an Independent councillor is claiming.

Coun Steve Kay feels Redcar and Cleveland has been plunged into an identity crisis through a "contemptuous denial of geographical and cultural facts".

His comments came after roadside boundary signs were erected at Newton under Roseberry, Scaling Dam and Cowbar, welcoming people to Redcar and Cleveland in the Tees Valley.

"Apart from it being an inaccurate description of our borough, the Tees Valley reference insults those of us who prefer to be identified with Yorkshire," he said this week.

"At least two-thirds of the borough is outside the Tees Valley. Half its population does not live in the valley and heartily rejects the Teesside label.

"Guisborough has a range of hills between it and the Tees, while there are two ranges of hills between East Cleveland and the Tees. By no stretch of the imagination can any of these places be described as being in the Tees Valley."

He said villages such as Moorsholm, Lingdale and Stanghow were nearer the River Esk than Tees, and would prefer to be associated with it.

"I wouldn't deny South Bank and Grangetown are in the Tees Valley, but Redcar and Cleveland Council is obsessed with those places. It should never be allowed to call us all Teessiders."

The council should remove the new signs, he suggested.

"In my opinion, Redcar and Cleveland should be described as a borough of Yorkshire. This would be a more accurate description and overwhelmingly acceptable to the majority of the people."

Meanwhile, Coun David Walsh, Labour leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, has called on residents to back North-East home rule and move on from their Yorkshire heritage.

He said: "The reality is we have a common identity and social and economic heritage, and we should be concentrating on common ambitions. We should take pride in where we are from and pull together, not dream of being part of some Narnia over the hills."

Opposition councillors want the borough to stay out of a regional assembly. The council's Conservative group recently submitted a motion demanding the borough refrain from joining a regional assembly.

The East Cleveland Independents want council correspondence to carry a Yorkshire address rather than Cleveland