A BREATHTAKING blueprint to bring the European Capital of Culture to Newcastle and Gateshead in 2008 was unveiled yesterday.

The bid, which will be presented to the Government today, contains plans for an investment of more than £3bn in transport, leisure, housing and commercial development, including £350m for a permanent cultural infrastructure.

If successful, the bid would bring £700m in extra income to the region - and could create 17,000 jobs.

Beyond Imagination. A Blueprint for Change, also details more than 1,000 projects that will form part of a £100m events programme, spanning five years from 2003, and culminating across the North-East in a non-stop, year-long spectacle in 2008.

Unveiling the bid in Newcastle's Live Theatre yesterday, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative chairman Sir Ian Wrigglesworth said: "We will be the best for culture, the best for regeneration, the best for Britain and Europe. We will deliver the best legacy from the biggest European Capital of Culture bid ever made."

He added: "Although focused on Newcastle and Gateshead, it will radiate out to the whole region.

"Hundreds of thousands of people, from the under fives to the 95s, and from people without work to managing directors, will enjoy an experience that will have an impact upon the lives of the people of this region forever."

Three years in the making, the bid will be delivered to London by six young people from the region, later today.

Some projects already under development include the Baltic centre for contemporary art, Music Centre Gateshead, Grainger Town, Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Discovery Museum, Blue Carpet and the International Centre for Life.

Major new attractions expected to be completed by 2008 will include a Museum of the Landscape, which will see the Hancock Museum completely redeveloped as a gateway to the region's landscape, and a Romans Alive visitor centre, created along the lines of York's Yorvik Museum.

There are also plans to form a Great North Running Foundation and the Tyneside Cinema will be relaunched as a digital movie-making centre.

Among the cultural assets coming into being before 2008 are a centre for children's books, a much-needed 50m international swimming pool, redevelopment of Gateshead Stadium to world-class standards and Spark, a centre for under-fives in Darlington.

Festivals and events will include a European Challenge Games, a series of road running, golf and athletics events, spearheaded by long-distance runner Brendan Foster, and Eurofolkus, a celebration of music from across the globe.

The Tyne River will be teaming with river buses, boat races, water pageants, theatre and floating restaurants.

The other contenders

Also bidding for European Capital of Culture 2008 are:

Belfast: Has the backing of George Best and Kenneth Branagh, but lacks world-class theatre, opera or ballet company.

Birmingham: Has transformed cultural life with injection of £142m.

Bradford: Boasts Britain's second largest annual arts festival after Edinburgh.

Bristol: Claims a strong arts and music scene.

Canterbury: Boasts lots of heritage and architecture.

Cardiff: Europe's fastest-growing city and has a Millennium Stadium.

Inverness: Christian heritage could be a draw.

Liverpool: Strong contender with musical heritage, as well as visual arts and literature.

Milton Keynes: Rank outsider, described in some quarters as a cultural desert.

Norwich: Boasts Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Oxford: Has academic history and prides itself on arts and culture.

THE North-East's European Capital of Culture bid was given a rousing send off yesterday.

MP David Clelland, whose Tyne Bridge constituency spans both Newcastle and Gateshead, toasted a new ale yesterday, named after a symbol of the North-East.

Angel Ale is the latest beer to join the portfolio of another familiar North-East name, the Federation Brewery, at Dunston, Gateshead.

It takes its name from the now familiar landmark on the approach to Tyneside, Antony Gormley's Angel of the North sculpture.

Mr Clelland was among the guests at the launch of the new beer, suitably staged at Gateshead's Angel View Inn, in the shadow of the Angel of the North.

The Mayor of Gateshead, Councillor Joe Hattam, took the first drink of the bottled premium ale, and backed it to become another popular Federation brand.

The 4.7 per cent brewbears a similar golden colour to Antony Gormley's "rusty steel" angel.

Like other Federation beers, it will be available in the bars of the House of Commons, and therefore will be drunk by Department of Media, Culture and Heritage members who will decide the winner of the culture capital bid.