A COUNCIL has been accused of wasting £2,000 of tax-payers' money on a "pointless" advert for a new multi-million pound property development.

Hartlepool Borough Council has also been criticised for not drawing up its own plans for the housing and public amenity building scheme in Seaton Carew before placing the advert.

However, councillors are hopeful the plan will help to raise cash to dramatically improve the town.

The authority spent £2,000 in national property development magazine The Estates Gazette inviting housebuilders to create seafront homes in a multi-million pound scheme.

Builders were asked to come up with their own ideas.

The council has identified three areas of land it owns - including the old fairground site - that it wants to sell for housing.

The money would be used to help regenerate Seaton Carew with community facilities and sea defences as Government money dries up.

Councillor Ray Wells, member of the council's contract scrutiny committee with a business background in property development, was critical of the way the authority had handled the plan so far.

Pointing to the fact that the only expressions of interest had come from North-East companies anyway, he said the advert had been "a waste".

He also said the authority should not ask developers to come up with their own plans but that the council should be clear about what it wanted before tendering.

Coun Wells said: "I brought this up in the committee because I didn't feel we needed to spend money that we certainly don't have. It was a waste. A single press release would have sufficed.

"We're asking companies to come up with ideas to develop the site. It's the wrong way round. We should work out what's in the best interests of the people of Seaton Carew and come up with our own plan."

A Hartlepool council spokesman said: "There are three council-owned sites in Seaton Carew that could be brought forward for development - land at the junction of Coronation Drive/Warrior Drive, land in Elizabeth Way and the old fairground site.

"This is potentially a multimillion pound scheme that could unlock finance for the wider regeneration of Seaton Carew and we were keen to spread the net as widely as possible.

"We subsequently received seven responses and these are currently being evaluated."