TRANSPORT Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has refused to intervene to secure Tees Valley a seat in a key new organisation

Critics of the area’s exclusion from Transport for the North – set up to create a “world-class, integrated transport network” – warn it will be shut out of vital decisions and funding.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald protested that Tees Valley would be “at the mercy of whatever the self-styled core cities of Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield Liverpool and Newcastle decide”.

In reply, junior transport minister John Hayes agreed to press Mr McLoughlin on adding Tees Valley, saying: “I know he is sympathetic to it and I think that we should go ahead with it speedily.”

But, quizzed by The Northern Echo, the department for transport (DfT) has insisted it plays no part in the membership of the organisation, established last month.

The stance comes despite Mr McLoughlin personally announcing he was setting up Transport for the North (TfN), in response to a call by Sir David Higgins, the chairman of HS2.

Speaking last October, the Transport Secretary said it would consist of “the main Northern city regions” and described it as a “Government-led strategy”.

But the DfT has now insisted: “Governance and membership of the group is a matter for the Northern authorities, but it must be practical and inclusive?.”

Transport for the North echoed the implication that having too many members would be unwieldy, pointing to “tight timescales for preparation of an interim report in March 2015”.

During last week’s debate, Mr McDonald warned Tees Valley’s long history of being starved of transport funds – for faster rail services, new train carriages and a new road bridge – would be repeated.

And he told ministers: “Tees Valley is in danger of having little or no say in the transport infrastructure plans.”