A DECISION to showcase a redevelopment plan that includes the demolition of 1,000 houses as a "perfect example'' of how to improve life for communities, has sparked anger.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's multi-million pound regeneration of the greater Eston area is being presented to more than 2,000 delegates at a Local Government Association conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, this week.

Council chief executive Colin Moore said: "We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the featured councils.

"We believe the work we are doing in the greater Eston area is a perfect example of how local government can improve life in local communities.''

Housewife Eunice Smith is a spokeswoman for hundreds of South Bank residents opposed to council plans to bulldoze more than 1,000 houses.

She said: "The council are not working with us, they are dumping us in the swamp; they are leaving us with nowhere to live.

"There are more people against this than are for it. It is a perfect example of local government not doing anything for us.''

Like-minded resident Sheila Mack, who helped organise a recent protest meeting, said: "They are not working with the local community and it is all wrong to say that they are.

"Half of the council don't live in South Bank and they don't know South Bank people. How can they say they are working with the community when they want to knock our houses down?''

The council is the only one in the North-East to be featured at the conference among five other councils.

Delegates will see a film showing how the vision for greater Eston co-ordinates housing renewal with new investment in health, education, leisure and retail services.

Residents, partners, including the Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust and developer Broseley Homes, are featured in the film, as well as council officers.

Dr Joan Rees, the council's director of planning, told residents at a recent public meeting that no investor was interested in building new homes at South Bank, that the community's future lay in the building of 900 new homes close by.

* Mr Moore is also to speak at the conference on the council becoming the first in the North-East to successfully implement an equal pay agreement.