OUT-of-date statistics are being used to base funding decisions, it has been claimed.

Councillor John Marshall said that Hartlepool Borough Council was making decisions on statistics which may be long out of date.

He was referring to figures presented to the full council committee recently which showed Hartlepool to be one of the most deprived areas of Britain.

The figures, collated by the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, which was abolished in 2001, were used in a report about the Sure Start scheme.

Councillors were asked to consider the provision of Sure Start, which aims to provide support for toddlers and their parents in places of economic hardship.

The statistics showed the need for the town to be given more government money for Sure Start and other initiatives aimed at reducing poverty.

However it has emerged that the figures, which show that Hartlepool moved from 73rd to 25th most deprived out of 157 authorities in the UK, were based primarily on studies done in the 1990s.

Coun Marshall, who represents the Headland area, said: "It is disgraceful and is a scandal that serious decisions about money are being made on statistics which may no longer be true."

A spokesman for Hartlepool council said the figures were the most up-to-date available.

He said: "It's no secret that Hartlepool has places of high deprivation and this is one of the reasons why the town has been so successful in the past attracting regeneration money from the Government.

"The information in the document about Sure Start provides general background about deprivation going back to the 1990s and is certainly not intended to mislead anyone."