THE North-East should be very proud of talented young people like Caroline Saxby. It should be investing in their talent and recognising their ambassadorial value.

Caroline, one of the region's sports stars put on a pedestal at The Northern Echo's Local Heroes Awards, is aiming at Olympic glory in Athens in 2004. It has been her dream for the past five years.

Having already reached the final of the Commonwealth Games in the 800 metres freestyle, she has already proved herself to be a world-class swimmer and brought enormous credit to the North-East.

But to reach her full potential, she needs the highest level of support. Sadly, it appears that the region is unable to provide it.

The £19,000-a-year post of Caroline's coach Gary Hollywood is one of 14 due to be axed at a Wear Valley District Council budget meeting today as leisure and arts bear the brunt of the authority's cuts totalling nearly £500,000.

Caroline's "shattering" disappointment follows a recent outburst from another North-East champion, Susan Rolph, after the Sydney Olympics when she said a lack of Olympic-sized pools in the region was a handicap to her success.

We recognise that local authorities have a difficult task in balancing budgets and that everyone has different priorities. We also recognise that central government has a duty to support our sportsmen and women in their pursuit of glory.

We can only hope that everything possible will be done at both local and national levels to find ways to help our sporting champions see their dreams become a reality.

Win some...

ON the subject of local heroes, our congratulations are due to Durham's Paul Collingwood for his increasingly influential role in England's World Cup progress.

His unbeaten 66 off 73 balls against Pakistan in Cape Town yesterday underlined Collingwood's growing maturity.

And as a Sunderland supporter, it must have also provided some personal consolation after a weekend of bitter sporting disappointment back home in the North-East.