Council chiefs enjoyed a slap-up Christmas dinner at a hotel complex - before telling managers they were closing it down and throwing 40 people on the dole, it was revealed last night.

Officials dressed in paper hats tucked into turkey with all the trimmings, waited on by the staff who were about to lose their jobs.

After finishing their meal, two members of the council party met the centre's management.

They thought they were about to he congratulated for putting on a splendid spread.

But they were informed the council would not be coming up with funding to keep a the complex open and they would be out of a job two days after the new year.

This week, it was announced the Training Advice Development (TAD) Centre in Middlesbrough is to close.

The centre's managing director, Paul Morrison, was so outraged that he penned an open letter to Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon, complaining about they way it was handled.

He wrote: "In my opinion there has been an appalling lack of effort by managers. At least they took their paper hats off before seeing us."

The lunch took place on December 20 but news of the job losses only emerged yesterday.

Increased funding from the council was the last hope for the centre, which was opened in the town's Berwick Hills estate in September 1994 by Will Carling, the then skipper of the England rugby team.

It was opened as a joint enterprise between Teesside Training and Enterprise Council, Middlesbrough Council and City Challenge, receiving a £4.3m start-up grant.

A council spokesman said the authority had not given up on saving some of the jobs. "We shall be meeting with the liquidator to assess future uses for the building and identify elements of the business that may have a viable future," he said.

However, he cautioned that council finance officers believed that the centre in its existing form was not viable in the long term.