A COUNCIL has denied claims that it has broken a promise to spend more than £20,000 revamping a rundown seaside area.

Saltburn ward councillor Joan Sands said she was told by a Redcar and Cleveland Council officer that £23,000 had been earmarked for much-needed improvements to the flood-hit Hazelgrove area of the town.

But, she said, a few days later another officer told her that the council's executive committee had decided to spend the money elsewhere - on a sea-front facility for surfers and bathers.

The Hazelgrove area, a former park donated to the town by Lord Zetland at the start of last century, has fallen into disrepair and is in need of major work after flooding destroyed a pathway.

"It needed money spending on it," said Coun Sands. "But the next thing I know I am told: 'Oh no, you are not getting any money for the Hazelgrove area.' Instead they are spending it on a white elephant on the sea-front which looks out of place among the other buildings."

Redcar and Cleveland Council has said that no money was ever promised for the area, although officers are investigating how much restoration work would cost. Council leader David Walsh said: "Certainly there has been no money earmarked and switched because we have never had the money allocated for that.

"We have been working with the Saltburn community to try to get a scheme together to sort out what the priorities are. We know that we need to spend quite a bit of money on Hazelgrove and we are looking at ways of finding the funding."

Tony Lynn, chairman of community group Friends of Hazelgrove, said he was not aware of any money being allocated to the site. "But it does desperately need sorting out," he said. "The floods of 2000 really did a lot of damage and little work has been done to it."