A BUSINESSMAN and artist who has continued a 1,300 year tradition of glass-making in the region is quitting Sunderland's £16m National Glass Centre in protest.

Roger Tye is to remove his business from the centre after claiming directors wanted to create their own rival glassmakers in order to be eligible for European cash.

The glass artist will relocate his business to the banks of the River Wear in Durham City.

He said: "There's a whole range of issues here but one thing is they were supposed to help glass businesses across the country, not compete with them. At one point they even suggested I close down my business and just work for them. Other problems we've had concern health and safety issues and declining visitor numbers."

But Jules Preston, National Glass Centre chief executive, denied visitor numbers were falling. He said the figure had been steady for the past 18 months, with an average of about 65,000 visitors a year.

He said sales from the centre's shop were up by ten per cent.

He said: "Everybody knows the glass centre has had financial difficulties but we hope our plans will put an end to that although I'm not at liberty to discuss them at this stage. I can say we've been working on plans to utilise space and we hope to have more artists and more different things for people to see."

Glassmaking was first begun in Sunderland in 674AD by Benedictine Biscop, who was searching for stained glass for the Monastery of St Peter's at Monkwearmouth.

The trade continued until the last glassblowers were made redundant in December 1997. But it began again with the opening of the glass centre the following year.