A GREAT deal of time and thought is going into creating a vision for the section of our region now known as "the Tees Valley".

How do we help the area find a new identity, replace lost jobs, improve the environment, tackle poor health, generate new wealth and nurture an enterprising, creative culture?

It is a project which is extremely important and one which this newspaper actively supports.

But the demise of the £9.5m Arc arts centre in Stockton - the full details of which are revealed in The Northern Echo today - makes depressing reading.

A report produced for the Arts Council points to poor management and planning and the result is, as one source put it, "an unholy mess".

Clearly, the Arc could not go on making huge losses and its future is in the balance.

Coupled with the decision to close the Forum at Billingham, it spells desperately bad news for the arts on Teesside while, only a few miles down the road at Darlington - at the other end of the Tees Valley - a theatre and arts centre are both managing to thrive.

We hope that a way can be found to stop the Arc building from being completely lost to the community.

And, in the longer term, we hope that urgent steps are taken to produce a coherent strategy for the arts as a crucial part of the vision for the Tees Valley.

The meaning of charity

TOO often, newspapers are dominated by reports of acts which highlight the worst aspects of human nature.

But it is important to remember that displays of human kindness and selflessness are also all around us.

Today, our front page features a story about an elderly woman who handed an envelope containing £2,000 in £20 notes to volunteers collecting for the British Legion Poppy Appeal.

She sought no public acknowledgement of her generosity and we do not know her name. But she has personified the true spirit of the poppy appeal