IT is worrying that three of the North- East's cities are languishing at the bottom of a national survey measuring economic growth.

Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough are in the bottom five of the list, which has been produced through the Institute for Public Policy Research.

There have been exciting developments in those cities, but the pace of improvement is not good enough, according to the independent think tank that acts as a key advisor to the Government.

It has been wonderful to see new attractions such as the Sage music centre and Baltic modern art gallery on Tyneside, the Winter Gardens in Sunderland, and the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

But the North-East must keep pushing forward to ensure that the sense of momentum in the region isn't lost.

And if the producers of the survey are to pass on any advice to the Government, perhaps it will be that the North-East is more than capable of realising its potential as long as it is allowed to do so.

The proposed watering down of the ambitious Regional Spatial Strategy is something The Northern Echo is striving to highlight.

The Government's plans to redraft the strategy threaten several of the region's flagship job creation projects - including the expansion of Teesport and the science and technology NetPark development in Sedgefield, County Durham.

Plans to sort out the region's transport infrastructure, with improvements to the A1 and A66, the airports and passenger transport are also under threat. We hope the Government gets the message.