IT is disappointing that the Passionate People, Passionate Places advertising campaign has been frozen.

It was run by One North East, the regional development agency, and it worked.

It bolstered the region’s image both externally and internally, telling those on the outside that there is far more to the North- East than its old industry and reminding those of us who live here how fortunate we are.

In a perfect world, this campaign would continue. Tourism is a vital industry. It is the region’s fourth biggest. It generates £4bn a year, creates 89,000 jobs and supports at least 7,000 small and mediumsized businesses. When it is properly promoted, the whole region benefits.

However, we don’t live in a perfect world.

We live in a debt-ridden world in which public spending will have to be cut, when projects that were once cost-effective no longer are.

If Passionate People is being suspended purely because of the dire state of the public finances then, reluctantly, we may have to accept it. Lots of desirable things will have to go. But if it is being suspended because it is a successful regional campaign at a time when the prevailing Conservative mood is anti-regional, then it is a sad state of affairs.

Some ideas work extremely effectively at a regional level. A tourism strategy would appear to be one of them.

It is to be hoped that as the Government reshapes our structures, successful initiatives can be retained at a regional level.

However, Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles (Conservative) suggests there will not be much. “I do not believe the arbitrary government regions to be a tier of administration that is efficient, effective or popular,” he said recently, which is different to what Business Secretary Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat) suggested on his visit this week.

Therefore, beneath the regional level, it would appear that we are going to need powerful and inclusive sub-regions which have a critical mass so they can work together.

The last thing the North-East as a whole needs is for in-fighting to break out between close neighbours.