A row has broken out over government cash given to maintain one of Teesside's best-known landmarks.

Middlesbrough's 91-year-old transporter bridge is to benefit from safety work funded by a �250,000 grant.

But the boss of one of Teesside's development agencies says the cash should be used to develop another Tees crossing instead.

The money is part of a �15m fund to be used by local authorities for public safety projects.

'Another crossing'

Neil Etherington, chief executive of the Tees Valley Development Company, dismissed the bridge as a "grand creaking old lady".

He said: "I honestly feel that any government money that is going to be put into any transporter strategy should be used for another river crossing.

"Money like this could bring forward the development of another crossing or a tunnel."

The Transporter bridge was opened in 1911 and is one of only three still working in Britain.

The bridge, which cost �84,000 to build, is the longest of its kind in the world at 851ft.

Two hundred people, or six cars, can be carried across the River Tees in about 90 seconds by the travelling 'car' - or 'gondola' - which is suspended on a platform and pulled by two cables.

In 1993 the bridge was awarded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' highest honour, The Heritage Plaque, for engineering excellence.

It was granted Grade II Listed Building status in 1985.