Tees Valley bids for UK City of Culture 2025 award

The final bidding process is not expected to take place until 2020

The Tees Valley is bidding to become the UK City of Culture in 2025.

The bid is being jointly led by Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU), Arts Council England and five local authorities.

Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was the last host of the award in 2013, with Hull preparing to be the next UK City of Culture in 2017.

The chairman of TVU, Paul Booth, said if the bid was successful he hoped it would create a "long term legacy" and "economic benefits" for the area.

The UK city of culture scheme was started by the government in 2009, following the success of Liverpool's European City of Culture title and is awarded every four years.

Mr Booth said: "I would like to think that our young people, and not-so-young people, really take to this and take a far greater interest.

"A lot of them hopefully will make careers and have livelihoods and a quality of life that is far better as a result of this legacy that we would leave."

The final bidding process is not expected to take place until 2020.

The five authorities helping prepare the Tees Valley bid are Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, Stockton and Darlington.