The Teesside Alliance is being launched at a meeting today in a bid to give people a voice against Government budget cuts.

The aim of the alliance is to bring together trade unionists, community groups, local politicians, voluntary and faith groups and all those who either work or are dependant on public services.

They will discuss how to respond to the coalition Government's cuts agenda and to protect communities and public services.

The meeting, which will be addressed by Mr Wright, is open to anyone concerned about protecting the future of public services.

One of the organisers is Gordon Rowntree, from the PCS public sector union, who said: "This region relies more on the public sector than anywhere else in the country and Teesside is particularly vulnerable.

"We have already seen the funding for the Wynyard hospital project dropped, local services, hospitals, schools, colleges and even the police and fire service are not going to be safe from these attacks.

"It is fundamentally and morally wrong that this Government should expect people who work in the public sector and those of us who rely on public services to pay for a crisis not of their making.

"It's also economically wrong, as cuts on the scale proposed would take our fragile economy back into recession.

"As an alternative, the Government should be more concerned about collecting the estimated £120 billion a year lost through tax avoidance, evasion or that is simply written off and not collected."

The meeting takes place at 5.30pm today in St Mary's Centre, Corporation Road, Middlesbrough.