City of Teesside

Are we the poor relations or have successive Councils just wasted whatever money they were given for regeneration. Looks like most of there generation jobs have been left half finished without going forward. Over the border is a baron land and that bloody eyesore of a burnt out scrap dealer needs sorting out.
 
Jimstewart said:
Has it benefitted Stoke? I’ve no idea. The last time I was there was in Burslam at Port Vale in the 90’s and it was a dump.
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I had a small part in the last Middlesbrough city bid at that point two recently designated cities Sunderland and Preston were asked to quantify what difference city status had meant to them. I always thought Preston in particular was a good comparison for Mbro.
They both came back with serious monetary values. Businesses and shops (remember them) all instantly gained more status and they saw higher paid positions and better goods etc. City status attracted a lot more funding to infrastructure even down to museums.
Middlesbrough bid was as a centre for Teesside as a whole. So, Stockton and Redcar etc would share in resultant funding etc that was the agreement. For instance Stockton Arc would have been a city status art centre.
The main argument was Teesside as a connurbation of approx 0.5 million was the biggest in UK without a city. I suppose the present mayor of Tees Valley is part of the same argument - you draw in more funding from government and private from.business. Sunderland and Preston both said they got £millions more in investment just by being called a city. Given those answers why on earth would you not try to join the city club.
 
Name ideas:
Middlesbrough + Stockton = Middleton
Or Stocklesbrough
I hear Chris Rea would like Steel River City
Or we could take a leaf out of the yank city naming process and call it New Detroit
Or we could name it after Teesside's greatest celebrity export - Jet City
 
No for me and Jim has made several good points as to why too.

Middlesbrough Town Centre has declined massively over 20 years. The Council has failed with Middle Haven and the area around the Stadium pretty bleak.

At least Stockton are trying something. Getting rid of the awful Castlegate to open the river is a good move. The redevelopment of the theatre and building a decent hotel is another good move. If live performance is ever allowed again that part of Stockton would be buzzing when shows are on.
 
rob_fmttm said:
I had a small part in the last Middlesbrough city bid at that point two recently designated cities Sunderland and Preston were asked to quantify what difference city status had meant to them. I always thought Preston in particular was a good comparison for Mbro.
They both came back with serious monetary values. Businesses and shops (remember them) all instantly gained more status and they saw higher paid positions and better goods etc. City status attracted a lot more funding to infrastructure even down to museums.
Middlesbrough bid was as a centre for Teesside as a whole. So, Stockton and Redcar etc would share in resultant funding etc that was the agreement. For instance Stockton Arc would have been a city status art centre.
The main argument was Teesside as a connurbation of approx 0.5 million was the biggest in UK without a city. I suppose the present mayor of Tees Valley is part of the same argument - you draw in more funding from government and private from.business. Sunderland and Preston both said they got £millions more in investment just by being called a city. Given those answers why on earth would you not try to join the city club.
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Given those answers I would question what in Gods name those in charge of Sunderlands millions squandered it on. The place is an absolute hole. There’s only two decent venues in the place the theatre and the boozer next door. No idea what Preston is like I haven’t been for years but how many people would think of it as a city? I certainly wouldn’t.
 
Jimstewart said:
Given those answers I would question what in Gods name those in charge of Sunderlands millions squandered it on. The place is an absolute hole. There’s only two decent venues in the place the theatre and the boozer next door. No idea what Preston is like I haven’t been for years but how many people would think of it as a city? I certainly wouldn’t.
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I was in Preston last year. It's much better than Middlesbrough Town Centre but some areas are not great.
 
Whatever Town Centre we had is lost for ever and the layout is a big factor. I much prefers Stockton's with its back street Micro Bars and music facilities. Boro on the other hand has very little to offer except for Bedford and Baker street. There was so much talk of Albert road being improved even before Covid came to Town. There seems to be a lot of hot air when it comes to improving the Town. Empty office blocks so lets build more and lets put a Heli pad on one, oh and a Snow dome as well. Whatever happened to the CNE roof top bar.
 
I think it would be difficult to agree where the centre of the city would be, Stockton seems to be growing in comparison to Middlesbrough.

If it led to joined up planning decisions then I'm all for it, it's disgusting that we've currently got people carving off thousands for vanity projects that will never get built.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
I think it would be difficult to agree where the centre of the city would be, Stockton seems to be growing in comparison to Middlesbrough.

If it led to joined up planning decisions then I'm all for it, it's disgusting that we've currently got people carving off thousands for vanity projects that will never get built.
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Stockton's Riverside area has far more potential that Middlesbrough too. It's not hard to see that Stockton town centre could really take off. In a post COVID world, people could have a few drinks in Norton's nice High Street before heading to the Globe for a show. Or just stay in Stockton which at one point had some town centre pubs with real character.

As for Middlesbrough. If it wasn't for the Uni not a lot would have been happening for 20 years.
 
Nero said:
Stockton's Riverside area has far more potential that Middlesbrough too. It's not hard to see that Stockton town centre could really take off. In a post COVID world, people could have a few drinks in Norton's nice High Street before heading to the Globe for a show. Or just stay in Stockton which at one point had some town centre pubs with real character.

As for Middlesbrough. If it wasn't for the Uni not a lot would have been happening for 20 years.
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How was the Castlegate ever a thing by the way??? 60s brutal architecture at an absolute apex.

Once that gets rightly demolished then Stockton might have a lovely riverside, already got masses of available office space on Teesdale for the new admin centre of the city. I'd love there to be a monorail or tram, something to join the place together.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
How was the Castlegate ever a thing by the way??? 60s brutal architecture at an absolute apex.

Once that gets rightly demolished then Stockton might have a lovely riverside, already got masses of available office space on Teesdale for the new admin centre of the city. I'd love there to be a monorail or tram, something to join the place together.
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Exactly. The decision to build it in the first place is bonkers and an example of rubbish town planning. I suppose the council were justified at some point, but it's an eyesore now and has been for years.
 
Nero said:
Exactly. The decision to build it in the first place is bonkers and an example of rubbish town planning. I suppose the council were justified at some point, but it's an eyesore now and has been for years.
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Now the Council have got their hands on the Swallow they can move forward and get rid of it. They would be better to move all the shops across to Wellington Square and put a roof on it to make it more attractive.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
How was the Castlegate ever a thing by the way??? 60s brutal architecture at an absolute apex.

Once that gets rightly demolished then Stockton might have a lovely riverside, already got masses of available office space on Teesdale for the new admin centre of the city. I'd love there to be a monorail or tram, something to join the place together.
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From memory I think the architect was a guy called John Poulson who was in cahoots with a prominent Labour man T Dan Smith. Smith wastage former Labour leader of Newcastle city council and was notorious for demolishing traditional buildings and replacing them with monstrosities. Poulson carried that out to great effect in Stockton knocking down many beautiful old buildings to put that heap of schyte there. Smith ended up in jail for collecting bribes. Not sure what happened to Poulson.
 
Jimstewart said:
From memory I think the architect was a guy called John Poulson who was in cahoots with a prominent Labour man T Dan Smith. Smith wastage former Labour leader of Newcastle city council and was notorious for demolishing traditional buildings and replacing them with monstrosities. Poulson carried that out to great effect in Stockton knocking down many beautiful old buildings to put that heap of schyte there. Smith ended up in jail for collecting bribes. Not sure what happened to Poulson.
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Cheers Jim,

I really was not expecting an actual answer to that question so that is much appreciated.
 
Nero said:
No for me and Jim has made several good points as to why too.

Middlesbrough Town Centre has declined massively over 20 years. The Council has failed with Middle Haven and the area around the Stadium pretty bleak.

At least Stockton are trying something. Getting rid of the awful Castlegate to open the river is a good move. The redevelopment of the theatre and building a decent hotel is another good move. If live performance is ever allowed again that part of Stockton would be buzzing when shows are on.
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Agree and after the redevelopment of Castlegate, remove the low rent housing behind the high street and replace with low-cost community housing elsewhere. It's this that creates the anti-social problems that have plagued Stockton for years.
 
tripleheader said:
Agree and after the redevelopment of Castlegate, remove the low rent housing behind the high street and replace with low-cost community housing elsewhere. It's this that creates the anti-social problems that have plagued Stockton for years.
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That would be a great idea
 
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