Linthorpe Road cycle lane saga cost TVCA £4m
Plus: Newcastle Council to debate Teesworks incinerator, and BP hydrogen plant decision delayed
For those concerned, I survived my stag do last weekend after an amount of alcohol I won’t write here, but absolutely zero hangover the following day. Shangri-la, we truly turned the clock back.
That means I can deliver a packed 67th edition of The Teesside Lead for you.
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Leigh
The Teesside Lead can reveal the total cost to taxpayers of installing and removing the Linthorpe Road cycle lane is nearly £4m.
Work began to remove the controversial cycle lane this week, with Middlesbrough’s Labour mayor Chris Cooke and Tees Valley Tory mayor Ben Houchen stood side-by-side after months of mid-slinging between the two.
An FOI by The Teesside Lead has shown the total cost for installing the cycle lane, instigated by independent mayor Andy Preston and funded by Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) with a grant from Active Travel England, was £1.554m.
TVCA has also confirmed the total cost of removal to be £2,387,585, meaning the total cost to taxpayers for installing and removing the failed scheme stands at £3,941,585.
Removal of the cycle lane has been funded by TVCA after a war of words between the two mayors, who had both been elected on the promise of removing the cycle lane.
I had previously reported the total costs were likely to come in at around £3m, but the actual amount is significantly more. Only around £300,000 of the removal cost is attributed to inflation.
TVCA say they do not have to repay the original grant to Active Travel England (ATE), despite not delivering the scheme the money was awarded for in the long term. ATE refused to comment on any specific schemes, but told me the performance of local authorities in delivery of projects is considered in future capability assessments when new bids for funding are made.
Marking the removal, Chris Cooke said it was “great to be out this morning with our contractors Esh Construction and Ben Houchen to mark the start of the end for the Linthorpe Cycle Lane.
“Moving forward, I want to make sure that any changes to roads have proper consultation with residents and businesses, and make sense for the area they're in.”
His comments were echoed by local MP Andy McDonald, who said Cooke had “rightly listened to the significant concerns shared by local businesses, residents, and those who use Linthorpe Road.
“It’s important that we encourage and facilitate cycling but it has to be with the right scheme. Sadly this scheme just didn’t work and it is right that it be removed.
“The costs involved are significant, but the message from people in Middlesbrough has been heard loud and clear - the cycle lane was not working and it needed to go.
“It is absolutely right that Middlesbrough Council will not have to foot this bill for the removal.”
TVCA is currently under a Best Value Notice from the government because of concerns around value for money arrangements at the authority. I asked if this was an appropriate use of funding for them, but they did not respond.
Teesside stories you may have missed…
⚽ A coach full of football fans ended up going to the wrong destination
✈️ Kemi Badenoch made the trip to Teesside Airport this week
🚂 The Flying Scotsman is due to appear in Teesside for two days next month
🏛️ A council by-election is due in Redcar & Cleveland as a councillor stands down
Teesside emergency responders sentenced and remanded
A serving police officer from Teesside admitted 11 counts of sexual activity with a minor and one of perverting the course of justice this week.
Nathan Henderson, is currently on remand (and suspended by Cleveland Police) and will be sentenced on 24 October.
Temporary assistant Chief Constable Dave Sutherland thanked the victim for coming forward and reporting the offences.
He said: “I want to make it clear that these criminal acts will not be tolerated at Cleveland Police, nor in the police service as a whole.”
Meanwhile, not awaiting sentencing is another so-called “blue light responder”, Stephen Suggitt, who was a watch manager at Thornaby Fire Station. Suggitt admitted racially abusing a member of his staff.
The abuse took place in a WhatsApp group, and the victim has said their position as a fire fighter has become “untenable”. Suggitt resigned before he could be sacked. This week he was ordered to pay his victim £500 and to undertake 180 hours of unpaid work.
Suggitt was his victim’s line manager. After the victim complained to other managers, he said “nothing was done”. Suggitt’s conduct only came into question when one of the victim’s colleagues raised a complaint about the messages.
I tend to avoid writing about crime since it’s so well-served elsewhere locally. But given the institutional abuse in both of these cases, I thought it was important they were highlighted as much as possible.
Teesworks incinerator to be debated by Newcastle councillors
Councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne are set to vote this week on whether or not the city should be part of a scheme with six other councils in the North East, which will see household waste burned on Teesside.
Liberal Democrat councillor Gareth Kane, who represents the Ouseburn ward, has brought a motion to Wednesday’s city council meeting, which will mean councillors will vote on whether or not they ask to withdraw from the TVERF scheme.
The TVERF project is being led by Hartlepool Council on behalf of Newcastle, County Durham, Stockton, Redcar, Middlesbrough and Darlington councils. It will see 450,000 tonnes of waste burned at the site, some 500m away from homes in Grangetown, in order to generate electricity.
A week and a half ago Viridor were awarded “preferred tenderer” status to build and operate the plant. Official paperwork awarding them the job is expected to be signed later this year, with the plant operational by 2030.
The motion from Cllr Kane asks the council to note incineration as “the second worst disposal route for waste after landfill”, and that the current plans for TVERF do not include providing heating for the nearby Teesworks estate, nor carbon capture.
“CCS-ready”, the motion says in reference to carbon capture technology, “is a meaningless claim”.
Those who are against the Teesworks incinerator project are expected to protest outside Newcastle’s Civic Centre before the full council meeting begins on Wednesday.
Miliband resets clock on BP Teesworks decision
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has delayed making a decision on granting permission for BP’s H2Teesside hydrogen project at Teesworks, after a row over use of the land erupted over the last few months.
The statutory deadline for his decision was Thursday, which would have seen BP given compulsory purchase powers to deliver their blue hydrogen production facility on the site of the former Redcar steelworks blast furnace.
However, at 5.40pm the Planning Inspectorate published a letter sent to lawyers for the South Tees Group (STG), which includes Teesworks Ltd and the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), asking for more information to be provided about their plans for an AI data centre on the same piece of land.
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