TVCA chief executive given £200,000 redundancy package
PLUS: “Mayor’s Question Time” to begin
It’s edition number 42 of The Teesside Lead and I’ve spent a long time reading through hundreds of pages of board papers ahead of meetings of STDC’s board and TVCA’s Cabinet next week so you don’t have to!
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It’s been revealed Tees Valley Combined Authority’s outgoing chief executive will receive over £200,000 in her redundancy package.
A freedom of information request by Private Eye, which has been shared with The Teesside Lead, shows Ms Gilhespie will receive a redundancy payment of £54,545.56, in addition to a contribution to her pension pot of £152,661.
Ms Gilhespie has led TVCA since 2018, and currently earns a salary of £180,582.
After TVCA was formed in 2016, Ms Gilhespie has been responsible for establishing the culture and procedures of the public body. She also oversaw the original Teesworks joint venture deal as well as the renegotiated agreement which saw 90% of Teesworks Ltd handed over to local developers Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney.
In papers published ahead of next week’s TVCA cabinet meeting, TVCA persists with the falsehood that this was in exchange for the developers taking on additional liabilities in relation to the redevelopment of the former site of Redcar steelworks.
In an update to board members on the South Tees Development Corporation, the report by STDC COO John Barnes says the equity was transferred to Corney and Musgrave, who agreed to: “Take on the obligation and risk associated with the remediation of the remainder of the site.”
However, the government-commissioned Tees Valley Review into governance of TVCA and the Teesworks project, published in January 2024, clearly states “the legal documentation doesn’t impose any such obligation on [Teesworks Ltd] to undertake remediation and there is no evidence that [Teesworks Ltd] has yet done so.”
Ms Gilhespie’s departure was unexpectedly announced in December. She will stand down as chief executive of the TVCA Group next month. The FOI received by Private Eye also confirms she isn’t subject to an NDA or any other agreement as part of her redundancy.
When her departure was reported in The Northern Echo, it was stated Ms Gilhespie “made clear a while ago that she intended to step down”. It’s not clear when she might have said this, or to whom, but it must raise questions around why a redundancy package of £207,206.56 was put together for a member of staff who had indicated their intention to resign.
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Mayor’s Question Time to begin
Board papers ahead of Friday’s TVCA Cabinet meeting have provided more detail on plans for a proposed regular “Mayor’s Question Time” where Ben Houchen will face the public on a regular basis.
The proposals follow the Government’s scrutiny protocol for elected mayors, published in November 2023, which says the mayor should take questions from the public at an event chaired by an independent person (such as a local journalist) which is held “at least every 3 months”. Andy Burnham has held similar events since 2017.
Despite the recommendation to hold a public event every three months, TVCA has said Ben Houchen will appear twice a year for public events.
However, it has confirmed a monthly hour-long Q&A session to be held on BBC Radio Tees, which it says will be “hosted by an independent journalist” (whatever an “independent journalist” is).
The in-person events will also be hosted by an “independent journalist”, who will receive questions from the public before putting them to the mayor.
These events will be recorded, with video uploaded to YouTube, firmly bringing TVCA into the 2010s in terms of accessibility.
Another detail in the meeting’s board papers has revealed statutory meetings, like Friday’s Cabinet meeting, will also be recorded and uploaded to YouTube “within five days” of the meeting taking place.
Somewhat alarmingly, TVCA says: “Once the recording has been uploaded to YouTube, the recording held by the Combined Authority, will be deleted and no longer held by the Authority.”
Anyone who deals with FOI requests will be aghast at the implications of any public body deleting information it holds. And if the downward spiral of Twitter is anything to go by, relying on third-party tech giants to maintain Teesside’s public records on a free platform feels like an incredibly risky move.
Minutes of these meetings are held for the public for the sake of posterity, surely it stands to reason any local authority creating these valuable public assets should also retain videos of the meetings.
Teesworks private electricity partner bought by Spanish energy giant
If you follow energy sector news you will have seen Spanish group Iberdrola has been permitted to buy a majority stake in Electricity North West.
It will buy 88% of the electricity distribution network operator through another of its companies, Scottish Power.
That’s all well and good, but what does this have to do with Teesside?
Electricity North West (ENW) were chosen as the joint venture partners in creating Steel River Power Ltd - the new company to build a private wire network to deliver electricity to tenants at the Teesworks site.
Steel River Power Ltd is 50% owned by Electricity North West, and the remainder is owned by Steel River Energy Limited (SREL). SREL was set up to be 90% owned by Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, with 10% owned by the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), with Julie Gilhespie listed as a director.
It’s unlikely that ENW’s takeover will affect the day-to-day running or development of the private network at Teesworks.
However, a report due to be delivered to STDC’s board this week reveals the public body has spent £1m in legal fees related to setting up the private wire deal with ENW.
“Exceptional one-off legal costs of £1m have been incurred in relation to the exchange on the sale of the Private Wire Network,” says the report from Group Financial Controller Victoria Smith. “The associated costs were significant due to the complexity of the tripartite transaction between STDC, JV Co and ENW.”
The report claims the deal will result in an annual saving of £1.2m, although there’s no detail on the nature of the deal, what made it so complex, or how that saving has been secured.
TVCA publishes redacted report on ‘autonomous trams’
Among the hundreds of pages of documents presented to TVCA’s Cabinet ahead of their meeting on Friday was a report they had commissioned into the pilot for ‘autonomous trams’ to be held at Teesside Airport, known as the CASTLE Project.
The 75-page report is heavily redacted on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. Luckily, I was able to grab a quick chat with somebody who knows what’s behind all of those black boxes.
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