Regeneration proposals to build ’24-hour vibrant community’ in Stockton
Council leaders say they want to turn Stockton into a “24-hour vibrant community” attracting more young professionals and students to live in new town centre homes.
Leaders at Stockton Council want to build “affordable and aspirational properties” in Stockton town centre. They are planning to develop the Tees Marshalling Yards – an area “underutilised for too long” – and a Health and Care Innovation Zone, along with new homes for people studying and working in the town centre.
Councillor Richard Eglington, cabinet member for regeneration and housing, said the next phase of the regeneration proposals built on a 25-year blueprint for Stockton and north Thornaby approved last July. He said: “It’s all about growing what we have now. We have a fantastic town, we have fantastic opportunities, we want to make sure we grow and take advantage of the opportunities available, and make them real for the residents and for the people of the Tees Valley.”
They have dubbed it “Tees Central”, linking to the marshalling yards and health zone plans: “It’s putting it all at the centre of the Tees. This is the stage where we’re going to go to cabinet and say, these are the plans, these are the ideas, let’s starting making them real.
“Let’s start taking them off the paper, talking to our partners, talking to the wider market, and seeing what needs to be done.
“The Marshalling Yards is a huge part of that, and working alongside Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) and other partners to see how we can grow those offers. This whole area has been underutilised for too long, and we need to push forward with ideas of making it a great place that people are going to train, work and live.”
Aside from plans for The Shambles, which have already prompted debate, town centre living is a key part of the proposals. Speaking from the council’s headquarters at Dunedin House in Thornaby, Cllr Eglington said: “We have great opportunities within a stone’s throw of this building, where we can build aspirational properties that people working and studying in this area are going to want to live in.
“It’s part of turning Stockton from a shopping centre and some pubs and offerings into a place where you’re living, visiting, working, and turn it into a 24-hour vibrant community.”
“Part of that is the fantastic news that we’ve got the Trailblazer Neighbourhood Scheme,” he said, referring to the news that central Stockton and Portrack will receive up to £20m as part of the government’s spending review. “This is a way of us fast-tracking and pushing forward with that housing ambition to really grow affordable and aspirational properties.”
Cllr Paul Rowling said: “It’s about how we can join all of this area up, to have the leisure offer on that side of the river with the more modern living offer, have the health and care innovation zone here, that element of education and professional careers. But alongside that, have that housing offer that allows people to live where they work.
“You see city centres where they’ve got the leisure and cultural offer but there’s also that high standard of living as well. I think it’s fair to say we lack that a little bit.
“It’s about drawing it all together, making it a modern area where people can be educated, work and live. It’s about using that land to create that offer. It’s about attracting young professionals to stay here.
“It’s a problem we do have. People born in Stockton go to university and sometimes they have to stay away for jobs. By bringing this health and care innovation zone we’re appealing to a certain sector and saying, actually no, Stockton’s your home, you can live and work here.
“I’m not saying we want to build x thousand professional houses. It needs to be that mixture of affordable, for students associated with the medical school or zone, and for the professional people we’d like to attract in.
“We realise they’re really ambitious plans but we’ve always been a really ambitious council. This is a step of getting cracking with this work.”
Tracey Carter, director of regeneration and inclusive growth, said: “It’s creating housing at all price points in our community. Not just social housing, this is about much more than that.”
They say they are exploring options for old Debenhams building, one being community-based healthcare. Cllr Eglington said: “It’s colossal, a huge space.
“The council took it on in its entirety due partly to the position we were in, where we owned half of it, and neither half would work properly without the other half.
“It’s too big a building to give it over to this or that. That’s not how high streets work anymore.
“We have options, we have ideas. This is about, let’s go to the market, let’s see what’s available, what the market’s willing to take, and grow those ideas into something that’s deliverable.”
“There’s not going to be one right answer for that size of building. There’s got to be two, three, four, five options available and it might be they all work together side by side.”
Stockton Town Hall also forms part of the plans. Cllr Eglington said it was the “heart of the town centre, a beautiful building”. However they have dropped previous plans to move the register office fully into the listed building, deciding it was not practical, but they still want to hold ceremonies in the historic building.
He said: “We very quickly realised we were going to have to look for something else. We’re not precious about ideas. If we feel something needs to change then it needs to change.
“We looked at a myriad of options. We realised we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s an amazing civic building and let’s get it back to what it’s supposed to be which is the heart of the community.
“A civic building for civic ceremonies, wedding ceremonies, potentially for some front-facing staff, from potentially using it during SIRF and other events to an information centre. It allows us to use the space for the community rather than just be an empty space.”
Cllr Rowling said: “The original thought was, could we effectively pick up the register office and put it in the town hall. It just wouldn’t work.
“It’s a building of a certain age and its uses are quite limited. The council chamber’s listed so you can’t change that.
“We’re saying, let’s use the space to offer part of that service, the civic ceremony side of it. It’s quite a nice building so it would be a nice place for a potential ceremony, but also having that council presence in the middle of the High Street.”
Ms Carter said: “It’s such an important historic building, and it dominates the High Street. It needs to play its part in our economy and it needs to be a visible part of our future as well as our past.”
The Shambles public toilets will be replaced by toilets and changing facilities in the Stockton Waterfront urban park, about 50m away, which Cllr Eglington would be a “massive upgrade”.