DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
SMI has three interlinked development objectives:
Expanding the urban centres.
Both the centres of Stockton and Middlesbrough have seen considerable regeneration in recent years. Both centres have further plans which will enhance their appearance and performance. In Stockton the key challenges are dealing with land to the south of the town centre and addressing the divisive nature of the road infrastructure which separates the main shopping facilities from the river corridor.
In Middlesbrough considerable attention has been paid to its public realm and general environment and the opening of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) has provided together with the adjacent Centre Square the start of a major civic and cultural quarter. Because the centre is tightly constrained in land terms the Council has recently modified its key planning strategy to look at expanding town centre uses along the corridor to the west framed by Newport Road and the A66.
The TVR development projects at North Shore in Stockton and Middlehaven in Middlesbrough are key strategic expansions of the influence and quality of the town centre. In Stockton the North Shore site is extremely well related and linked to the town centre and there are high quality and ambitious plans for mixed use development. At Middlehaven in Middlesbrough much of the work has been done to replace the former dock infrastructure and a masterplan developed which will add residential and office accommodation along side the recently opened Middlesbrough College on site. The future planned phases of the Middlehaven scheme will stretch west in the area of the older industrial buildings around the Transporter Bridge and the former St Hilda’s residential community which is now largely demolished.
In essence therefore the development strategies in both Stockton and Middlesbrough are proposing expansion of their town centre activities towards each other and focused on the river corridor itself.
Creation of a Green Blue Heart
The concept of a Green Blue Heart running along the River tees corridor and joining the two communities is central to the SMI strategy.
The development strategy in this area will take advantage of its natural assets which include available land, high quality wildlife habitats, good potential strategic access and proximity to the river corridor. These are explained in greater detail in the section headed Green Blue Heart.
Connectivity and Infrastructure
The infrastructure that links the two towns and the wider Tees Valley area is a priority for SMI. The area is well served by highway infrastructure but the intersection of the A19 with the A66 is one of the most heavily congested roads in the region. It is recognised that to open up development opportunities within both communities a package of proposals needs to be developed and delivered which will embrace a combination of improvements and management of the primary road infrastructure, additional secondary road infrastructure, improvements to public transport and various traffic management measures including the introduction of for example ‘no car’ lanes and bus priority.
In terms of public transport infrastructure proposals are already in hand to significantly improve bus services and the idea of a Metro system to serve the central sections of the Tees Valley is well developed.
