Redcar and Cleveland

The borough of Redcar & Cleveland is a unitary authority area in the North East of England within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. The main settlements consists of Redcar, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Guisborough, and small towns such as Brotton, Eston, Skelton and Loftus. It had a resident population of 135,200 in 2011.

It is represented in Parliament by Jacob Young (Conservative Party) for the Redcar constituency and by Simon Clarke (Conservative Party) for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. The borough is a member of the Tees Valley city region.

The borough borders the districts of Scarborough and Hambleton, and the unitary authority areas of Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.

History

The district was created in 1974 as the borough of Langbaurgh, one of four districts of the new non-metropolitan county of Cleveland. It was formed from the Coatham, Kirkleatham, Ormesby, Redcar and South Bank wards of the County Borough of Teesside, along with Guisborough, Loftus, Saltburn and Marske-by-the-Sea, Eston Grange and Skelton and Brotton urban districts, from the North Riding of Yorkshire. The borough was named after the ancient Langbaurgh wapentake of Yorkshire. On 1 January 1988 the borough was renamed Langbaurgh-on-Tees.

Cleveland County was abolished on 1 April 1996, with its districts becoming unitary authority areas. At this time Langbaurgh-on-Tees was renamed Redcar and Cleveland. Cleveland County was a two-tier local authority, with the county council being superior to its four districts, of which Langbaurgh-on-Tees was one. Upon becoming a unitary authority, Langbaurgh-on-Tees (renamed Redcar and Cleveland) acquired all the full rights and duties as a county, whilst retaining the same boundaries as before.

Civic Centre

Redcar and Cleveland Civic Centre is in the Leisure and Community Heart, in Redcar. The centre was opened in 2014 at a cost of £31 million. It contains civic and business facilities including a council chamber, mayor’s parlour, register services, meeting rooms, 44 business units, as well as sport and leisure facilities.

It replaces the previous civic centre in Teesville, which was demolished in 2012. Civic facilities were relocated, Inspire 2 Learn, formerly the Eston City Learning Centre, also in Teesville. The Mayor's office was temporarily relocated to Kirkleatham Museum, before also moving to Redcar. The Council also has offices in Redcar at Kirkleatham Street and in Guisborough.

The old town hall closure also provided an environmental boost as it was the authority's worst-performing building for carbon dioxide emissions.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross 'value added' of South Teesside at current basic prices by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

includes hunting and forestry

includes energy and construction

includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Local Industry

The main industry within the greater district of the town of Redcar is the Chemical Industry located close to Wilton village on the Chemical Industry Park known internationally as Wilton. The chemical companies are all members of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).

The Wilton chemical site is owned by Singaporean utility company Sembcorp and companies operating there include SABIC who have recently built the world's largest low-density polyethylene plant (LDPE) and still operate an ethylene cracker. Lotte Chemicals are expanding both PTA and PET production. Huntsman manufacture polyurethane intermediates and Ensus have built Europe's largest bioethanol facility. Biffa Polymers now operate a polymer recycling plant that handles up to 30% of the UKs plastic milk bottles. While in support of Sembcorp, who built the UK's first wood-fired power station (Wilton 10), UK Wood Recycling Limited have a significant facility on the site providing waste wood to fuel Wilton 10.

The Teesside Steelworks operated Europe's second largest blast furnace. The majority of the steelworks (including the Redcar blast furnace, Redcar and South Bank coke ovens and the BOS plant at Lackenby) closed in 2015.

Social housing

Coast and Country Housing Limited

Coast and Country is the largest social housing provider within Redcar and Cleveland. It took over the ownership and management of homes from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in July 2002. In addition to providing core housing services the company has also invested in independent living services, including the development of a new Telecare service in partnership with the Borough Council.

Local nature reserves

The council maintains a number of Local nature reserves. These are Guisborough Branch Walkway, Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park and Rosecroft Wood, Loftus Wood, Whitecliff Wood, Clarksons Wood, Errington Wood and Eston Moor.

Politics

Youth Parliament

Redcar & Cleveland Council promotes the UK Youth Parliament, a national charity which promotes democratic debate amongst its 11 - 18-year-old members.

Town twinning

Redcar and Cleveland is twinned with:

• Troisdorf, Germany, since 1990