Tens of millions could be put towards fixing the Transporter Bridge, even if it is not deemed a transport project. Currently, a £30m allocation from Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) can only be used on the landmark if it is restored to full working order.
However, fiscal devolution could see the pot of money become funding with no-strings attached.
Tees Valley Tory Mayor Ben Houchen discussed the situation during his monthly phone-in on BBC Radio Tees, with Middlesbrough’s Labour Mayor Chris Cooke then telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about what steps the council are taking.
Both Mayor Cooke and Geoff Field, Middlesbrough Council’s corporate director of environment, made clear the local authority’s strong preference for the bridge to be restored to full working order, rather than simply refurbished as a heritage project.
Mayor Houchen has previously shared cost estimates in the region of £60m to repair the bridge.
Phoning into the show on Wednesday, October 7, Eric in Acklam asked Mayor Houchen what he was doing to “preserve our Transporter”, adding: “We’ve known for a long time now that it’s in disrepair and unfortunately nothing seems to have been done in the past three years at least.”
The Transporter Bridge closed in August 2019, and seven years on, there’s no clear sign of when it will reopen to the public.
Mayor Houchen said it would be “difficult” to use the £30m if the bridge was simply preserved as a “cultural icon”.
However, if the renovation of the bridge allows cars to once again be transported to and from Port Clarence and Middlehaven, then the cash can be used in the effort to bring it back to life.
He outlined his discussion with Middlesbrough’s Mayor Cooke, a few weeks prior to the phone-in. The Tees Valley mayor said while progress is not as quick as he’d like, it sounded as if lots of work has been done by the local council.
Mayor Houchen then discussed how if the government “follow through” with fiscal devolution, it would mean that there wouldn’t be a specific transport pot, rather TVCA could choose how and where the money is spent.
He explained that this would mean the money currently assigned to the Transporter Bridge could still be used on repair works, but it would no longer need to be a transport-based project to unlock the funding.
Following Mayor Houchen’s appearance on BBC Radio Tees, Mayor Cooke told the LDRS: “I want it to be fully operational… I think it’s always going to be a transport/heritage project.”
Meanwhile, Mr Field said: “We’ve got the design, what we are doing now is we’re engaged with contractors who might actually do the work, just to make sure that the design that we’ve come up with is actually operationally possible.”
He said the council should know where it stands “a bit after Christmas”, adding: “Then that’ll tell us what the bill is to do the work, but also how are we going to do it, because there are still a range of options.”
He went on to say: “If we can be quite novel in terms of the engineering solution to get that done, it reduces the time scale, but it is a multi-year time scale in any case.”
Mr Field said he doubted £30m would be enough to cover the costs of the project.
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He highlighted how ownership of the bridge is shared jointly between Stockton and Middlesbrough Councils. Middlesbrough is responsible for its management.
Mr Field said there will be “discussions” with colleagues at Stockton about how to “fund the gap”, but didn’t have an answer at this point.
He listed potential funding sources including various government departments and lottery funding. He said once the council knows “how we’re going to do it [the works]”, then the size of the funding gap will become clear and the correct amount of money can be sought.