Teesside
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Teesside arms.png Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in northern England based on Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar, along the banks of the River Tees with a resident population of over 465,000 in 2005.
A county borough of Teesside was formed on April 1, 1968, by the merger of the boroughs of Middlesbrough, Stockton, Thornaby-on-Tees, along with Billingham, Eston, Redcar and part of Stokesley Rural District.
In 1974 this area became became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland, which extended to the coast and included Hartlepool and Guisborough. The Teesside area was partitioned between the boroughs of Stockton, Middlesbrough and Langbaurgh.
The towns are now independent unitary authorities, but the term Teesside remains in use as a geographic term and in the name of institutions like the University of Teesside and Teesside retail and leisure park. It is still used as an official destination on road signs, even those installed in the 1990s onwards. It has been adopted for various purposes as a euphemism for Cleveland. When Darlington is also included, "Tees Valley" is the more common term.
Back in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher visited Teesside in part of her campaign at improving inner city decay and de-industrialisation by way of urban development corporations. The Teesside Development Corporation was established in 1987 and became defunct in 1996. At the time it was created Teesside was home to the largest continuous area of de-industrialised land in the whole of Europe.
Middlesbrough docklands (now known as Middlehaven) at the heart of Teesside, fell in to disuse in 1984 and has been abandoned and empty for two decades, however the Tees Valley Regeneration Company an urban regeneration company serving a population of 720,000; has recently been formed to revive the Teesside area.
The Teesside Urban Area identified by the ONS for statistical purposes had a population of 365,323 according to the 2001 census, and had the following urban sub-areas