By one vote apparently, as for some reason Labour Councillors voted against the proposal.

Good news

I recall the idea of the Millhouse leisure centre being refurbished / rebuilt in the late 1980's

Nice to see things move quickly in Hartlepool. (I'm assuming its the Millhouse that they are going to rebuild?)

Ok new development being built

Just read the Hartlepool mail.

makes you wonder then what they wanted the money to be spent on, or it was not their idea in the first place.

Cant seem to find out how much its going to cost just the phrase multi million? Looks like a concrete box.
Either way we all should be grateful.

You know you are getting older when you have seen 3 public swimming pools in the town.

It would be good to know why ?

I remember it too, stuck in there for months on end working with the clerk of works. Get’s cold when the water’s out of the pool. It was the 1990’s, can’t remember when exactly.

Think I read 4 million somewhere, with a total spend of 20million for ..the waterfront project in total.

https://twitter.com/BenHouchen/status/1 ... LQ7jg&s=09

My views too.
When I first saw the dreaded artists impression it reminded of that shoebox eyesore at Liverpool near the landing stage, but apparently the hipster designer said the shape was to represent the rail wagons that were all in the sidings on the site….. whatever. Lacking in imagination, pity.

Certainly looks like bits have been added to it..harking back to the 60s when concrete was king, look how that ended. Brutalist is the term used I believe...shite to the man on the street.

Apparently not going to have a sauna or steam room, ( I think they are called a Health Suite? In todays speak) which in this day and age is crazy to me. Its the sort of thing people use when visiting a leisure facility...or have I heard wrong??

Regarding the Railway siding, did the Mush or mushes get it wrong and thought they are designing a new railway shed for steam and coal trains and somewhere for the workers to get washed afterwards.

We all think x millions is a lot of money (and it is in personal terms) but in terms of local authority/regional and certainly national terms these amounts are absolute peanuts. Its not a "new" centre its simply the replacement of an old building that is falling apart.
Monies spend in Hartlepool on "capital" projects are nothing more than putting right what has gone wrong. eg Wesley (£1.25m) and the railway platform (£12m) that was abandoned in the 1970s(?) Church Street etc etc.
Is Hartlepool in effect classified as a category D town as was the case with communities in the 1950s where only minimal capital funding would be expended and were allowed to crumble.

A U boat pen comes to mind…. Vera does Das Boot.

The mistake was building the shopping centre (an outdated layout then) where it was built. Permission had to be sought from regional planners in Newcastle as they expressed doubts about moving an established centre so far away in it’s entirety. The rest fell down like a pack of cards over the years.

We all think x millions is a lot of money (and it is in personal terms) but in terms of local authority/regional and certainly national terms these amounts are absolute peanuts. Its not a "new" centre its simply the replacement of an old building that is falling apart.
Monies spend in Hartlepool on "capital" projects are nothing more than putting right what has gone wrong. eg Wesley (£1.25m) and the railway platform (£12m) that was abandoned in the 1970s(?) Church Street etc etc.
Is Hartlepool in effect classified as a category D town as was the case with communities in the 1950s where only minimal capital funding would be expended and were allowed to crumble.

Double post do i get a prize?

Two prizes!

Just when you need the RAF.

I was wondering where I had seen that design before, get your cossie, we're off to the U Boat pens at la Rochelle in the South of France, on the Blome and Voss express...or a number six bus via Birmingham.

Wouldn’t want to see Vera getting depth charged, few bits wobbling about there and her hat getting wet.
You’d still need the sub titles left on though. I can get away with the German but that mock Geordie is a crime against the English language.

Just seen in the Fail a further bid to redevelop the Church Street area of £16.6m for a "production village".
It seems like yet another funding stream to dream about but what has actually happened. Nowt!

How many times has Church Street be redeveloped, it’s bee dug up, new trees planted etc,I think the last one was to turn it into cafe culture area with outdoor seating forgetting it’s a wind tunnel.

Its been a big drain on the towns finances for decades although most of it is govt grants.
Normally you would demolish parts to allow in the light and give it a better feel but the problem its full of very good buildings with character and no doubt some listed.
It really needs a massive revamp (covered?)not the odd £10-15M lobbed at it every few years with other business areas of the town relocated to Church Street via CPOs and incentives with a full re provision of bus services throughout the day.
But it aint going to happen in Hartlepool.

It was done originally by the TDC…then years later along comes Akers-Belcher and his plan to reinvent the wheel by digging it all up and actually managing to make it worse.
I suspect the new business is more related to the growing student population at the Art College.

According to reports the Transporter bridge is falling apart and repair bill could be anything from £5-£25m according to the mayor.
Yet there is a debate over what should be done with it and what can be afforded.
Its the icon of this region and it is inconceivable that this "debate"would happen elsewhere in the Uk where money would simply be found.
Like the amounts of monies apparently going to be spent in Hartlepool it is peanuts.
Hopefully some rich American may buy it and Church Street and move them to the Arizona desert for safekeeping.

Agree Blue....the Transporter (and the Newport Bridge) are iconic and should be saved - but remember, our local worthies recently destroyed our steel heritage with a few Sunday morning explosions. If it 'involve assets going to Ben's mates (see Eyes passim), or Trumpton International, forget about it.

Unfortunately the steel industry was devastated by cheap imports, I worked at the Redcar Steel Complex a few times, last time I walked away through health and safety issues. It was a hell hole and required millions to modernise it, it was let down by all the previous owners who never attempted any modernisation or proper maintenance. When it rained all the roads flooded as they had never bothered cleaning the debris from the drains.
I believe that most of the steel making plants at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot have serious financial issues and the government aren’t prepared to bail them out.

Yes Private Eye is showing this area and Bens actions some attention.

The Transporter was past it’s sell by date 50 years ago when I spent 5 years travelling to college there.
Icon? …..for what? It’s a Boro icon, let them pay for it, it means nothing to me, it works intermittent office hours and closes at weekends for bungee jumps…..but it hasn’t worked for years.
Ideally, demolish it and build a crossing down near Cargo Fleet in the Dutch style and move on.

We had a bloke kicking off because recently because a giant concrete coal bunker (and that’s what it was) with DORMAN LONG painted on the side was demolished.
He wanted it preserved, ffs why?
If those words hadn’t been painted on the side no one would have given a toss.
In practical terms, why preserve it, they talked of it as a visitor attraction, seriously, ….
“ C’mon kids we’re going to the DORMAN LONG coal storage museum and gift shop”.
Yeah that’ll be a money spinner.

We wouldn't get anything like this down south..they're well cutting back...Levelling out.privileged all in one.I'm complaining to my local MP.

In the days when they were building modules for rigs at Port Clarence and in the yard on the other side of the riverbthe Transporter Bridge caused major problems as only modules of a certain height could be built so they could pass under it. I am sure a few contracts were lost because of it.

The cost of maintaining a steel structure like that would be horrendous, for what purpose?
Tourists don’t turn up in their droves to admire it, it’s hardly the Eiffel Tower, and yes some naive people will think it a local icon, but they ain’t paying the bill.
It’s well past it’s sell by date and money wasted tarting up the geriatric dinosaur could be better spent building a new crossing (Dutch lifting bridge) further down river at Cargo Fleet, making getting to the new Redcar site for Hartlepool folk a lot easier.

looking at the transporter just as a transport structure will say its pointless these days. never seen the thing full in the 20 odd years and cannot remember the last time i saw a foot passenger. however as a tees icon it becomes more important. they throw a fortune at old churches whose congegations are less the transporter uses. like everything, once its gone its gone for ever. it aint as if the country is full of similar structures and do we really want to be remembered as the generation who decided to demolish it. we all know if it was a thames crossing money and time would be found straight away.

However an individual views the transporter it is the symbol of Teesside and to let it go/mothball it would be unthinkable. The point i am making is these sums of money are tiny in national terms. The amounts involved would only buy you a few miles of dual carriageway and look at the eye watering sums spent on HS2 and Crossrail.
This area scrabbles around for tiny pots of cash just to keep things just about working.
and............we have to be grateful!

This is where I disagree with you, If Teesside want’s an icon, let Teesside pay for it, I’d rather invest in some Hartlepool icons if there’s money going spare. Anyone seen the state of the Wingfield castle that’s being left to rot?
I don’t think we’re estimating the true cost of maintaining an open frame structure which will require constant painting and monitoring….. for what?

If we can ignore localism for a moment, structures like The Transporter have a place in history and, ok, one man's icon may be another's irn bru, so lets not argue about specifics. I have no particular affection for the Wingfield Castle but, yes, it should be maintained appropriately (it is a museum piece). Jeez, there goes my naivety again. But the latest estimate for repairs to The Tyne Bridge is £35.3m (yes Snowy, I know that it is still in use) so that puts some context on the costs for The Transporter - and this to be part funded by central Government and partly by the local authorities - so isn't that a fair starting point for The Transporter?

And as an aside, before I leave this Board, five steelworks in Germany have been preserved - some as industrial museums and some as museums and leisure areas.

I worked for British Steel, Blast, steel plant and rolling mills….. I’ve also seen one of those German sanitised steelwork sites too.
If you can afford to subsidise something on that scale as a performing arts area and museum, you’d better have deep pockets….. would you invest your money in it…..?

Structures like this should not be wholly the responsibility of a local council it should mainly be funded by central government, lottery etc etc and also it would have not got into this state if elsewhere in the uk.
But................just wait for the 11th hour when our Ben rides to its aid with his petty cash tin in hand and PR department in tow.

Snowy.....I worked for British Steel, Blast, steel plant and rolling mills….. I’ve also seen one of those German sanitised steelwork sites too.
If you can afford to subsidise something on that scale as a performing arts area and museum, you’d better have deep pockets….. would you invest your money in it…..?

Would you invest your money in it? That's the point; it's about choice. I've seen one of those German sites and was impressed - would I put my money in? No - I wouldn't see an acceptable (albeit intangible) return. Would I want the public purse used? Well that depends on the alternative uses for the money. Putting aside any arguments about health and defence spending, if it came down to the use of the culture budget then I would preserve steelwork buildings ahead of where John and Paul wrote Love Me Do, but I would put Vindolanda ahead of the Dorman Long Tower. We all have choices, interests and priorities - and thankfully we all differ in these.

I agree (again) with Blue - although Ben would ride to the rescue of The Transporter and then sell it to one of his chums.

I agree with what you’re saying, a lot of s#&£E is made into ‘icons’ but I regard it as a massive upkeep for that form of structure in my opinion.
Steelworks, I met some great people there, learnt a lot and actually enjoyed going to work, but it’s history now, life moves on.
Whatever road they choose however, I’d still like to see a crossing at Cargo Fleet to ease access to Redcar with a Dutch Style opening bridge. Not too expensive at all.

A new bridge was discussed years ago and nothing happened and with the closure of much of the industries in the towns of Hartlepool and Redcar i think its now a non starter.

If they’re opening up the whole of the former steelworks site for industrial redevelopment, there’ll be plenty of reasons to go there. That’s why they’re clearing the site in the first place.
Or have I been dreaming it all ….

Teesworks is going to be a very slow burn but with lots of big announcements and PR spin.
A bridge to nowhere.

I beg to differ, the word ‘Luddite’ comes to mind….make museums out of old steelworks?….. and folk dancing around the transporter?
I prefer to head towards the future, not all our yesterdays.

th ats fine if you feel the same way about all old structures and not just the transporter. there must be billions spent across the country for the upkeep of many old buildings so in that case the transporter should be saved. as i said there are not many in this country for future generations to see. other types of building are two a penny and if your town hasn,t got one you have not far to ravel to see the next. all i do know is my lad regularly asks me about the transporter but never a word about coast erosion at crimdon.

I am only concerned at the financial black hole the transporter could become v the actual visitor appeal…..it’s an icon to some, but how often do they venture anywhere near it….. a walk across Mad Max country on the Boro side and Port Clarence on the other. You’d never sell it.
That said, I strongly believe in conservation, our own town has been buggered up for 60 years by Councillors folly’s, but I like to see things adapted rather replaced with brutalist dross.

On another note something is going down at the PD ports site in British West. Security everywhere, new gates and fences, site clearance and i hear that a new railway loop is being prepared with some work done near the IMO car wash area into Heerma old site.
Expect an announcement by Ben Houchen with Absent Jill looking over his shoulder

Since my post one above i have just seen this on Arsebook from a rail enthusiast group.

"new rail flow in the new year, HS2 tunnel linings think GBRF have the contract. Line into the docks is not linked to where the sections are being made / brought in. Rumour is 3 x 08's to be out based at this location."
Wow! Must be a major undertaking then. Good news for Hartlepool, rail industry and rail enthusiasts."

You heard it here first folks!