More information emerges about Mayor Ben Houchen’s veto on a planning application for the Live Well Centre. The plan is for the health facility to move from Dundas Arcade to two units at the Cleveland Centre a few minutes’ walk away.
The changes to the two units require planning permission and as the Cleveland Centre is within the boundaries of Middlesbrough Development Corporation (MDC) and the council is the applicant, the application must seek approval from the MDC planning board, chaired by Houchen.
Tory Houchen refused the plan at the MDC planning board meeting on Friday 24 May, aided by his ally Steve Turner, Tory former Police and Crime Commissioner. Houchen then used his casting vote to sink the centre’s application.
The official reason
Why would Houchen do this? Let’s take his official version first.
Houchen cited “real and perceived issues” of criminality. He presented the Live Well Centre as an addiction service which would attract people prepared to commit crimes to fund their habit.
In fact, the Live Well Centre is not a drug and alcohol centre. They merely employ staff in case anyone turns up in crisis or to support young or exploited young people. It is a one stop shop for multiple health issues, reducing NHS costs to provide a vast range of services including diabetes management.
They were the first community facility to offer Long Covid treatment after the pandemic.
Houchen claimed that people have told him they are frightened to go into the town centre. If we are to believe him, there are scientific reasons for this: the major one being the empty shops.
The police comment on the application (which it did not oppose) mentions their Secured By Design guidelines. These are based on environmental psychology principles: that criminality can be triggered by the brain stem given a few environmental conditions, two of which are: evidence of desertion and a lack of surveillance.
Empty shops are a sign of desertion. The units that Live Well want to move to have been empty for 14 years.
Increased pedestrian traffic provides not only footfall for retailers but also passive surveillance, reducing the possibility of crime.
So the centre would deter crime.
Houchen also claimed that the change of use would erode retail occupation – by 2%, despite the CEO Clive Heaphy arguing for more flexibility in considering planning applications. Like every other town centre, Middlesbrough isn’t short of empty shops.
The real reason
So, what is the real reason for Houchen’s veto? It boils down to his relationship with the Conservative government.
Live Well’s move to the Cleveland Centre is funded with a £4mn grant from central government’s Levelling Up Partnership funds. An employment hub for the Cleveland Centre is to receive £1.25mn.
The grant, announced in February this year, comes from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. It is being managed through Middlesbrough Council and not from Houchen’s Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). In the press releases about the Levelling Up Partnership money, Houchen was not mentioned. At the time he was under a cloud while Michael Gove’s review of the TVCA was being conducted and Gove was trying to distance himself from him.
But times have changed. Following his re-election Houchen is again the Golden Boy, and Gove leaves parliament at the general election next month. The planning rejection is the chest-beating of a triumphant silver back gorilla.
What happens next?
The grant for the move has a deadline of 31 March 2025, although the council is allowed to defray costs with their capital financing. The grant is also specific to the itemised project.
So, is this the end of the Live Well expansion? Its current lease at the Dundas Arcade expires in December.
What will happen to over £5mn in grants? Will it find its way onto Lord Houchen’s desk?
The real reasons for Houchen’s veto could explain the secretive nature of the planning board meeting, after two postponements. Allegations are flying that applicant officials were not invited to speak; the doors were locked; and no official minutes were taken.
Houchen doesn’t normally need to use his casting vote on the MDC Planning Board, he can rely on faithful Conservative Councillor Mieka Smiles. She was absent from last Friday’s meeting as she was on a cruise (she’s a travel writer for the Mail).
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