Only two weeks ago I wrote about some promising developments in governance within the Tees Valley. I was talking about the new Audit and Governance committees (AGCs) at two of the local development corporations.
Hold the front page
However, I was about to become disillusioned by two recent events, notably the meetings of the other two AGCs within the remit of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). The first, on 25 February, was a meeting of the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) AGC. This was followed the next day by a meeting of the TVCA AGC. Unlike the two new AGCs that I wrote about a fortnight ago (the Hartlepool and Middlesbrough Development Corporation AGCs respectively), the two that met this week have been established for a while. The STDC AGC can be traced back to January 2018. The TVCA AGC has existed since August 2022. Prior to this it was known as the Audit & Risk Committee.
If it’s Tuesday, this must be the STDC
So 25 February brought us to the Business Suite at Teesside Airport again. James Waterson has recently written about the unsuitability of this venue for public authority meetings. You can read that here, and this meeting was to be one of the worst examples of this yet. Teesside Airport is used by a company called Draken to train RAF pilots, and the sound of their jets continually disrupted the meeting. The agenda for this meeting can be found in ‘Further Reading’ at the end of this article.
Meet the chairman
The chair of this committee is Mike Sharp. Mike is a director of Casper Shipping Ltd. Casper Shipping ‘has been appointed by the STDC to provide a customs consultancy service regarding the Primary Customs Zone at Teesside Freeport’. Mike’s full declaration appears in ‘Further Reading’ at the end of this article.
The Invisible Man will see you now
Item 4 reads ‘To receive a report from the Group Chief Executive’. The STDC CEO may be John Barnes. Or he may still only be the Chief Operating Officer. We just don’t know. And nobody seems to have told the TVCA administrators that there hasn’t been a TVCA Group Chief Executive since the last one vanished under mysterious circumstances two months ago. The de facto CEO of the TVCA is now Gary Macdonald, the Group Director of Finance and Resources. So Gary presented the ‘Executive Update’. This update can be found on Page 12 of the STDC AGC agenda.
Teesworks ‘progress’ update
There was quite a list. Enabling works for Redcar Park + Ride have commenced. You can read more information about that here. The SeAH wind farm factory had been visited by King Charles III. SeAH had just started receiving plate steel deliveries at South Bank Quay. This wasn’t news though. Teesworks’ spokesman Neil Young told us exactly the same thing four months ago, on 1 November 2024, when we took a tour of the site.
Back to the future
Gary told the committee that SeAH will actually start production some time during 2025. Back on 1 November, Neil Young told us that production would start by the end of January 2025. We look forward to an update on this from Neil, or indeed any spokesman for the TVCA, STDC or Teesworks. Apart from Gary Macdonald, who seems to have been kept out of the loop.
Dorman Point zone
Gary confirmed that work is continuing to remediate the Dorman Point zone in order to build the Grangetown Incinerator. Construction of the incinerator, also known as the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TVERF) would start in the second half of this year. The Chair thought that this must be a mistake, and that Teesworks meant the second quarter, not the second half. No, it wasn’t a mistake. He needn’t worry. It won’t be either. But the Executive Update states that the status on remediation of land at Dorman Point is unchanged, with 60% of the site complete. On 1 November 2024, Neil Young had assured us that remediation was 100% complete.
Houchen’s hydrogen hype
Gary confirmed that Teesworks is in advanced talks with a supplier for a green hydrogen factory at Lackenby. This doesn’t make sense, because Ben Houchen has already announced that the supplier is EDF. This announcement was made three years ago. Houchen, Macdonald, Teesworks and the STDC really need to explain why no progress has been made in three years. And Teessiders need to be told when EDF withdrew from the project.
A flaw in the system
So why does it take a journalist to uncover this information? Surely, this is the job of this committee, and others like it? The STDC AGC has existed for five years and has apparently never held the STDC to account for anything. Most of the 28 recommendations that were raised by the Tees Valley Review happened because governance of the STDC and Teesworks was almost non-existent. Yet, here we are in 2025, carrying on as if nothing has happened.
The foundry
A blue hydrogen plant is due to be built at the ‘Foundry’ zone of Teesworks, next to the proposed Net Zero Teesside power station. However, before any work commences at the foundry, Teesworks needs to complete the demolition of Redcar Blast Furnace, which has been ongoing since November 2022. You can get an analysis of progress at Teesworks, from somebody who actually knows what is going on, here.
Site maintenance
Board member Geoff Westmoreland expressed concerns to Gary about the assessment of on-site bridge structures within Teesworks. Some structures will require intervention. This could be an understatement. The area contains numerous massive structures, and they could represent a major liability going forward. Teesworks past modus operandi has always been to privatise the profits and nationalise the losses. Any costs, therefore, will be borne by the STDC, whose ultimate backstop is the public purse.
London Bridge is falling down
I’d pay particular attention to the bridges across Tees Dock Road, connecting the Lackenby and Dorman Point zones. These structures are more than sixty years old now. The ‘hot metal railway’ between Redcar and Lackenby would also be a cause for concern. The railway includes four massive bridges, built to a higher specification than any other rail bridges in the UK, because they had to carry 350-tonne torpedo ladles. Construction of these bridges began fifty years ago. I’ve completed a timeline detailing the complex history of this area to give an idea of the scale of the problem. The timeline can be found in ‘Further Reading’ at the end of this article.
Ernst and Young (EY) External Audit Update
And so we moved on to the next agenda item. An almost identical item cropped up at the TVCA AGC on 26 February, so I’ll cover this in detail later on. However, Councillor Peter Grogan, the representative of the TVCA AGC, asked Clare Mellons of EY about a recent press report. Leigh Jones of Teesside Lead had reported that EY may write to the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, raising their concerns about TVCA accounts. Clare assured Peter that, should EY wish to make ‘statutory recommendations’, these would be made to the STDC first. Nobody in the room pretended to understand this distinction. Angela Rayner would soon find out anyway.
Internal Audit Update
Gary McCulloch, of internal auditors TIAA presented several reports. Chair Mike Sharp thanked Gary for his contribution then called the next item on the agenda. Gary had to interrupt Mike to remind him that he still had another two reports to present. Is Mike as sharp as a tack? In this instance, no, he isn’t.
Review of Complaints Policy
The Group Chief Legal Officer Emma Simson was seeking approval of a new Complaints Policy. Or rather, she wasn’t, because Emma was on annual leave. This was left to Gary Macdonald, naturally. Peter Grogan observed that the January meeting of the TVCA AGC had noted that some elements of the Complaints Policy may have been copied and pasted from documents produced by other public authorities.
Thanks for coming in, Peter
However, Peter was confusing the Complaints Policy with the ‘Managing Unreasonable Behaviour from Members of the Public Policy’ that was introduced (and rejected) at that meeting. Unusually, Peter Grogan was shouted down by members of the public in the public gallery for this faux pas. Gary Macdonald then confirmed that Grogan had been referring to the wrong document. The moral of the story is not to copy and paste your notes from different meetings.
Regulatory Update
Geoff Westmoreland intervened but then realised that he was talking about a completely different agenda item. Everyone in the room laughed heartily, a tacit acknowledgment that attention to detail isn’t the forte of the STDC AGC.
Review of Risk Management Policy
The TVCA’s Risk and Assurance Manager Angela Hart gave an update. Mike Sharp asked Angela about the condition of the bridges within Teesworks. Mike sure was worried about those bridges. Angela wasn’t sure, but she will provide an update to the committee at the next meeting. For example, a thorough risk assessment will need to be completed.
TVCA Audit and Governance Committee meeting
And so we moved seamlessly on to the TVCA AGC the following day. The minutes of this meeting can be found in ‘Further Reading’ at the bottom of this article. Unlike the STDC AGC, this one contains representatives of all five constituent local authorities of the TVCA. The chair of the committee, Labour Councillor Mandy Porter, represents Darlington. Councillor Peter Grogan, tired from his exertions at the previous day’s STDC AGC sent Conservative Councillor Paul Salvin as his substitute to represent Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. Stockton Council’s voice was Councillor Mohammed Mazi, who made no contribution to proceedings other than to laugh at Paul Salvin’s jokes.
Credit where credit is due
The two remaining local authority representatives, Nicky Walker of Middlesbrough, and Melanie Morley of Hartlepool did their committee work effectively. It felt like Groundhog Day as we moved on to the next agenda item, a report from external auditors EY. Clare Mellons from EY was available on Zoom, but we never discovered why, as she didn’t speak. Fortunately Mark Rutter, also of EY, was in the room. Nicky Walker asked Mark about the TVCA’s failure to meet its statutory obligation to publish its draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) on its website. Mark noted that the AGS isn’t, strictly speaking, an audit requirement, and that the TVCA isn’t the only public authority to fail this test.
Melanie Morley asked why the TVCA still hasn’t made a provision for court costs relating to the High Court Case against PD Ports. One reason may be that the TVCA wants to delay disclosure of the fact that the case, which it could never win, is going to cost £4mn in public funding. For a case that was instigated by two Joint Venture partners in the slim hope that they would make a financial gain from it. Privatise the gains, nationalise the losses.
Value for Money? There’s a first time for everything
Just as with the previous day’s STDC AGC, Gary Macdonald was effectively in charge. But, when Melanie Morley raised the issue of the TVCA’s ongoing failure to provide Value for Money, Gary mentioned the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE is still investigating the deaths of two demolition workers at South Bank coke ovens in 2019. It may be that there is a significant contingent liability in relation to this incident. If so, we should be told about it.
Unfounded comments?
Nicky Walker and Melanie Morley took exception to the TVCA’s statement regarding ‘adverse publicity and unfounded comments made in relation to the organisations which sparked the Tees Valley Review’. The fact that the review had to make 28 recommendations for improvement would indicate that these comments had not been ‘unfounded’.
Ben Houchen’s spokesman
At this stage, Paul Salvin intervened and said, three times, that these comments were not only ‘unfounded’, but were ‘lies’. This language is inappropriate, and the chair should have censured Salvin for his conduct. Instead, Mandy Porter insisted that the minutes of the meeting should record the objections of Nicky Walker and Melanie Morley to the comments made by the TVCA. Hopefully the minutes will also record that inappropriate comments were made by the representative of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
Cynical and ambitious politicians
We can’t be certain of the motive behind Paul Salvin’s outrageous behaviour at this committee. However, we do know that Salvin is trying to raise his profile as part of his bid to gain the Conservative Party nomination for the Redcar constituency in the 2028 General Election. On a separate note, Peter Morris has written for North East Bylines about the TVCA’s failure to account to this committee. His account is essential reading, and can be found here.
Stop press
A third TVCA-related meeting was due to take place on 27 February. This was the Middlesbrough Development Corporation Planning Board. As James Waterson pointed out in his article about TVCA meeting failures, these meetings inexplicably take place in Darlington instead of Middlesbrough. But, that’s a moot point, because the meeting was cancelled just hours before it was due to take place owing to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. This is not an adequate explanation.
Thanks to James Waterson for providing additional material for this article.
Further reading
STDC AGC agenda, 25 February 2025
Mike Sharp, declaration of interest
Teesside Steelworks Timeline
TVCA AGC agenda, 26 February 2025
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