Gresham: Secrecy row over £120m Middlesbrough plans

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen says the early Gresham designs are confidential for commercial reasons

Early plans for the future of Middlesbrough's town centre will be kept confidential, despite criticism from the town's MP and mayor.

Developers for the Gresham regeneration project were appointed at a meeting of the Middlesbrough Development Corporation's board on Wednesday.

However, their indicative proposals for the £120m scheme currently remain under wraps for "commercial reasons".

MP Andy McDonald and Mayor Chris Cooke have repeated calls for transparency.

'Absolute secrecy'

The meeting of the mayoral-led MDC saw the vote to appoint developers Tarras Park Properties and iMpeC Developments taken behind closed doors.

Labour's Chris Cooke described the decision to exclude public and press from most of the meeting as "worrying" and told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had hoped for a more open and transparent discussion.

Following the meeting, Mr McDonald accused Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen of maintaining "absolute secrecy" around the plans and criticised MDC for withholding the proposals from the public.

Mr Houchen said the information in the developers' report, which is understood to contain illustrative proposals for Gresham, "has to be confidential" for commercial reasons.

Confirming that no detailed plans had yet been drawn up for the regeneration scheme, he accused Mr Cooke of leaking the report to the MP and said he had reported the matter.

He added: "The decision made at MDC board was simply to appoint a development partner who will now begin to work with the MDC to develop detailed plans for Gresham based on the high-level masterplan that was consulted on publicly and agreed unanimously by the board."

'Astonishing' intervention

The meeting came after a row about the plans broke out between the three politicians with Andy McDonald calling for a halt to the project, saying there were a "million questions" hanging over it.

Accusing MDC of "repeatedly blindsiding" Middlesbrough Council, Mr Cooke also raised concerns as he said the Gresham plans were drawn up without local authority involvement.

Both called for more transparency over the scheme.

In response, Mr Houchen described the MP's intervention as "astonishing" and accused him of trying to "smear and delay progress in the town".