Tees Valley

Tees Valley is a combined authority area in the north of England around the River Tees. The combined authority was established in 2016, after public consultation in 2015. The area is not a geographical valley. 
Administrating the area is the Tees Valley Combined Authority, consisting of a mayor and six selected chairs, local enterprise partnership chair and each unitary authority. 
The area covers five boroughs: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees. Middlesbrough is the smallest of the five at only 20.8 square miles and a population of 138,400. Stockton-on-Tees borough is the largest with a population of 194,000.
Before the region, from 1968 until 1974, parts had been under the County Borough of Teesside authority. This was replaced by Cleveland county, it consisted of four districts which become unitary authorities after the county was abolished in 1996. The Darlington district in the Durham county council area became a unitary authority in 1997.
History.
Former political names are frequently still used. Rural areas, the valley’s lower south, tend to have kept older names for longer than the rest of the valley which is evident with Teesdale (dale is an old name for a valley) and Redcar and Cleveland in addition to its predecessor, Langbaurgh council. This has led the words’ meanings to narrow to refer to these areas.
For centuries, north Tees was under the Bishop of Durham's Palatine and south Tees was under a wapentake (division) of the North Riding of Yorkshire, which originally met at Langbaurgh in the centre of the wapentake.
From 1885 to 1974, Cleveland, a parliament constituency, was established in an area as a successor to the two previous entities. The constituency covered land north of the River Tees down to and including Whitby. This was counted as one of four divisions of a larger North Riding of Yorkshire, which had expanded into Durham’s historic county.
Political regions were introduced to England causing south Humber to be put with Yorkshire and Cleveland to split with its southern parts and put inside of the North East of England region with some of its other segmented land. This was due to its shared industrial heritage. The centre was no longer in the Yorkshire Moors, Cleveland being a description of the said land, but the Tees. This led to the name Teesside.
In 1974, the County Borough of Teesside was disbanded and Cleveland was reintroduced with land including Hartlepool and Guisborough. The area was partitioned between the boroughs. 
Local government reorganisation in 1996 saw the county of Cleveland broken up for a second time with the boroughs becoming independent unitary authorities; Langbaurgh was shrunk into Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton borough enlarged. At this time they were returned to the counties of North Yorkshire and County Durham for ceremonial purposes. The general area name defaulted back to Teesside.
In 1998 the neighbouring Borough of Darlington also became an independent unitary authority. Darlington, along with the four Teesside boroughs, formed the region of the Tees Valley which is used for now used statistical purposes and governmental organisation.
Governance.
Status.
The Tees Valley region does not have city status granted by the Crown. There are two central towns of Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees with Hartlepool, Redcar and Darlington also having boroughs. The Teesside conurbation excludes Darlington. 
In common usage, the terms "Tees Valley", "Teesdale", "Teesside" (urban areas) and "Cleveland" are usually used interchangeably with each term more common than the others in the west of the valley, urban areas and east of the valley, respectively.
Archaically, the southern area was known as the Langbaurgh Wapentake given its name from Langbaugh which was close to the southern original meeting point for governance. Norton was the main north valley town. Middlesbrough and Stockton have since taken over from Langbaurgh and Norton.
Local government.
The official region consists of the following 5 unitary authorities, each governed by a council:
UK Parliament.
Tees Valley is divided into seven and a part UK parliamentary borough constituencies, formed from the combined area of wards. Stockton is the only borough covered by two whole constituencies with all others holding one and a part except Hartlepool with one:
Four constituencies are held by the Conservative Party after the 2019 general election, up by three since the 2017 general election. This was expanded to five after the 2021 Hartlepool by-election. Labour hold the other two. Sedgefield's partial seat is also represented by a Conservative MP, as of the 2019 election. The two Middlesbrough seats have the largest majorities for either party. The downtown district has a sizeable Labour majority, whereas the southern outer district has a strong Conservative majority.
Combined Authority.
Tees Valley is under the strategic local governance of a combined authority. The headquarters of the TVCA are at Cavendish House in Thornaby. Voters in the region covered by the Authority, announced in October 2015, directly elected their first regional Mayor in 2017.
Mayors.
The Mayor of Tees Valley is a directly elected politician who, along with the Combined Authority, is responsible for the strategic government of Tees Valley. There are other mayors for the boroughs of Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees. Hartlepool also had a Mayor from 2002 to 2013.
The current, overarching, Tees Valley Mayor is Ben Houchen. His work is scrutinised by the elected TVCA, which may amend his annual budget (by two-thirds majority) but otherwise lacks the power to block his directives. The Mayor is responsible for Tees Valley's strategic planning and is required to produce or amend a plan for each electoral cycle.
Lord Lieutenants.
Two Lord Lieutenants (Durham and North Yorkshire) are appointed by the borough’s ceremonial counties.
Economy.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Tees Valley at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by "Office for National Statistics".
Enterprise zone.
The Tees Valley Enterprise Zone is an enterprise zone which encourages industrial development. It was initiated by the local enterprise partnership Tees Valley Unlimited and its creation was announced by the government in 2011. At its launch, the zone contained 12 sites. Four of these sites offer enhanced capital allowances, aimed at large manufacturers. These sites are Wilton International and South Bank Wharf, both in Redcar and Cleveland, Port Estates in Hartlepool and New Energy and Technology Park in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees. The remaining sites offer reduced business rates. In March 2015 the government announced that a thirteenth site is to be added, South Bank Wharf Prairie, aimed at oil and gas decommissioning business.
Businesses.
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) operated here until the late 1990s on three chemical sites at Wilton, Billingham and Seal Sands. ICI was broken up, and its many chemical manufacturing units are now operated by a large number of companies that have acquired its assets. The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), a national innovation catapult, is based at the Wilton Centre, the former corporate headquarters of ICI, which has become a multi-company research and development centre: along with CPI there are now some 60 other companies, including the cluster body NEPIC, using these R&D and business development facilities. This centre is now one of Europe's largest R&D facilities focusing on developments in the chemistry-based process industries. The area is a chemicals processing area, but recently it has diversified to become the UK's leading site for renewable biofuel research. This industrial activity is taking place in a collaborative environment facilitated by the economic cluster body, the North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).
Hartlepool has a nuclear power station, and there is a conventional CHP power station and a biomass power station operated by Sembcorp on the Wilton chemical site.Hereema Fabrication Group make North Sea platforms at the A1048/A179 roundabout in Hartlepool. 
Wilton Engineering's 50 acre fabrication and maintenance site is in Port Clarence. Barker and Stonehouse make furniture north of Middlesbrough next to the A66/A178 junction. The Teesside Steelworks near Redcar has the biggest blast furnace in Europe and is operated by Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI). Tata Steel Europe operate a pipe works at Hartlepool, a heavy beam mill near Middlesbrough and a special sections mill at Skinningrove Steelworks. Able UK operate the biggest dry dock in the UK near Seaton Carew, Hartlepool where ships can be dismantled and oil rigs can be dismantled or refurbished.
The many chemistry-based businesses on Teesside include Huntsman Tioxide plant at Greatham makes titanium dioxide. Huntsman's European headquarters are in Wynyard. Johnson Matthey Catalysts and Fujifilm Dyosynth Biologics have manufacturing units in Billingham while the Lucite International Acrylics factory and the Mitsubishi battery chemical plant are on the other side of the town. Exwold Technology operate their two extrusion and packaging facilities in Hartlepool. Banner Chemicals are adjacent to the A66 in Middlesbrough. Aldous Huxley's visit to the former ICI plant in Billingham inspired "Brave New World" and this unit now makes fertiliser for Growhow, using 1% of the UK's natural gas. SABIC perochemicals and polymers, Lotte Chemicals PET and PTA plants, Biffa recycled polymers, Huntsman polyurathanes and the Ensus Biofuels all operate at Wilton. ConocoPhillips refinery, BP Cats, Harvest Energy Biodiesel unit, Greenery Fuels, Fine Organics, Vertelus speciality chemicals and Ineos Nitriles are all based at Seal Sands, with Vopak and Simon Storage tank storage businesses nearby. Air Products are building two waste to energy units at Seal Sands, and Sita are upgrading their unit at Haverton Hill. Marlow Foods produce Quorn, and KP Snacks make McCoy's Crisps in Billingham. Santander UK's mortgages division is located in Thornaby. Tetley Tea have had their only tea bag factory in the UK at Eaglescliffe, in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, since 1969. It is the largest tea bag factory in the world and makes 18 billion tea bags a year. Its distribution centre is at nearby Newton Aycliffe in County Durham.
Teesport.
Teesport is on the River Tees and is currently the third largest port in the United Kingdom, and amongst the ten biggest in Western Europe, in terms of tonnage shipped. Its size is due to the local steel and chemical industries.
This port handles over 56 million tonnes of goods per annum which are mainly associated with the local petrochemical, chemical and steel processing industries. 
The port is an important piece of logistical infrastructure for the NEPIC cluster of process companies.PD Ports, who own Teesport, is headquartered in Middlesbrough adjacent to Middlesbrough railway station.
Transport.
Road.
Main
Triple-digit roads
Bus
Most of the area is served by Stagecoach's Tees Flex network, a pre-bookable service running in and around the valley, mainly serving Stockton on Tees, Darlington and Redcar and Cleveland. Services are operated by a dedicated fleet of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses.
Rail.
Stations
The Tees Valley boroughs have multiple railway stations within their borders. Each borough head town has a station in and named after them, Redcar has two. The stations, by borough, are as follows: 
Lines
Services
York-based LNER serves the full length of the ECML and operates most of the stations on the route. Grand Central has linked Teesside with London since December 2007 with a non-stop from York onwards. It does not have electric trains, and uses the Northallerton–Eaglescliffe Line and Durham Coast Line. 
Local-service routes in the Tees Valley are provided by Northern, based in Manchester. TransPennine Express, also based in Manchester, has long-distance services from Middlesbrough to Manchester, via West Yorkshire.
Air.
Teesside International Airport serves the area and has a regular service from Amsterdam, Schiphol airport.
Sport.
Football.
Association.
Under the Northern League they is the North Riding Football League, founded in 2017 by a merger of the Teesside Football League and Eskvale & Cleveland League
Wearside League also host North Tees Teams mainly in Division One:
Wearside League Division two:
Rugby Union.
As of the 2020–2021 season, there are nine Rugby Union Football Clubs in the region, Darlington Mowden Park is in the highest division compared to the rest of the clubs:
Cricket.
ECB PL’s North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League:
County Durham
North Yorkshire