Can 'tumbleweed' town centre be saved?

RESIDENTS AND BUSINESS OWNERS TELL OF CONCERNS FOR THE FUTURE

- By DANIEL HODGSON Local democracy reporter

RESIDENTS and businesses have described Middlesbrough town centre as a “dump” and a “tumbleweed town”.

The closure of Next on Linthorpe Road has been described by some as another nail in the coffin of Middlesbrough town centre.

For others, this particular coffin is already six feet under, with opinions on the situation ranging from bad to worse when people chatted to the Gazette.

Crossing under the A66 and walking up Linthorpe Road one morning provided a reminder of the sheer number of units that are unoccupied.

Arriving just before 9am meant returning a bit later to check if some shutters were down because shops hadn't yet started trading for the day, or if they were closed for good.

In the vast majority of cases, shuttered shops on Linthorpe Road stayed that way as the day went on and did not open for business.

A sole beer bottle sat on the high street, with initially very few people about, although this did pick up as time went on, with a queue forming outside a bank and a few people sitting on benches.

People who stopped to chat were universally negative about the current state of the town centre and weren’t much more optimistic about its future prospects.

Retired Angela Harrison, who used to have a curtain business, said there's nothing in the “tumbleweed town” and she'd much rather go to Teesside Park or Newcastle.

The 62-year-old recited a story from years ago, when her (then) five-year-old granddaughter had told her that she didn’t want to walk down “that horrible road”.

Angela said Linthorpe Road was in an even worse state now, commenting on how it should be thriving with the university so nearby. Numerous people raised concerns about drug taking, drinking and begging, detailing their own experiences.

Fifty-year-old Alison, who lives in Darlington but works in Middlesbrough, described the latter as a “dump” and said she wouldn’t walk along it on a winter night.