Leaders with grand designs for town centres hear criticisms: ‘We’re not doing the basics’ [Video]

A council with bold plans to make town centres more attractive and desirable has faced criticism for “not doing the basics”.

Bosses at Stockton Council are spearheading regeneration projects in Stockton, Billingham, Norton, Ingleby Barwick, Yarm and Thornaby, linked to millions of pounds of government and lottery funding. However these grand designs ran up against warnings not to lose sight of everyday reality, and to simply “tidy up”, at a council meeting.

Not least, according to one councillor, outside the building where the community safety select committee meeting was taking place. Councillor Lynn Hall described flower beds between Stockton Library, where the committee sat, and the police station as an “absolute mess” where she had seen rats, and the outside entrance of former council HQ Municipal Buildings as “shocking”.