News Rush: 03/26/15

Thursday, March 26, 2015

#OnThisBoroDay 2003: Keith Lamb claims even Sunderland fans are interested in getting Boro season tickets

Boro were experiencing a surge of season ticket interest and even tempting fans north of the Tees to the Riverside.

That was the claim of Keith Lamb on this day in 2003 who was delighted to report that although season ticket renewal forms were yet to be sent out, “several thousand” new inquiries had already been received.

And, said Lamb, it wasn’t just those who’d been Riverside regulars in the past or grown up going to Ayresome Park who were quizzing club bosses on season ticket details.

“With Newcastle being a sell-out for every match perhaps many supporters who have previously watched Sunderland realise that Boro is their only realistic chance of watching Premiership football next season,” said the chief executive.

Regardless of where the fans were coming from, the club believed the number of season ticket holders was about to rise which would reverse a diminishing trend over previous campaigns.

As well as the 22,500 season ticket holders, a further 16,000 people had been added to the club’s database.

So why the sudden surge of interest?

“We know the impact that Juninho has had since regaining fitness is an influencing factor, not to mention our unbeaten run of games,” said Lamb.

“The signs are very good. We believe that we have the players and staff in place who can take the club forward next season.

“This interest in season tickets indicates that many supporters feel very positively about our prospects.”

What Boro had to do was harness that interest and continue to impress on the pitch.

They did that the next time out, running out comfortable winners in a 3-0 stroll against West Brom.

And although they lost four of their last five including three defeats on the bounce when Boro couldn’t muster a goal, they did hammer Spurs 5-1 in the final home game of the season.

Surely that guaranteed even more bums on seats for the following campaign.

Teesside ahead of the pack in renewable energy field

Later this year a £250m Energy from Waste (EfW) plant will open in Billingham. It is the first of its kind in the world, and a further two Teesside EfW schemes are set to follow next year.

Plans for two new biomass plants, valued at more than £650m, are well advanced and these are taking place as renewed efforts are under way to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities to protect some of Teesside’s major industrial plants from rising carbon taxes.

At the height of last decade’s recession, things looked bleak for Teesside, with Dow Chemicals, Petroplus, Artenius and Croda all closing plants with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

But Teesside’s inherent strengths – a formidable industrial infrastructure, scientific knowledge, a suitable workforce, and planners and a local community willing to embrace heavy industry and recycling on a massive scale – make it an appealing location for energy developers.

US gases giant Air Products is in the process of investing more than £500m on two new EfW plants north of the Tees in Billingham.

Its Tees Valley 1 (TV1) facility is well into its start-up phase and will begin operations later this year, with Tees Valley 2 expected to start in 2016.

Andrew Connolly, operations director for Air Products’ Tees Valley projects, said: “The main reasons Air Products chose to invest on Teesside were because of the good access to electrical infrastructure, the excellent road and rail links and the skilled workforce in the region.

“The TV1 facility will provide around 49.9mw each of renewable electricity, generated from non-recyclable residual waste that would have previously been destined for landfill disposal.

“With the location of Air Products’ two large-scale advanced gasification facilities in Teesside, the North East of England is leading the way towards the sustainable production of energy from waste in the UK.”

Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU), the local enterprise partnership, says that in the past 18 months, £410m has been invested in Teesside’s energy sector, creating 200 permanent jobs and 700 during construction.

It says further investment of more than £1bn is expected in the coming months, creating an additional 1,500 jobs

While the green credentials of biomass are under close scrutiny, this is not deterring investment with generous renewable subsidies on offer to support its development.

Sembcorp's Wilton 10 biomass power station

Sembcorp’s Biomass Power Station (Wilton 10) was the UK’s first ever large-scale wood-to-energy power facility. The UK’s largest coal-fired plant, Drax in Yorkshire, has subsequently converted some of its load to biomass and further north two major projects are planned on Teesside.

MGT Power has been assured of Government support for its £400m Tees Renewable Energy plant. This is earmarked for the south bank of the Tees between Redcar and Middlesbrough. Meanwhile, Gaia Power has earmarked a site on the Billingham Reach Industrial Estate with a 50mw output (see graphic).

TVU says the area is ideally suited for this type of project as it has two major ports serving Scandinavia, well-managed forests in the region to provide sustainable timber and an advanced logistics network.

Stephen Catchpole, managing director of TVU, said it has developed a Low Carbon Action Plan to support the energy sector.

“Our aim, by continually developing initiatives, is to make the area a leader in biofuels and low-carbon technology.

“TVU are developing a comprehensive strategic plan to decarbonise industry, improving energy efficiency by using different feedstocks and improving the integration between different operators.

“We have worked alongside the local authorities and the private sector to bring about the City Deal, which aims to transform the Tees Valley from one of the highest carbon density areas in the UK, to the exemplar of low-carbon manufacturing for the future.

“We have a dedicated business investment team which will assist with finding the right location and acquiring funding for potential investors.”

The new Air Product’s plants have some of the lowest carbon emissions of any power-generation facilities at a little over 50g/kWh (grams per kilowatt hour), compared to coal which emits 850g/kWh.

The global drive to cut emissions has led to the imposition of carbon taxes, such as the Carbon Price Floor (CPF) which was introduced by the Government in 2011.

This levy has increased costs for Teesside’s energy-intensive industries and moves are now under way create a large-scale CCS project to protect industry from the planned further increases in the CPF.

TVU is leading the Teesside Industrial CCS Network, which includes the SSI steel works, the Growhow ammonia plant, the BOC industrial gases provider and the Lotte PET facility. Between them they have the potential to capture around seven million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Mr Catchpole said: “CCS will be a game-changer for vital industries like those here in Teesside which are major emitters but also major employers. The technology will be a crucial part of decarbonising the UK economy, while also maintaining a strong industrial base, jobs and competitiveness.”

Developments such at this will be vital to support the long-term future of members of the North East processing Industry Cluster (Nepic), which represents more than 500 North East businesses in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical sectors.

They generate in excess of £10bn of sales and comprise 30% of the North East’s industrial base, employing thousands of people.

Also in the wider Tees Valley EfW sector is the Emerald Biogas anaerobic digestion facility, in Newton Aycliffe, which began operations last year. This is the North East’s first commercial food-to-waste facility.

Meanwhile, in Redcar Biffa Polymers has developed the first integrated washing and sorting facility in the UK that is specifically designed to recycle rigid mixed plastics packaging.

Anyone driving on the A19 north to south arterial road through Teesside cannot miss EDF Energy’s Teesside offshore wind farm, 1.5km north of Redcar, which opened in 2013. The 27-turbine scheme provides 62mw of capacity.

JDR Cables

JDR cables, of Hartlepool, and Tekmar, of Newton Aycliffe, are two world-leading companies supplying the offshore wind sector. They are set to play a major role in the next phase of UK offshore wind developments which is set to be worth more than £50bn in the next 10 years.

And there was some good news earlier this year when turbine foundation-maker Offshore Structures (Britain) unveiled plans to create 350 jobs on Teesside when it took over the assets and base of TAG Energy Solutions at Haverton Hill, Billingham.

While the traditional offshore sectors, particularly the subsea contracting community, have taken a few knocks as a result of the recent oil price slump, the area is strong in fabrication with Wilton Engineering and decommissioning with Able UK.

The Tees Valley continues to play a leading role in ensuring there is a pipeline of skilled staff for the energy sector. Last year the Centre for Subsea Technology Awareness, Training and Education – C-State – was launched at Darlington College.

One of the first of its kind in the country, it has been developed by Modus Seabed Intervention Ltd in partnership with Maritime Training and Competence Solutions, Darlington College, Teesside University, TVU and Darlington Council.

Hartlepool College is a provider of high-quality technical education and training to the nuclear and offshore energy sectors with long-established training partnerships with companies such as Wilton Engineering, Heerema and Darchem Engineering.

The Tees Valley is supporting the UK onshore oil and gas industry with last year’s announcement that Redcar & Cleveland College will be part of a new multi-million-pound national training hub.

One of Teesside’s most strategically important energy assets is Teesside Gas Processing Plant north of the Tees at Seal Sands which is run by the px Group. This delivers processed gas to many nearby industrial facilities.

The px Group had previously sold the 1gw Teesside Power Plant to GDF Suez but this was closed down last year with much gas-power generation being priced out of the market by cheap coal imports.

While the ongoing developments cannot compensate for the capacity of baseload power delivered by the Teesside Power Plant they demonstrate the ongoing appetite for investing in Teesside.

Mr Catchpole added: “Tees Valley has the right infrastructure, the right skills and a proven track record of delivering large-scale energy sector projects, creating hundreds of jobs and more than £410m of private investment in the area.

“With £1bn of private investment either planned or in construction, a further 800 permanent and 800 construction jobs will be created over the next 18 months, representing a bright future for Tees Valley in the energy sector.”

There Is Nothing European About Muslim Violence

The first school I ever attended had heavy steel doors behind which lay a narrow corridor and a window of bulletproof glass. The next set of steel doors could only be opened by the former Israeli commando behind the glass. And no one was allowed to enter or leave except on a staggered schedule so that in the event of a terrorist attack not more than a handful of children and parents would be killed.

This school wasn’t in Israel. Israeli schools don’t look like this. Jewish schools in Europe do.

European Jewish institutions tend to have more of the ubiquitous Israeli security guards keeping watch (some, like Dan Uzan during the Copenhagen attacks, have paid the ultimate price) than their Israeli counterparts. More than Israel, a single non-Muslim state encircled by the shattered remnants of a Muslim empire, they feel as if they are cut off and under siege.

Pre-war Jewish synagogues and schools in the Holocaust territories of Europe were grand and baroque. The Jews who attended them lived in an atmosphere of constant anti-Semitism that has no equal today outside the Muslim world. But they refused to be afraid or to lose their sense of confidence.

Post-Holocaust Jewish institutions are anonymous modernist fortresses. The Jewish communities that survived warily retreated into themselves. Distinctive Jewish clothing wasn’t worn. The survivors kept a low profile and made sure that there was little to distinguish them from the local population.

They lost confidence in themselves and the future.

It wasn’t like this everywhere. The Jews of France and Italy suffered comparatively lower losses and maintained some of the buoyancy of the native population. The Jews of the United Kingdom who escaped Nazi occupation were naturally inward looking, but lacked the same paranoia. And the migration of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees that transformed Israel also reinvigorated stolid European Jewish communities with some of their liveliness and confidence. It is their children who are willing to match Muslim violence with violence in France. They have a confidence that the native Jews don’t.

While anti-Semitism in Western Europe remained ubiquitous, it was Muslim migration that made the fortresses necessary. It was Muslim guns and bombs that imposed the steel doors, the bulletproof glass and the security cameras along with the Israeli security guards keeping watch on them.

It took decades to even make a conversation about Muslim anti-Semitism possible. The Copenhagen synagogue targeted by Muslim terrorists last month had also been targeted by them thirty years ago. European Jewish leaders didn’t complain. Instead they built fortresses to keep the terrorists out. They didn’t expect anyone to listen and they had learned that it did no good to complain.

September 11 changed that. Muslim violence stopped being a “Jewish” problem. It became everyone’s problem. And when European Jews complained about it, they were no longer isolated.

The new millennium had seen a massive growth of Muslim population in France accompanied by an increase in anti-Semitic attacks. But the authorities attributed these attacks to vandalism, hoodlums, delinquents and petty criminals. The police often did not even bother to respond.

In 2002, French President Jacques Chirac claimed that talk of anti-Semitism in France was “propaganda” by “certain American extremist groups”. He accused American Jews under orders from Jerusalem of orchestrating an anti-French campaign. Chirac’s tantrum showed why French Jews had been so hesitant to speak up, but the negative publicity soon forced him to acknowledge the reality of anti-Semitism.

Within a decade the official European narrative shifted from random acts of vandalism to a wave of anti-Semitic violence. The shift was made possible by extensive documentation, international campaigns and a general upsurge in Muslim violence around the world. When synagogues and schools were torched, when Jews were attacked in the street, these crimes were no longer dismissed as petty vandalism.

While Chirac-style denial of anti-Semitism wavered, denial of Muslim violence remained intact. The old narrative of hooliganism was replaced by radicalism. The solution was still integration and employment. The integration narrative retains the old myth that Muslim violence is a social problem caused by French racism and a lack of jobs. ISIS is viewed as just another gang of bored teens who need to be amused.

Attacks on synagogues and schools were still framed as a backlash to Israel, rather than recognizing that the attacks on Jews in Israel and Europe were motivated by the hate embedded in Islamic scriptures.

Muslims are not the victims, either in Europe or in Israel. They are not attacking Jews in Europe because the Europeans estranged them, but because they choose to be estranged. They have made choices based on their culture and religion. And those choices must be examined on their own terms.

The debate over Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe concentrates on Israel and Europe while ignoring the fact that its victims are often neither European nor Israeli. They are Middle Eastern Jewish refugees.

Ilan Halmi, whose brutal torture and murder made headlines around the world, was from a Moroccan Jewish family. Of the four Jewish men killed in the Paris Kosher supermarket attack, at least three were from Middle Eastern Jewish families. The Muslim bigotry that their families endured in North Africa followed them to France.

The issue isn’t Israel. It isn’t even Europe. It’s Islam.

In the 19^th century, France emerged as a defender of Jews against Muslim anti-Semitism in North Africa. When France left North Africa, the Jews followed to escape Muslim anti-Semitism. Jeffrey Goldberg’s recent Atlantic article about European Jews incessantly circles the question of Israel, but Israel isn’t really the issue. Muslim attacks on Jews did not begin in the 20^th century.

When North African Jews in France are murdered by North African Muslims, is the real issue Israel or Islam?

The European left has “Israelized” Muslim attacks on Jews. Every act of racist Muslim violence is linked to Israel, but Muslim anti-Semitic violence did not begin with Israel and will not end with it.

We tend to see anti-Semitism in Europe through the lens of the Holocaust, but while the far-right hates the Jews, the type of anti-Semitism that turns schools into fortresses has little to do with Europe.

When politicians blame Muslim violence on the failure to integrate, they are admitting that the outbreaks of Muslim violence are a throwback to the Middle East. They are Islamic, rather than European, expressions of hate.

European anti-Semitism has played a role in the wave of Muslim violence by isolating Jews, by demeaning their concerns and by “Israelizing” the attacks against them. And while there are those on the far-right who engage in this behavior, it comes most often from the left. But European politicians from all sides have been willing to cover up Muslim violence and isolate Jews with their denial.

The most fitting term to describe their treachery is a familiar one from WW2; ‘Collaboration’. And it is not only the politicians who looked away from the burning of synagogues by Muslims who were collaborators. It is also those politicians who looked away from the Muslim sex grooming gangs in the UK and who refuse to take Sharia Patrol harassment seriously who acted as collaborators.

It was collaboration, rather than anti-Semitic violence, that made the Holocaust possible in so much of Europe, including France. The existence of European Jewry is not endangered by European anti-Semitism, but by European collaboration with Muslim anti-Semites.

Muslim anti-Semitism drives some Jews out of Europe to Israel, but European Jews had endured violence for many centuries. European Jews go to Israel not only to escape, but to find something. They are leaving behind the defeatism that hangs over Europe for a sense of purpose. And they are not alone.

A quarter of French university graduates want to leave the country. 134,000 British citizens left the UK in 2013. Emigration from Sweden hit record numbers last year with half a percent of the country leaving.

Europeans, Jewish and non-Jewish, are leaving Europe.

They are leaving behind Socialist governments, high taxes, violent Muslim gangs and a sense of despair. They are leaving behind burning synagogues, Sharia patrols, moral vacuums and sex grooming gangs. Muslim anti-Semitism is not a European problem, but it is the symptom of a very European problem.

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A Message from Pro-Freedom Iranians to Obama

On March 19, 2015, President Barack Obama delivered his Nowruz (Persian New Year) address to the Iranian people and the leaders of Iran. It is doubtful that many ordinary Iranians actually got to hear or read President Obama’s message. After all, Iran is a tightly controlled dictatorship run by the Ayatollah Khamenei, his clerical clique and his enforcers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The “elected” president, Hassan Rouhani, is little more than a figurehead.

When the Iranian people did rise up in June of 2009 to protest the fraudulent re-election of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they were brutally suppressed. Gross human rights abuses have continued during the so-called “moderate” Rouhani’s presidency. Journalists, students, women’s rights advocates and members of civil society languish in jail. Executions have increased.

Thus, President Obama should not hold his breath waiting for a candid response to his message from the Iranian people suffering under their regime’s tyrannical rule. However, if they could write him a letter, perhaps it would read something like the following:

Thank you, President Obama, for your Nowruz wishes. However, for us it is a bittersweet New Year. We cannot celebrate the holiday while we live under a tyrannical regime that suffocates us every day.

You send us your “hopes for progress between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the International community, including the United States.” We would rather you send us your hopes for an Iran in which we can live, work, pray, speak and think as we wish.

Our government is illegitimate. Our leaders despise and hold down any of us who yearn for freedom. And they hate America as much as they hate Israel. Didn’t you hear what our “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khamenei exclaimed to his loyal followers recently? He said “Death to America, of course.”

As you know, Ayatollah Khamenei has the final word on all matters of state, including what Iran is willing to accept in any nuclear agreement. Do you seriously think you can believe a word he says? We don’t. But apparently you do, given your reference in your Nowruz message to a so-called fatwa that Ayatollah Khamenei supposedly issued against the development of nuclear weapons. No actual fatwa text issued by Khamenei that unconditionally prohibits the development or production of a nuclear weapon has ever been published, as far as we know. He did once say in a speech that “using such weapons are a great sin,” but that statement alone – even if it can be believed – does not rise to the level of an official fatwa, nor does it preclude the development of such weapons for intimidation purposes.

You also tell us in your Nowruz message that our leaders have complied with the commitments they made in the preliminary nuclear agreement currently in effect. “Iran has halted progress on its nuclear program and even rolled it back in some areas,” you claim. Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. President, but the UN inspectors continue to complain that they are denied answers to their questions about certain military aspects of our government’s nuclear program. And the National Council of Resistance of Iran – yes, there is still popular resistance to the regime you are negotiating with – has reported very recently of yet another secret nuclear facility.

Lifting the sanctions could provide us some limited relief, but it will keep the oppressive regime in place. We know for sure that our leaders will use the freed up monies and resources to expand the regime’s empire in the Middle East and North Africa, and develop its nuclear arms arsenal. They are already doing just that, while we continue to suffer economically in our daily lives.

Nothing has changed since June of 2009 when so many of us who risked our lives protesting in the streets of Tehran and other cities pleaded for your support. One of our student protesters tried to communicate with you and the American people directly back then. He pleaded in a television broadcast:

“I’m addressing President Obama directly – how can a government that doesn’t recognize its people’s rights and represses them brutally and mercilessly have nuclear activities? This government is a huge threat to global peace. Will a wise man give a sharp dagger to an insane person? We need your help international community. Don’t leave us alone.”

You left us alone to fend for ourselves, while protesters were being shot, beaten, imprisoned and tortured. Sure, you denounced the violence against peaceful protesters, but you legitimized the tyrannical regime by saying that “We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran.” You are doing the same thing today.

Your State Department’s spokesperson at the time, Ian Kelly, explained why you ignored our aspirations: “We have to look at our own national interest too—nonproliferation is a very important priority in this administration.”

We were expendable then in pursuit of your fool’s mission to negotiate a deal with an untrustworthy, repressive regime. You are still treating as pawns today. If only you had shown the same concern for the Iranian people protesting in the streets of Tehran that you did for the Egyptian people protesting in the streets of Cairo during the Arab Spring, when you appeared on television pressuring Egyptian President Mubarak, a U.S. ally, to step down.

You closed your Nowruz message by telling us that “it is up to all of us, Iranians and Americans, to seize this moment and the possibilities that can bloom in this new season.”

There can be no “new season” – no springtime of hope – as long as the repressive regime you are willing to legitimize remains in place.

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Netanyahu rips veil from US diplomacy: American journalist

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of a Palestinian state has ripped the veil from the US-backed Middle East “peace” facade, an American political commentator says.

Ian Williams, a senior analyst at Foreign Policy in Focus, a policy think tank based in Washington, DC, made the remarks on Wednesday while commenting on US President Barack Obama’s assertion that the chances for peace under Netanyahu have become “dim”.

Obama said Tuesday he has “substantial” policy difference with Netanyahu and the United States is considering whether to back Palestinian efforts to seek UN recognition for an independent state.

“The US policy has been based upon self-delusion,” Williams said. “Anybody, who’s read Netanyahu, or, by the way, the other Zionist leaders over the years, knows full well that they regard talking about peace is something that they have to do keep the Americans and the rest of the world from taking action against them.”

“As long as they keep talking about peace and thwarting it at every possible opportunity, they’ve managed to keep the diplomatic wolves from the door. But Netanyahu’s statement ripped that veil from the American diplomacy,” he added.

US President Barack Obama (center) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York. (file photo)

Williams said that Israelis have said “what everybody has known all along, that they have no intension of recognizing a Palestinian state.”

“What this has done is thrown into relief tensions within the both Israel and the American Jewish community, because there are many American Zionists who want a two-state solution, because the alternative is Israeli domination in perpetuity of a Palestinian minority, or the threat of a Palestinian minority inside the occupied territories in Israel becoming a majority,” he stated. “And either of those is unpalatable to them.”

Netanyahu had declared shortly before last week’s Israeli elections that he rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, which has been a “key element” of US foreign policy.

He backtracked on his comments after he was reelected, but the White House believes the damage has already been done.

Even if you accept Netanyahu’s reversal in position, “it’s hard to envision” how to get to a secure Palestinian state, Obama said.

The US president also said he would reevaluate the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv following Netanyahu’s comments.

His comments were the latest evidence that the toxic relationship between the White House and the Zionist regime has reached a new low.

GJH/GJH

Visualsoft crowned company of the year in Teesside heat of North East Business Awards

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Stockton e-Commerce firm Visualsoft has been crowned Company of the Year at the Teesside heat of the North East Business Awards 2015.

The best of Teesside business gathered for a glittering awards ceremony, held tonight at Teesside University’s Olympia Building.

The 12 winners will go head-to-head with companies from two other heats - Tyneside & Northumberland and Durham & Wearside, at the Regional Final held at Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield, on April 23.

Key speaker on the night at the awards was British Army veteran Simon Weston OBE, who has become well known throughout the UK for his charity work and recovery after suffering severe burns during the Falklands War.

Visualsoft, which employs more than 180 staff and has a yearly turnover of £6.7m, has seen rapid growth. It provides website design and tailored online marketing services to more than 850 clients. The company has developed a series of e-commerce platforms with a growing army of online retailer users. The company also gives staff unlimited holidays, free breakfasts and protein shakes among other benefits, an approach that has lifted productivity according to bosses.

In his speech at the event, Gazette Media Company managing director Robert Cuffe said: “I’m a Teessider. I’m optimistic. This area has more reasons to be confident about its future than for many a year.

“Look around tonight - a record attendance - representing a business community that’s confident, varied and led by talented, creative and resourceful leaders.”

Now in their fourth decade, the North East Business Awards are organised by the Gazette and its sister paper on Tyneside, the Journal, in association with the North East Chamber of Commerce.

The full list of winners are:

• ElringKlinger (GB) Ltd - Green Award, sponsored by Trinity Mirror plc

• Hart Biologicals - Export Award, sponsored by Evolution Business & Tax Advisors LLP

• Teesside Industrial Solutions Ltd - Newcomer of the Year, sponsored by Virgin Money

• Applied Integration UK Ltd - Manufacturing Award, sponsored by ABB Consulting

• Gus Robinson Developments Ltd - Heart of the Community Award, sponsored by Castlegate Shopping Centre

• Tomlinson Hall & Co Ltd - Small Business Award, sponsored by FW Capital

• Integrity Search Ltd - Digital and Social Media Award, sponsored by Teesside University

• PJA Distribution - Let’s Grow Award, sponsored by University of Sunderland

• Hart Innovations - Innovation Award, sponsored by Tees Valley Business Compass

• Engineering and Marine Services Ltd - Services Award, sponsored by Middlesbrough College

• Tees Components - Apprenticeship Award, sponsored by Nifco UK

• Visualsoft - Company of the Year, sponsored by Deloitte

Check GazetteLive on Friday for video footage and more pictures from the event.

Boost for Teesside schools as eleven secure Government funding to improve facilities

Eleven schools across Teesside have secured funding for vital building improvements through the Government’s Condition Improvement Fund.

Viewley Hill Academy, in Hemlington, and Green Lane Primary Academy, in Acklam, are among the schools which received the good news today.

Viewley Hill plan to use the money to renew a roof on their Andover Way site while Green Lane Primary will be extending the school’s hall, something which co-head teacher Jackie Walsh said will have a “huge” impact on the school curriculum.

“We are delighted to hear the news that we have been accepted for funding. Our hall has never been big enough for the amount of pupils we have, so an extended hall will mean it won’t take as long to serve pupils at lunch time. This will make a tremendous difference to our curriculum as time will no longer be wasted.”

Sites in Stockton, including Thornaby Academy, Abbey Hill Acadmey, and Saint Bede’s Catholic Academy are also set to benefit from the funding.

Stockton Sixth Form College are now set to upgrade external draining channels and reposition fencing on the grounds. to allow students easy access to the outdoor space.

Principal Joanna Bailey, said: “We are thrilled to have received monies to make improvements to key aspects of our college buildings.

“We have made significant strides in recent years to enhance the quality of our college accommodation and, thanks to grants made available by the government, have been able to invest in ensuring students have the best possible teaching and learning environment.

“We look forward to seeing these important changes being made in the coming months.”

In Redcar, Saint Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School plan to use the money for a rood replacement, while Saint Peter’s Catholic College of Maths and Computing will carry out refurbishments including an extended dining hall.

Saint Paulinus Catholic Primary School, St Mary’s RC Primary School and Saint Bede’s Catholic Primary have also been granted funds for refurbishments.

Forty academies and sixth-form colleges across the North-east will receive a share of £46million in 2015-16 for such school building improvements and expansion projects.

Nunthorpe Academy was the only school to miss out on the bid, which they had planned to use to complete essential hardwire repairs.

Schools Minister David Laws said: “To create a stronger economy and a fairer society it is crucial that we invest in education, so that every child has a fair start in life.

“Since 2010 the government has invested more than £18 billion in school buildings, and we recently announced a further £6 billion to help drive-up school building standards across the country in the coming years.

“Thanks to Condition Improvement Fund thousands more pupils and their teachers across England will benefit from safe, high-quality classrooms.”

Got to Dance star Freddie Huddleston taking to stage at Middlesbrough Theatre

His tap dancing gained him a place in the semi-finals of TV series Got to Dance - and now Freddie Huddleston is taking to the stage in Middlesbrough.

Freddie, 24, is to appear this weekend in musical Back to Broadway at Middlesbrough Theatre, where he’ll be performing routines including the famous Fred Astaire number Singing in the Rain, as well as choreographing the show.

“I was in Back to Broadway last year and managed to combine that with appearing live in the semi-final of Got to Dance on Sky One as we weren’t on stage that weekend,” said Freddie.

“This year I’m not only dancing in Back to Broadway but I’m choreographing the dance routines, which is something I’m very excited about because I’m as passionate about choreography as I am about dancing.

“The choreography is going to be very different for the new tour with lots of different ideas.

This is the fourth nationwide tour of Back to Broadway. It will include routines from musicals including The Lion King, Dirty Dancing, Miss Saigon, Hairspray,

Mamma Mia, and Chicago.

Back to Broadway is at The Middlesbrough Theatre on Saturday at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £17.50 per person (£16 for concessions) and can be booked on http://bit.ly/1Ne8BH9

Pictures: Redcar nightclub goes back to the 1980s for nostalgic charity photoshoot

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A popular Redcar nightclub went back to the 1980s for a nostalgic charity photoshoot.

The Deck - known for many years as the Top Deck - has always been a magnet for clubbers.

And yesterday , with 1980s music booming out, there was plenty of posing beneath the Bath Street club’s glitterball for a photoshoot with a difference.

Paul Kitchener, of Peak Image Photography, arranged a 1920s photo session in the town’s Regent Cinema last month, with proceeds from a calendar of the images to go to charity.

It was such a success, Paul decided to do something similar, only on a different theme.

And when he talked to people about The Deck, everything clicked into place.

As at The Regent, various Redcar businesses were happy to help by supplying the models and recreating the fashion.

Paul said: “I love the Top Deck - it’s part of the furniture in Redcar and even though they’ve just redecorated, it still has that funky 80s feel to it.

“We had the music blasting and everyone was in the mood.”

Among those helping out were Anthony Puckrin of Juke Barbering, Karen Griffiths of the Medusa hair salon, Julie Mohan from Get The Retro/Vintage Look, makeup artist Anna Woodward, videographer Michael Streenan and, supplying the food, Jac’s fish and chip restaurant.

Paul added: “I was only nine at the end of the 80s. In fact everyone involved were only whippersnappers, so we had to do a bit of research.”

Paul now hopes to use the images to raise funds for the Coatham House young people’s charity, possibly as T-shirt images or in a photobook.

To see more of the images, visit the Peak Image or The Deck, Redcar pages on Facebook.

An Anti-Marxist Revolution in Brazil?

In recent weeks and months, we have been flooded with news about the Syriza “miracle,” about how the Greek leftists will manage to pull the country out of the state of decay in which it languishes. The Greek Finance Minister was placed high on all pedestals of European and universal glory, as if he were John Maynard Keynes and Hegel himself combined into one. Propagandistic nonsense has reached its utmost peak. Too little or even nothing at all is said, however, about how the house of cards built by revolutionary Dilma Rousseff – a former combatant in the urban guerrilla organizations – is coming down. Mature and responsible, the country’s civil society is not the prisoner of leftist myths. It refuses to go on a wild goose chase, as it happens in so many other places.

Millions of people are out demonstrating, asking for president Dilma Rousseff’s resignation. The endemic corruption of the leftist regime is being denounced by the masses that have taken to the streets, but largely ignored by the media elites, which are connected to those neo-Bolshevik channels financially supported by the Putin autocracy and its friends. The Sao Paulo Forum with its radical exhortations continues its maneuvers of hypnotizing the public opinion. Lies abound, but are starting to not be believed anymore. Protesters are being slandered as “American agents”, “spies”, “fascists” etc. Yet, less people than ever buy into these slanders.

The protests are being organized by a grassroots initiative with an openly liberal (non-leftist) orientation – the Free Brazil Movement (MBL). Signatures are being gathered for Dilma Rousseff’s dismissal. It turns out that philosopher Olavo de Carvalho’s anti-totalitarian ideas have taken root in Brazil. Olavo, a remarkable social thinker execrated by the Left, knows a great deal about Marxism and revolutionary utopianism in general, at any rate a far greater deal than Dilma and her followers. He is familiar with the famous 11^th thesis on Feuerbach: “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it.” The world is changing in Brazil.

The hyper-corrupt bureaucracy of the Workers’ Party, so outrageously obvious during the World Cup in 2014, is coming face to face with a resurgent civil society. What is being foreshadowed, it seems, is a peaceful, non-violent revolution. Marxist revolutions are explosions of violence. But not the anti-totalitarian ones. It is now clear that millions of Brazilians feel the need to expose twaddle, nonsense, irresponsible foolishness, cynical demagoguery masquerading as a springboard for collective bliss.

Dilma and her crowd may not be Marxists in a traditional, strictly ideological sense, they accept and even profit from some liberal economic principles, but, when all is said and done, they still share, subliminally, the Marxist anti-capitalist and “anti-imperialist” revolutionary delusions, expectations, and fever. Therefore, their enduring affinities with the continental far left, including Hugo Chavez’s heir, Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

The protests are directed against the acute institutional, social, economic, and moral crisis that has dramatically worsened over these past few months. I do not know if a revolution to the full extent of the term has begun crystallizing as of right now, but this is certainly a revolutionary situation as defined by Lenin himself: “Those at the top cannot govern by using the old methods, those at the bottom, the great masses, beyond social divisions, no longer accept them.”

A fool’s tongue is long enough to cut his own throat: in this case, a Marxist one turned upside down! The great historian Robert Conquest’s dream is gradually coming to life–a united front against radical fallacies. It is high time these chimeras were exposed for what they really are: myths, legends, delusions, fantasies of salvation, ideological fairytales with pernicious effects.

This essay was translated from Romanian into English by Monica Got .

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North East Business Awards Teesside Heat LIVE: Updates from Teesside University's Olympia Building

We're live from the Teesside heat of the North East Business Awards, and will be announcing the results here in real time.

We'll also be providing photos and reports from our team at Teesside University’s Olympia Building, where companies will discover who goes head-to-head with the winners from two other sub-regions: Tyneside & Northumberland and Durham & Wearside.

If you're attending the event, use #nebizawards and your tweet could feature in the blog below. Good luck to all those taking part!

Alan Ransome OBE urges Teesside firms to Get Your Head into Digital

Alan Ransome OBE today urged local firms to get involved in an initiative that could see an extra £10m pumped into the local economy.

Alan is one of a handful of businessmen and women spearheading Get Your Head Into Digital - five weeks of free online skills workshops to help Tees Valley companies increase their turnover.

It’s hoped more than 200 firms will improve the way they use digital technologies as a result of the workshops, allowing them to work smarter, reach more customers and grow profits.

Alan, who runs Ransome Sporting Goods, said: “Whatever kind of business you have, you need to inform your customers about it, and having a website is a very clear way to do that.

“I spotted the potential of websites very early on – more than ten years ago - because they can provide customers with an opportunity to view products.”

Get Your Head Into Digital is part of the Government’s national SME Digital Capability Challenge Programme and is being run by Teesside’s DigitalCity and the Tees Valley Business Compass.

More than 100 businesses have signed up and more are registering every day - organisers say those who’ve yet to sign up should do so without delay as the workshops end on Thursday

The workshops – taking place in Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool, Darlington and Redcar and Cleveland - cover a range of topics including getting your business online, selling online, using social media to reach more customers, business banking online and accessing business files from any device anywhere in the world.

Alan has long been using online tools to help him keep in touch with his business when he’s travelling around the world.

“I can log into the company computer wherever I am in the world, access my emails on my iPhone and use Skype to talk to people back in the office via a video-call,” he said.

“Also, if I go to see a customer I can catch up on my emails when I come out without needing to return to the office to do it – it saves a huge amount of time.”

Today Ransome Sporting Goods imports and distributes a vast array of equipment from some of the biggest brand names at its 100,000 sq ft warehouse and head office in Queensway for table tennis, basketball, netball, squash, badminton, tennis, baseball, softball, gymnastics and rounders.

It supplies John Lewis, Argos and Amazon among others.

Find out more about Get Your Head Into Digital and book a place on a workshop at http://bit.ly/1BNngW8

Business Secretary Vince Cable officially opens Middlesbrough recycling firm's new £450k extension

Vince Cable rejected criticism of a lack of support for North-east industry by the coalition Government as he visited a Teesside success story today.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills officially opened Ward Recycling’s new facility in South Bank - which includes a £450,000 glass clean-up extension.

Over the past 18 months the firm, which employs 146 people, has seen its overall turnover grow to more than £8m due to a rapid increase from foreign markets.

The extension is expected to create up to 56 jobs while safeguarding 28.

It forms part of a wider £3.2m investment supported by a £500,000 grant from Let’s Grow - a £30m Regional Growth Fund programme operated by The Gazette and its sister paper The Journal, BE Group and UNW LLP.

Vince Cable with manager Gareth Godwin

During his visit The Lib Dem minister hit back at Lord Beecham’s recent claims that he “should be ashamed of himself” for his part in the abolition of regional devleopment agency One North East.

The Labour peer said the Government had failed to invest in the North-east with the region ending up with a third less money under the Regional Growth Fund (which replaced ONE) than it did under ONE.

But Dr Cable said Lord Beecham - former leader of Newcastle City Council - was “totally missing the point”.

“The key thing is the leverage. For every £1 the Government puts in is how much more money you’re getting from other people.”

He said it is “five times as much” under the RGF.

Dr Cable added he believed that Teesside is performing well in representing itself to Government in a bid to regenerate the area.

“It is one of the first enterprise partnerships to get off the ground,” he said. “They work pretty well as a team. Teesside is acknowledged in the bigger picture.

“I can see that they have been very successful in new manufacturing - this is a very good example.”

Dr Cable unveiled an official plaque to mark the completion of the 5,000 sq ft extension and joined manager Gareth Godwin for a tour of the site, which processes around 1,300 tonnes of recycling each week.

Established in 2002, Ward Recycling operates nationwide Bring Bank collection services, dry recycling sorting and kerbside collections.

Vince Cable at Ward Recycling, South Tees Industrial Estate

It first opened its glass beneficiation plant in 2012, which produces a material that is free from sharps and is commonly used to filter water for human consumption.

Manager Gareth Godwin said: “The business secretary’s visit has been a great way to mark the latest stage of our ambitious expansion.

“This investment represents the progress we’ve made as a company and has gone a long way to establishing the area as a hub for the green energy industry.

“The help provided by UKTI, Teesside University and the Let’s Grow fund demonstrates the strong support infrastructure in place in the North-east of England and the excellent opportunities it has on offer.”

Dr Cable added: “A strong manufacturing sector is at the heart of a sustainable economy, driving growth and enabling British businesses to have the confidence to invest and innovate.

“I was pleased to see Ward Recycling’s impressive expansion plans. Their state-of-the-art facility will enable them to exploit overseas markets and increase their workforce.

“Through the Regional Growth Fund, we have supported businesses to make their ambitions a reality, while generating significant private sector investment and creating highly skilled jobs.”

Redcar MP Ian Swales - on his last official engagement as an MP - said after his tour of the site with Dr Cable: “I think this is a great example of partnership working and it shows Teesside is not all about steel and chemicals. This is a good business that is growing very fast and employing local people.”

Dr Cable also announced that a consortium involving the Centre for Process Innovation in Wilton has been awarded a £6.2m grant from a Government fund as part of an £11.3m project.

Muzzy Carayol joins Brighton on loan - but could return to Boro before the end of the season

Muzzy Carayol has joined Championship strugglers Brighton for a month as he continues to work on getting himself up to speed.

The flying flanker could return to Boro should he be needed for the final two league games - one against the Seagulls - and potentially the play-offs.

The winger has been out for a year after a ruptured cruciate and while he has played a few reserves games Karanka does not believe he is yet ready for the demands and intensity of the promotion run-in.

Speed machine Carayol has been courted by several clubs and almost joined Nottingham Forest a fortnight ago but a move was pulled as Boro did not think him quite ready.

But now Karanka believes it is time for him to get a taste of more competitive action.

“I was speaking with him and both of us think it’s best for him and for us to send him on loan,” said the boss.

“I think it would be worse if I put him in the squad and on the pitch and he is not fit, it could be worse for him and worse for the team.

“We have to do the right thing and at the moment I think he is not ready to play with us.”

Carayol’s deal was due to expire this summer but it is understood Boro exercised an option of a further year.

His move to the Amex has meant fellow flanker Emmanual Ledesma has returned after a patchy month at Brighton.

Schemer Luke Williams also left on loan, joining League One side Peterborough until the end of the season.

Posh boss Dave Robertson says he made his move after former Peterborough man Lee Tomlin gave a glowing report on the Teessider’s talents.

“Luke is an excellent addition to our strike-force and offers us something different,” he said.

“We spoke to Lee Tomlin and he gave us a glowing reference about Luke and his potential.

“Luke can play as a number nine or as a number 10 so he gives us some diversity in the way we play. It gives us an extra dimension and we are delighted to have him on board.”

Williams had a successful loan spell at Scunthorpe earlier in the season then a stint at Coventry was cut short after the arrival of former Boro boss Tony Mowbray at the Ricoh.

But Karanka was keen to find him a club to get him games as he was unlikely to feature in his own first team.

“On Luke, we have to look after him and to know what is the best thing for his development,” said the boss.

“We said we we can send him on loan if we think that’s the best thing for him. He has a good future, he’s a potential player to play with us, but he needs to improve because he knows and can feel every day how difficult it is to play here.”

Another loan exit on deadline day saw second string defender David Atkinson join League Two relegation battlers Carlisle for a month.

Dwight Tiendalli: Boro beef up back line with loan signing of Swansea full-back

Boro boss Aitor Karanka has beefed-up his back line with the loan signing of Swansea’s Dutch international full-back Dwight Tiendalli.

The Surinam born right-back was the second defensive signing of the week after the arrival of Fulham centre-back Fernando Amorebieta on Tuesday.

Tiendalli, 29, has played 14 times for Holland Under-21 caps and twice for the senior squad after an impressive career in the Eredivisie.

He played for Utrecht and Feyenoord before switching to FC Twente where he won the title under Steve McClaren then played in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

He switched to Swansea on a free transfer in September 2012 and won a League Cup winners in his first season there.

He has played 27 times in the Premier League and another nine in the Europa League for the Welsh outfit.

He has signed until the end of the season and would be available for the play-offs if needed.

Right-back has been a problem position for Boro this term with Damia Abella and Rhsy Williams both suffering long-term injuries and neither Emilio Nsue or Tomas Kalas specialists in that position.

Tata Steel workers to be balloted over industrial action in row over pensions

Workers at Tata Steel are to be balloted over industrial action in a row over pensions.

The National Executive Council of the Community trade union, which represents most of the Tata Steel workforce, authorised the general secretary to ballot the membership within Tata Steel UK for action.

Senior managers at the Indian firm, which has sites in Skinningrove, Lackenby, Grangetown, and Hartlepool, employing about 1,500 people in the area, announced their intention to close the British Steel Pension Scheme to future payments.

At the meeting on Tuesday, members of the NEC expressed their anger and disappointment at the company’s actions.

“After due consideration the following resolution was proposed and subsequently endorsed,” a spokesman said.

“The NEC hereby authorises the general secretary to ballot the membership within Tata Steel UK for industrial action in protection of the British Steel Pension Scheme, and to call for any industrial action deemed necessary in furtherance of the dispute.”

Paul McBean, Community NEC member for the union’s Yorkshire and Humber region, and Chair of the Multi-Union at Tata Steel Scunthorpe, said: “We have tried to bring Tata back to the negotiating table, but to no avail.

“Even after coming up with schemes to bridge all of the deficit Tata did not want to know and are hell-bent on closing the scheme.

“After all that we have done for the company, working with them to save money to keep the company going forward, the efforts and sacrifices of our members have been thrown in their faces by Tata. This response is totally unacceptable to Community and its members and we know we need to stand up to Tata.”

In October last year the firm announced it wants to sell off its Long Products Europe division, including the Lackenby Beam Mill and Special Profiles operations at Skinningrove - affecting around 700 workers on Teesside.

However staff will still be balloted as at present they remain part of the Tata Steel workforce.

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Roy Rickhuss, General Secretary, said: “Our National Executive Council recognises that this is not just about Tata Steel, it’s about an attack on the terms and conditions of Community members.”

He added: “In the coming days and weeks we will be calling on our members to stand up to Tata and stand up for their pension and they will have the full support of their union behind them.”

Industrial action ballots have to comply with strict legal requirements to protect the union from legal challenge and to guarantee members are protected from unfair dismissal when taking industrial action.

The union is in the process of obtaining legal advice from the union’s solicitors and carrying out preparatory work to ensure legal compliance.

The preparations need to be completed before ballot timelines are confirmed.

A spokesperson for Tata Steel said: “The unions and company have discussed the performance of the UK business and considered the challenges facing the pension scheme.

“We have been unable come to an agreement that would have enabled defined benefit benefit provision to continue and will be consulting employees on a proposal to close the defined benefit scheme to future accrual. It is proposed that future pension provision will be on a defined contribution basis.

“We remain committed to providing employees with competitive future pension provision.”

Multi-million pound plans to transform Middlesbrough Town Hall given final approval

Multi-million pound plans to transform Middlesbrough Town Hall into a top class cultural and heritage destination have been given the final approval.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has today given a £3.7m grant to transform the town’s iconic Grade II* listed building to its 19th Century glory.

Town Hall chiefs say the aim is to provide a “high quality, cultural venue” to attract more people to the town.

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The authority will also put £4m into the scheme which will get underway in January 2016 and will see the Town Hall closed for an anticipated 21 months.

Plans include an upmarket bar, coffee shop or restaurant with a glass atrium, a new multi-functional community room, new seating and toilets and lighting to illuminate the building at night.

It will see parts of the building, currently inaccessible to the public, being opened up, including the Victorian courtroom, cells and fire station which would be made into heritage attractions in their own right.

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The plans add to the £500m of investments being seen across the town which has been highlighted recently as part of the Middlesbrough is Changing campaign.

Middlesbrough Council’s Deputy Mayor Cllr Dave Budd said: “The Town Hall is the jewel in Middlesbrough’s crown and this project will restore it to its full majestic glory.

Once complete it will be a celebration of our 19th history with a 21st Century outlook.”

Councillor Charlie Rooney, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the HLF has given approval to funding for this scheme. There are fascinating areas of the building which the public don’t currently have access to so it will make a fascinating visit in its own right as well as allowing us to make it a premier cultural destination.”

Ivor Crowther, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund North East, said: “The Town Hall is a stunning reminder of the town’s proud industrial heritage and continues to stand as an important local landmark for the community.

“Today’s HLF investment means that work can get underway in earnest on these exciting plans to reaffirm the building’s social and historic value, secure its long-term future and transform it into a flagship heritage asset for Middlesbrough.”

During the Town Hall’s closure it is proposed to utilise alternative venues in the town such as mima, Middlesbrough Theatre, Centre Square, Middlesbrough Sports Village, Teesside University and Middlesbrough College.

Loan Deadline Day: How Boro's Championship rivals strengthened their squads

Boro's Championship title rivals Bournemouth secured the biggest name on yesterday’s Football League loan deadline day with the signing of Kenwyne Jones.

The former Sunderland striker, 30, has agreed to join the Cherries on loan until the end of the season from Cardiff.

He is currently in a Dubai training camp with Trinidad and Tobago but will join up with Eddie Howe’s side next week, and go straight into the squad for their trip to Ipswich.

There is no provision for the deal to be made permanent and Jones has been told he will not be guaranteed to start.

Jones has been signed as cover after top scorer Callum Wilson limped off injured during Bournemouth’s emphatic 3-0 win over Boro last weekend.

The Cherries’ new boy has scored 13 times for ailing Cardiff this season. He joined from Stoke in January 2014 and got 11 goals as the Welsh side were relegated from the Premier League.

Elsewhere Reading signed Chelsea prospect Nathan Ake until the end of the season.

The talented defender, who Boro were keen on in the summer, has been a regular in the Chelsea matchday squad this season but has only made four appearances.

Reading manager Steve Clarke, who like Aitor Karanka has worked under Jose Mourinho, told the club's website: “I’m delighted to add a player of Nathan’s quality to our first team squad at this important time of the season.

“He has been a fixture in Chelsea’s squad this season and we are grateful that they have allowed him to join us here to get some competitive minutes on the pitch.”

Nottingham Forest fought off Championship competition to land Arsenal wonderkid Chuba Akpom until the end of the season, while Norwich extended the loan deal of Graham Dorrans.

Manchester United defender Reece James joined Huddersfield Town for the next two months, while Ipswich snapped up Jonny Williams.

Teesside CPI-led consortium handed £6.2m for new biologic treatments

A group led by Teesside-based Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) has secured a £6.2m Government cash boost to help UK firms develop new biologic treatments - creating 10 jobs in Darlington.

The funds will help the UK biotech consortium - made up of six organisations including CPI - to overcome some of the biggest “shortcomings” that currently exist in the biologics supply chain - and help keep costs down for patients.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was visiting businesses on Teesside today, said the project would “deliver sizeable benefits” to Teesside and boost jobs.

Biologics are medicines that come from plants or other biological sources.

The UK biotech consortium has been handed the cash from the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) to support the development and manufacture of novel biologic treatments.

A further 13 UK jobs will be created - and 174 safeguarded - by the project, over the next seven years.

The work carried out by the consortium “will help ensure the continued delivery of cost effective therapies to patients” according to CPI.

The project is a joint bid with five other UK based organisations including UCB Celltech and Lonza Biologics.

Dr Cable said: “While there is much to celebrate about British manufacturing, it is clear that our supplier base has been eroded over the last thirty years. Reversing this will boost exports and help safeguard UK jobs. Our targeted interventions have helped revive the great British manufacturing sector.

“The benefits of stronger manufacturing supply chains will be felt across the whole economy – new cutting-edge technologies, a more highly skilled work force and improved productivity will boost growth and jobs across the country.

“The biologics supply chain project will deliver sizeable benefits to the manufacturing supply chain in Redcar and Cleveland, boosting local jobs, and that is why I’m pleased to award it funding.”

Dr Chris Dowle, Director of Biologics at CPI said “We are delighted to have received the government’s support on this project. The consortium of companies behind this project is well-equipped to streamline the development process of biologics.

“Our goal is to find innovative ways to make the transition, while also ensuring affordability.”

As a key member of the Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, CPI will supply technical expertise, facilities, and project management through the newly created National Biologics Manufacturing Centre (NBMC) based at Darlington.

The consortium will achieve its aims by using cutting-edge technologies by fledgling companies from across the UK to target critical points in the biologics supply chain.

CPI is headquartered at the Wilton Centre, with other bases including Sedgefield.

Rail passengers face booze ban on Middlesbrough to York service after rise in alcohol-fuelled disorder

Passengers on trains from Middlesbrough and York are facing a booze ban after rising problems with alcohol-fuelled disorder.

British Transport Police has said passengers will not be allowed to consume or carry alcohol on a number of trains travelling between Teesside stations and York this Saturday.

The trains that will be “dry” are the 9.28am, 10.28am, 11.28am and 12.28pm services from Middlesbrough.

BTP Chief Inspector Derek O’Mara said: “There has been a noticeable increase in the number of complaints from passengers who have been travelling on these services and they report having been subjected to alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

“We have also seen an increasing trend of large groups of people from Teesside travelling down to York for the day to visit pubs and bars then returning in the early evening.

“A number of these people are pre-loading or bringing large quantities of alcohol with them to consume on the train prior to their arrival in York.

“Trains are not extensions of bars and clubs; they are used by everyone including families, young people and the elderly. Other passengers do not want to travel and be subjected to the drunk, intoxicated and often intimidating behaviour of others under the influence of alcohol.

“Too often we then have to deal with these people later in the day and into the early evening. They are turning up at York to catch the train back to Teesside heavily intoxicated causing problems and putting themselves, members of the public, rail staff and officers at risk.

“Excess alcohol consumption is a well-know pre-cursor to antisocial behaviour and allowing extremely drunk people to travel is a recipe for disaster. If passengers are turning up at the station attempting to travel in this state, officers and rail staff will not allow them to travel and they will be asked to leave the station and travel by other means.”

Similar restrictions were brought in as part of an operation held in December last year.

And a number of similar bans were recently imposed on trains travelling to and from London during Middlesbrough away fixtures.

Chief Insp O’Mara added, “We had some excellent feedback from passengers and rail staff when we last restricted alcohol on these services in December 2015. They were pleased to see that we were taking the issue of alcohol related anti social behaviour on trains seriously and putting in measures to address it.

“During the operation a large amount of alcohol was collected and disposed of. Passengers who officers spoke to were extremely co-operative and understanding of what we were trying to achieve, we are hoping that this behaviour will be replicated this Saturday.”

BTP officers alongside rail staff and railway revenue protection staff from train operators carry out a weekly operation on a Saturday night at York station to identify passengers who are heavily under the influence of alcohol and decide if passengers are fit to travel, and are not drunk and disorderly.

Chief Insp O’Mara added “This is not about trying to spoil people’s fun or ruining their day out. It’s about educating people to be aware of their alcohol consumption and their behaviour when around other passengers. It’s important that we listen to passengers and try to address their concerns and continue to ensure their journeys are safe, comfortable and enjoyable.”

Teesside dry docks revival has created 'well over' 100 jobs

A company that brought mothballed docks back to life on Teesside has created more than 100 jobs in the process.

UK Docks Marine services re-opened docks on the Tees last year, after they had stood derelict for more than two decades.

The company invested heavily, bringing the docks to operational use within a few months.

The first of the two docks was re-opened last October - 107 years to the day that it originally opened.

The second will be back in business this summer.

The project has created “well over” 100 jobs - and now UK Docks Marine Services has won a top industry award in recognition of its work on Teesside.

The Joint Branch of the Royal Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, and Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

The authoritative industry body’s annual North East award acknowledges the way the company has bucked a historic, domestic trend.

Awards committee member John Eltringham said: “UK Docks Marine Services deserve enormous credit for taking a very brave step in Middlesbrough.

“When I first started out in the marine business in the North East in the 1980s there were 27 dry docks in the region.

“Now there are only a handful.

“It was a sign of ambition and determination for UK Docks to take over mothballed dry docks in Teesside and bring them back to life.

“Our own institution contains bodies which date all the way back to the 1880s, when this country was the biggest shipbuilding nation in the world.

“Since then, the industry has seen a massive decline but top quality experience and expertise still remains in the region.

“And UK Docks, which supplies work on the Tyne, the Wear and now on the Tees, has given a real vote of confidence in that fact.

“They are worthy award winners and deserve great credit for what they are doing.”

UK Docks managing director Harry Wilson, who collected the award with sons Jonathan, Gary and Chris - all involved in running parts of the business - described it as a great honour.

He told the Gazette: “This is the second time we’ve won it - the first was when we re-opened the dry dock in Sunderland in 2002.

“And it is nice to think that all these years later we are still re-opening docks in the North-east.

“Over time, the company has been fortunate enough to enjoy success in the industry and that has seen us opening up boat repair facilities on the south coast of England at Gosport and in the north west at Whitehaven.

“But we’re very proud of what we are doing in Middlesbrough.

“And we’re pleased to be in a position to keep bringing business, jobs and security to the North-east in one of its traditional industries.”

Daisy the bulldog's impressive weight loss inspiring other obese pets to shed the pounds

Ian McClelland/PDSA/Community Newswire Daisy after losing her weight

Daisy after losing her weight

A former bulging bulldog - who was so lazy she had to be bribed with ham to exercise - is inspiring other pets to shed the pounds.

Daisy, from Middlesbrough, was last year crowned pet slimmer of the year with the help of the veterinary charity PDSA’s annual Pet Fit Club.

The bulldog shed more than a quarter of her body weight.

When the Pet Fit Club began in May last year, Daisy, aged six, had ballooned to more than 4st 6lbs, making her more than 40% overweight. She managed to lose 17lbs in weight through the fit club.

Daisy’s achievement saw her beat off competition from 11 other obese pets who were selected to embark on the six-month diet and fitness plan run by the veterinary charity.

And now the PDSA has launched this year’s Pet Fit Club - giving pets the chance to follow in Daisy’s pawprints.

Daisy’s owner, Gillian Turrell, from Middlesbrough, said: “The difference in Daisy is amazing.

“Losing the weight has really improved her mobility. Before she struggled to climb the stairs - now she sprints up them.

“I’m so grateful to the vet staff at Middlesbrough PDSA Pet Hospital for their help and guidance, and for how they’ve helped to transform Daisy’s life.

“I’d encourage any pet owner worried about their pet’s weight to enter Pet Fit Club.”

Ian McClelland/PDSA/Community Newswir Daisy started the competition weighing in at 28.3kg

Daisy started the competition weighing in at 28.3kg

Nicola Martin, PDSA head of pet health and welfare, added: “PDSA’s research has shown that pet obesity is a growing problem and that too many people are continuing to feed their pets inappropriate foods including takeaways, cake, cheese and chips and sadly many pets aren’t getting enough exercise.

“Pet obesity is entirely preventable and we’re trying to help owners understand that while their pets may beg for food, and giving a treat is seen as a way of showing affection, ultimately it could be killing them with kindness.

“Over the past decade, Pet Fit Club has transformed the lives of some of the UK’s most obese pets, having helped nearly 100 animals shed over 60 stone, so we are welcoming entries again and offering our expertise.”

Pet Fit Club participants will take part in a tailored diet and exercise programme, overseen by vets and nurses over a six-month period. Owners can enter their pets at http://bit.ly/1H0dgIT . The deadline for entries is April 26.

Millie's 'dream' room to become a reality after £11,000 anonymous donation

A little girl with disabilities will soon have a “dream come true” after £11,000 was handed over anonymously to help create her a sensory room.

After hearing about the plight of little Millie-Mai Mann, eight, who cannot walk, talk or communicate after suffering brain damage at birth, fundraising force Fat Lads on Bikes made it their mission to help.

The “Fat Lads”, led by dad Neal Bullock, of Ingleby Barwick, have been fundraising with an aim of £20,000 to create a sensory room, wet rooms and garden for South Bank’s Millie, as well as providing her with a small bank account fund to update equipment as she needs it or improve her quality of life in other ways.

The lads had already raised around £4,000 with events, and had donations of £2,000 from the Finlay Cooper Fund and £3,000 from the Ellen Timney Foundation, but the latest donation took them to the target they had set.

A date has now been set for the work to begin - two months ahead of schedule - in June.

Neal, 41, said: “It came out of the blue. It came about through a third party who had previously worked with the Ellen Timney Foundation, but they wanted no recognition for it at all.

“Getting these donations from people who believe in what we are doing, it’s just brilliant.”

The Fat Lads on Bikes have teamed up with Teesside firm MB Decor to help bring the rooms into reality, as well as securing help from a number of other local builders, plasterers and other tradespeople, and with help from co-sponsor Brian Nunn of Erimus Web Creations.

Millie’s mum and full-time carer Aimee Mann, 32, said: “Our dream’s finally come true.

“When they got the donation we were just over the moon. Millie can’t really use ordinary toys so she’s bored all the time. This will make such a difference to her life.”

Aimee will be taking Millie and her siblings, James, 11, and 10-year-old Ebonie, away for the weekend while the work is carried out, while husband Ian, 43, will stay behind to assist with the work.

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