Serving the Teesside Business Community | 31
TeesBizQuiz
David’s answers are in bold.
Transporter Bridge or Newport Bridge?
North Yorkshire Coast or North York Moors?
Redcar or Saltburn?
The past or the future?
Live to work or work to live?
Teesside or Tees Valley?
Beer or wine?
Working early or working late?
Buying or selling?
Parmo or lemon top?
Steve Gibson or Captain Cook?
Twitter or Facebook? Neither!
Brains or beauty?
Talking or listening?
“The skill base here is
excellent, the people are
fantastic, the work ethic
is very good and they’re
very flexible.”
A vessel owned by Stokesley-based
MPI Offshore, which lays offshore
wind turbines in the North Sea, docks
at Teesport for repair works.
- David Robinson, PD Ports
and we need to keep developing.
“Luckily Teesside is co-ordinated and all
on the same page. Politically what’s been
happening with the North-East is appalling; a
bunch of politicians having a spat. That hasn’t
happened here, and I don’t think it ever will.
“What’s important is that the political,
business and social elements of an area
come together to deliver change and growth.
“Over the last seven years we’ve invested
about £100m in infrastructure and upgrading
the container terminals and equipment, new
quay infrastructure and rail terminals. But
that has allowed us to attract somewhere
between £900m and £1 billion of investment
into the port, into land that we own or we
operate. A large chunk of that has come from
MGT Power, but we’ve also seen investment
of £180m between Asda and Tesco, and
JDR Cables has invested circa £100m at
Hartlepool Dock.
“Billions of pounds has been invested here
over the years, and I make the comparison
with HS2, which is set to cost the tax-payer
about £50 billion. It would cost about £40
billion to re-invent Teesport from scratch, so
that shows you what kind of an asset we
have here on Teesside.”
A long-distance view of Teesport,
taken from the Eston hills, shows the
sheer scale of the operation.