Optimistic – Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen at Teesside International Airport .
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURES : STUART BOULTON
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Tees Valley ’ s ready for take off , says mayor
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It ’ s been a whirlwind five years since Ben Houchen was elected Tees Valley mayor . The headline grabber was always his vow to buy back Teesside Airport – mission accomplished on that score .
And as we sit in one of the impressively redeveloped airport ’ s smart new offices , reflecting on those five years , there ’ s an understandable element of quiet satisfaction with where Tees Valley sits now – but an eagerness for more .
He said : “ If you ’ d said to me five years ago , we ’ d be sitting where are today , I probably wouldn ’ t have believed you – I ’ d have snapped your hand off . But looking back , and having lived it , actually I have no real surprises – it ’ s absolutely believable why we ’ ve achieved what we have .”
But what has been achieved ? Take the airport , for example . It got its name back – farewell to the unpopular Durham Tees Valley – and has been given an impressive multi-million-pound makeover .
And now it ’ s “ proof of the pudding ” time – will the investment bring more business ?
He said : “ We ’ re at a stage where the amount of work we ’ ve put in is coming to fruition .
“ We ’ re seeing that with more flights and the redevelopment work , with new hangars going up , a new office development and the road going into the south side .
“ It ’ s taken a long time to put that strategic vision together and turn it into reality . But over the next couple of years , we ’ ll be trying to take advantage of the freight and cargo opportunities Teesside hasn ’ t utilised properly in the past 20 years .
“ Because the airport isn ’ t slot constrained , it has the capacity to be able to land pretty much any size of aircraft . We ’ ve just set up a new cargo facility , so