Cleveland County was abolished on 1 April 1996, with its districts becoming unitary authority areas. At this time Langbaurgh-on-Tees was renamed Redcar and Cleveland. Cleveland County was a two-tier local authority, with the county council being superior to its four districts, of which Langbaurgh-on-Tees was one. Upon becoming a unitary authority, Langbaurgh-on-Tees (renamed Redcar and Cleveland) acquired all the full rights and duties as a county, whilst retaining the same boundaries as before.
Civic Centre
Redcar and Cleveland Civic Centre is in the Leisure and Community Heart, in Redcar. The centre was opened in 2014 at a cost of £31 million. It contains civic and business facilities including a council chamber, mayor's parlour, register services, meeting rooms, 44 business units, as well as sport and leisure facilities.[2][3]
It replaces the previous civic centre in Teesville, which was demolished in 2012. Civic facilities were relocated, Inspire 2 Learn, formerly the Eston City Learning Centre, also in Teesville. The Mayor's office was temporarily relocated to Kirkleatham Museum, before also moving to Redcar. The council also has offices in Redcar at Kirkleatham Street but in 2022 it closed its offices in Belmont House, Guisborough. The building is up for sale. [4][5][6]
The old town hall closure also provided an environmental boost as it was the authority's worst-performing building for carbon dioxide emissions.[7]
This is a chart of trend of regional gross 'value added' of South Teesside at current basic prices[8] by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
The main industry within the greater district of the town of Redcar is the Chemical Industry located close to Wilton village on the Chemical Industry Park known internationally as Wilton. The chemical companies are all members of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC).
The Wilton chemical site is owned by Singaporean utility company Sembcorp and companies operating there include SABIC who have recently built the world's largest low-density polyethylene plant (LDPE) and still operate an ethylene cracker. Lotte Chemicals are expanding both PTA and PET production. Huntsman manufacture polyurethane intermediates and Ensus have built Europe's largest bioethanol facility. Biffa Polymers now operate a polymer recycling plant that handles up to 30% of the UKs plastic milk bottles. While in support of Sembcorp, who built the UK's first wood-fired power station (Wilton 10), UK Wood Recycling Limited have a significant facility on the site providing waste wood to fuel Wilton 10.[9]
The Teesside Steelworks operated Europe's second largest blast furnace. The majority of the steelworks (including the Redcar blast furnace, Redcar and South Bank coke ovens and the BOS plant at Lackenby) closed in 2015.
Social housing
Coast and Country Housing Limited
Coast and Countrytook over[10] the ownership and management of homes from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in July 2002.[11] In addition to providing core housing services the company has also invested in independent living services, including the development of a new Telecare service in partnership with the Borough Council.
Beyond Housing
In 2018, Coast and Country merged with Yorkshire Coast Homes to form Beyond Housing Limited, a Community Benefit Society with 15,000 properties across Teesside and North Yorkshire.[12][13]
Redcar & Cleveland Council promotes the UK Youth Parliament, a national charity which promotes democratic debate amongst its 11 – 18-year-old members.[17]
