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Redcar blast furnace demolition: Maximo Park joins opposition

Getty Images Redcar blast furnaceGetty Images
The Redcar steelworks finally closed in 2015

Alt-rockers Maximo Park have joined a campaign to prevent the demolition of a defunct steelworks.

The Redcar blast furnace, South Bank Coke Ovens and Dorman Long Tower on Teesside are due to be dismantled to make way for new developments.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has said the cost of keeping the site safe is "astronomical"

But campaigners have called for them to be turned into a major landmark and visitor attraction.

Maximo Park lead singer Paul Smith said the site could be "a source of local pride".

"As a Billingham-raised songwriter based in the North East, I'm constantly inspired by the mixture of our industrial heritage with the natural beauty of the region," he said.

"If this building is demolished, along with some of the genuinely unusual structures around it, they will become faded photographs that local children might never see."

Maximo Park performing at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in 2009
Local alternative rock bank Maximo Park are inspired by their local area's industrial heritage

The blast furnace was commissioned in 1979 and finally closed when Thai steelworks operator SSI went into liquidation in 2015.

Along with former steel workers, academics, engineers, artists and historians, Mr Smith has signed a letter to Mr Houchen asking him to pause demolition and explore other options.

Mr Houchen has said no decisions have been made, although firms have been invited to bid for demolition work and a list of earmarked structures has been published, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The cost of keeping the site safe was "astronomical" and public money was better spent on attracting investment and jobs, Mr Houchen has said.

The coke ovens at the Teesworks site which are due for demolition
The old coke ovens are also earmarked for demolition

The Teesworks Heritage Taskforce, set up to consult on celebrating the steelworks' heritage, said it welcomed contributions and would announce a plan for "stakeholder engagement in good time".

Labour's Tees Valley mayoral candidate Jessie Joe Jacobs said: "Heritage means visitors and visitors means jobs.

"Let's celebrate our past, not raise it to the ground."

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