Teesside

Teesside receives its name from the group of urban areas lying near the River Tees. These areas include the towns of Billingham, Redcar, Stockton-on-Tees, and Thornaby. During the period 1968 to 1974 Teesside was a district. Even with a decline in the working population of Teesside, it remains an important centre for heavy industry. Big industries such as British Steel and ICI have now given way to other industries that deal in technology, science, and the service sector.

Local government:

In 1974 Cleveland came into being and many towns such as Teesside, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Guisborough were merged into it.  Cleveland was abolished, and four independent unitary authority boroughs were formed. The new unitary authorities were Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland (a renamed Langbaurgh). Now, they were returned to the counties of North Yorkshire and County Durham for ceremonial purposes. Stockton-on-Tees being the only exception as it was to be divided between two ceremonial counties. In 1998 another town, Darlington also became an independent unitary authority and formed the sub-region of the Tees Valley.

Though the County of Cleveland was abolished in 1996 still the Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade carry the county name. Today even the post items bear the name of Cleveland County citing reasons that no more post towns and postcodes are required for the existing areas in the UK.

The River Tees and Teesport

The third largest port in the U.K , Teesport is based on the River Tees. It is one of the ten biggest ports in Western Europe. It deals with import and export of petrochemical, chemical and steel processing industries products. Port is capable of handling 56 million tonnes of goods every year. For the NEPIC cluster of process companies, the port plays an important role.