In 1974, the County Borough of Teesside was absorbed into the larger non-metropolitan county of Cleveland along with the towns of Hartlepool and Guisborough. The Teesside area was partitioned between the boroughs of Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Langbaurgh, with the wards of Billingham East & West, Grangefield, Hartburn, Mile House, North End, Norton, Stockton South, Darlington, Thornaby East & West going to Stockton; the wards of Coatham, Eston Grange, Kirkleatham, Ormesby, Redcar and South Bank going to Langbaurgh; and the rest going to Middlesbrough. Local government reorganisation in 1996, recommended by the Banham Review, saw the county of Cleveland broken up into the four independent unitary authority boroughs of Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. At this time they were returned to the counties of North Yorkshire and County Durham for ceremonial purposes, with Stockton-on-Tees becoming the only district in England split between two ceremonial counties. In 1998 the neighbouring Borough of Darlington also became an independent unitary authority and this along with the four former Cleveland boroughs form the sub-region of the Tees Valley which is used for statistical purposes and governmental organisation. The name Tees Valley is increasingly promoted for economic and cultural connections, though Durham, Teesside, Cleveland, and Yorkshire are frequently used, such as the continued existence of Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade, and of the Cleveland postal county.
Urban area
The Teesside Built-up Area, previously the Teesside Urban Area, identified by the ONS for statistical purposes had a population of around 376,633 according to the 2011 census which is up 3% on the 2001 figure of 365,323, and had the following subdivisions:
Eaglescliffe and Yarm are counted as a separate Yarm urban area, separated by a narrow gap, which had a population of 19,184 according to the 2011 census up 5% from the 2001 figure of 18,335. Infilling development may join the two urban areas together. Marske-by-the-Sea is another separate Urban Area nearly contiguous with Redcar with a population of 8,282 down 7% from the 2001 figure of 8,921. Nearby Hartlepool is also sometimes considered as part of Teesside. The Hartlepool area has an urban population of 88,855 an increase of 3% from the 2001 figure of 86,085 and this can be referred to as the Teesside & Hartlepool Urban Area. If this definition is taken into consideration, with the addition of the Eaglescliffe area and Marske, Teesside would have a population of approximately 492,954 people.
Large-scale integrated chemical processing on Teesside
is based on the River Tees and is currently the third largest port in the United Kingdom, and amongst the ten biggest in Western Europe. This port handles over 56 million tonnes of goods per annum which are mainly associated with the local petrochemical, chemical and steel processing industries. The port is an important piece of logistical infrastructure for the NEPIC cluster of process companies.
Uses in local culture
Teesside continues to be used locally to refer to the entire urban area and the name can still be seen in the following uses:
Teesside continues to be used as signed destination on UK road signs. It is only once the actual boroughs are entered that local town names are used.
It has also been adopted for various other purposes as a synonym for the former county of Cleveland. It is common to see Teesside spelled incorrectly as "Teeside", with a single 's'.
