Today marks the launch of a major joint campaign by Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston, the Leader of Redcar & Cleveland Council, Mary Lanigan, and myself.

Together, we have pledged our support for a new station located between Nunthorpe and Guisborough, complete with a park and ride scheme.

Roseberry Parkway would be home to a significantly more frequent train service down the existing railway line that runs via James Cook University Hospital into Middlesbrough town centre. It would also serve as an integrated hub for local bus services and boost connections into both East Cleveland and the Great Ayton/Stokesley area.

This is a really exciting vision that has the potential to transform our local transport networks. We know East Cleveland needs better public transport and we know that road solutions to the Marton Crawl are limited because of house building. This project would help us to tackle both challenges and would also be environmentally friendly.

When I was elected I pledged a solution to the Marton Crawl and I think this is it. I also believe it can benefit the whole of our area.

Today’s announcement marks the start of our campaign to develop the plans and secure the necessary funding. We will be working very closely with key figures like Cllr Wayne Davies, who holds the Economic role in Cabinet at Redcar & Cleveland, and also Ben Houchen, our Tees Valley Mayor, whose support will be vital when we engage with both Transport for the North and the Department for Transport.

This will take time, but we hope it will have your support as we work towards what would be a really big development for our area. I can’t praise our local authority leaders enough for their hard work and cooperation ?