Chris McDonald

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank my neighbour, the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers) for securing the debate and particularly for devoting so much of his speech to outlining some of the achievements of our local Labour council in Stockton in developing our town centres. Stockton is known for having the widest high street in Britain, but it is the breadth of the vision of our Labour council that I would really like to share with colleagues today, because I think there are some opportunities that might be of benefit to other areas. Labour councillor Nigel Cooke said many years ago that the future of the high street is about leisure, culture and recreation as much as it is about shops, and Stockton Council have put everything behind achieving that. The single biggest, most noticeable thing anyone will see on Stockton High Street—or will not see if they go today—is the former Castlegate shopping centre, which was demolished by the council to much local opposition. That resulted in a much higher rate of occupancy, up to 90%, at the other end of the street, but opened up for the first time in hundreds of years a vista across the high street to the river, the Cleveland hills and Roseberry Topping beyond, creating an urban park that will be the centre of events in the future. Stockton has turned itself into an event town, hosting many events on the high street and in the other towns in the borough throughout the year. That has given us the opportunity to attract new businesses into the borough. Contrary to the usual doom and gloom about Stockton we hear from the hon. Member for Stockton West, I took the opportunity to talk to the Stockton business improvement district before coming here today, and it told me that three businesses this week are planning to open up on Stockton high street in the hospitality and leisure area. We have great entrepreneurs such as Nathan Hobday, who has bought the Teesside Princess pleasure cruiser and who is fizzing with ideas for things that he wants to do to bring more footfall to our high street in that area. Remember Me Tearooms were sort of blocked in beside that terrible shopping centre and will now increase capacity so that they can serve people who are visiting the park. It is not only happening in Stockton town centre, but also in Norton, another lovely town in our area, which is a basis not only for the daytime but the night-time economy. That brings me to safety. In our area, under the last Conservative Government, police officer numbers reduced by 550 compared with under the last Labour Government, but I made a commitment to have more officers on the street. With the £2.4 million we are getting from the Government, there will be 40 additional officers on the street.