Campaign launched to build new town pier

A campaign has been launched to build a new town pier as part of a regeneration project.

Labour MP Anna Turley hopes the Redcar Rising initiative will bring more families to the seafront to enjoy the area's natural beauty.

Turley said the project would be funded "partly by public and partly by the private sector", with a "huge amount of interest" being shown already.

"People always raise with me that they would love to have a traditional pier as they used to have on the seafront," she said.

"My job is to bring people together to show the energy and enthusiasm and the belief in this project."

The MP said the pier would be the centrepiece for a wider regeneration of Redcar town centre with other possible developments, including a funfair and an educational centre for natural history.

The former Redcar pier was demolished after being declared unsafe between 1980 and 1981.

In 2013, the 80ft (24m) Redcar Beacon, a "vertical pier" tourist attraction with a viewing platform, opened at a cost of £1.6m.

Resident Simon Overton said a new pier was "a good idea".

"[It would be] better than that monstrosity which was meant to be a vertical pier," he said.

"Look at the pier in Saltburn, it is lovely," he said.

"It's an attraction and it is something we have lost from the history of the place."

Fellow resident Carol believed Redcar needed something different as "there's not a lot to do".

"Walking out on the pier and getting near the sea, I think it is a fantastic idea," she said.

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