South Tees Development Corporation suing port operator: High Court judge doubles expected length of legal hearing

After STDC completed its compulsory purchase of the former Redcar steelworks on the south bank of the Tees in April 2020, a number of people voiced concern over whether or not the public would still retain access to the South Gare - a popular beauty spot which is also a site of special scientific interest.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen - who chairs the STDC - has publicly declared that access to the road would be retained for the public. However, legal action was initiated in the High Court in March 2021 by STDC and its property-holding company, South Tees Developments Limited (STDL), along with public-private company Teesworks (in which STDC retains 10% ownership), against PD Ports in order to determine who owned the road, and subsequently the access rights.

PD Ports is the Statutory Harbour Authority; the company that operates the Teesport harbour and maintains all things related to the safe functioning of the harbour, from lighthouses to buoys, to pilot vessels and so on.

According to a letter seen by The Yorkshire Post, High Court judge Mr Justice Green has doubled the hearing’s allocated time to 20 days because of the amount of evidence that’s been submitted by all parties. The letter was sent two weeks ago from PD Ports to tenants on the South Gare, which includes users of the iconic ‘village’ of green fishers’ huts.

South Gare Fisherman’s Association has leased the land where the 101 huts are situated since 1956, and pays £200 a year. Many of the huts have been passed down through generations of the same family.

The hearing is set to take place in October, and the letter suggests concerns about the potential waste of public funds in bringing the case to court, particularly because of its now-extended length.

The letter also highlights what it describes as “inaccurate statements made on social media regarding the legal action,” from Ben Houchen’s Facebook page.

While the statement quoted from Houchen’s page says that “nobody is suing for money or compensation,” is strictly correct, the winner of the case could potentially stand to gain financially by exploiting access rights.

Also attached to the letter are internal Teesworks documents which showed that the company considered it to be both a financial and reputational risk to the venture if they failed to “secure STDC share of any future value from existing PD [Ports] issue on access.”

The letter speculates: “This may indicate the real purpose of this legal action at taxpayers’ expense is in order to attempt to artificially construct a position whereby it can then claim some future payment for access arrangements which already exist.

“We still do not understand why the STDC is pursuing this litigation,” writes PD Ports’ Group Property Director, Michael McConnell. “Although it has problems with legal title on its land and its own access arrangements to and from its landholdings, from the outset we had offered to assist the STDC by providing a nil cost solution to those issues, which was a much more appropriate use of public resources than the path it has chosen to go down.”

When asked by The Yorkshire Post if the public would retain its free right to access the South Gare, a spokesperson for TVCA confirmed that it would. However, they refused to comment about the current legal costs for bringing the case.