Plans for 'giant mounds' to help regeneration efforts at site of former steelworks

Giant soil mounds are being lined up to lure in investors and give regeneration efforts a “head-start” at the former Redcar steelworks site, which closed in 2015.
File photo dated 18/02/10 of the Teesside Cast Products site in Redcar.File photo dated 18/02/10 of the Teesside Cast Products site in Redcar.
File photo dated 18/02/10 of the Teesside Cast Products site in Redcar.

The South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) has lodged plans to stockpile a million tonnes of “clean soil” from the Sirius Minerals mine in six mounds to save money on landscaping and remediation costs in future.

Work is due to start in January if Redcar and Cleveland Council planners give the move the thumbs up – with Sirius offering up the soil from its Woodsmith Mine.

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Sirius Minerals has permission to dig a new 37km underground tunnel between Woodsmith Mine, south of Whitby, and its Wilton International Complex.

It’s also allowed to store soil dug out at Wilton but planning documents explain how a large amount of it will be surplus to the firm’s requirements and available for use elsewhere.

The STDC acquired more than 1,400 acres of land south of the Tees from steel giant Tata in February at a cost of £11.5million.

Six mounds of Redcar Mudstone would be stored on this land in the next two years – with three proposed on the Grangetown Prairie site, two lined up on the Warrenby landfill area and one of the metals recovery site.

The temporary mounds would be up to 15m.

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Demolition of existing structures on the land to make way for the mounds are also in the plans.

The STDC masterplan is to redevelop the 4,500 acre site south of the Tees to create 20,000 jobs in the next 25 years.

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