Local celebrity backs the campaign to save Redcar Blast Furnace in Friday's @TeessideLive

A positive story otherwise full of incorrect statements from the Mayor that go completely unchecked in the paper.

So here is a quick #factcheck

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/gladiator-jet-joins-david-goliath-19830900
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Mistruth 1. 'It's too costly'

- No it isn't. The Mayor's option of a full blown visitor's centre that he wanted cost £33m. This is huge overspend on the Mayor's part.

-The blast furnace can be saved for significantly less - take a read of this - https://twitter.com/SCAM_NE/status/1360278684775702529?s=19

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Mistruth no. 2. The decision was reached by an 'Independent Heritage Taskforce'

- There is NOTHING independent when the Mayor appointed each member.

Chaired by a fellow conservative MP
A haulage expert (who was recently handed a stake in the Mayors airport plans)

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A back office HR manager
A local social historian
A @RedcarCleveland representative

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You can't say this is independent @TeessideLive can you if the Mayor appointed the whole panel?

There is no industrial heritage expertise in the team either. So how can they reach a qualified conclusion that the people can trust?

It's about as partial as you can get.

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The Heritage Task Forceis also unaccountable. None of it's members are willing to speak out and defend their decision. None of their work has been made public either. The report is full of holes, lacks basic rigour and jumps to conclusions without qualification.

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Mistruth no. 3. 'The Mayor would like to spend the money elsewhere'

- Again another falsehood - the project is funded by the Treasury and any saving made will returned back to Whitehall.

The Mayor is returning money that could have otherwise been invested on Teesside.

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Mistruth no 4. - 'Demolishing the furnace = more money and jobs for Redcar'

Another falsehood. The masterplan with Mayor's name on already accounts for keeping the furnace and the investment. It's all there - it's adopted.

You can about it here - https://www.southteesdc.com/masterplan/downloads/

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Money not spent returns to the treasury. It's ring fenced for the STDC delivery plan, not the people of Redcar for new housing and local facilities.

Bye bye

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The blast furnace represents just 1/1000th of just one of the development sites. No masterplan is that tight that it cannot accomodate the furnace.

The current adopted masterplan demonstrates that.

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The Mayor is peddling the threat of job losses even before he has created a job.

You can't lose jobs if they haven't been created yet. You can't lose 'paper jobs' can you?

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Mistruth no. 5 - 'Keeping the furnace = job losses'

- Again, rubbish. The approved masterplan accounts for the furnace and investment. You can have both. The same masterplan has the Mayor's name stamped all over it - he approved the retention of blast furnace.

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From reading that article, it feels like the Mayor is getting a free pass from the press.

Too many unqualified statements going unquestioned and unchallenged.

We can do better than this @IanMcNeal and @TeessideLive

#factcheck

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