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How a simple entry on a blog became a diplomatic incident
WHEN Free Press features editor Darren Burke described Middlesbrough as "a smog and grime-encrusted town" little did he realise the backlash his words would cause. So to make amends, Darren agreed to return to the north east to find out for himself exactly what makes Middlesbrough tick. Here's his verdict on his two-day trip to Teesside . . .
AS I stepped off the train into the mid-autumn sun and with the blue latticework of the town's iconic Transporter Bridge matching the clear October skies, a few casual words were playing over and over in my mind.
"Middlesbrough - a smog and grime encrusted town that doesn't score too highly in the picturesque stakes."
Words, I was beginning to wish I'd chosen a little more carefully a few months earlier when I penned them as part of a blog previewing Doncaster Rovers' first ever trip to Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium.
Rovers lost the clash 2-0. Now, as I tentatively stepped across the platform to meet Claire Wordsworth, image campaign manager for Middlesbrough Council and at the forefront of lovemiddlesbrough, a drive to portray the town in a postive light, I was beginning to think that I'd lost out even more than Rovers.
I was here to taste the biggest slice of humble pie ever. Would Claire batter me over the head? Would a hate mob armed with bricks and bottles be waiting in the station forecourt to tar and feather me?
Fortunately, the welcome was as warm as that mid-October sun. As Claire whisked me to our first destination of the day, the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, she explained how the lovemiddlesbrough campaign had been created after Channel 4 property show Location, Location, Location declared the town as the worst place in Britain to live.
She said: "Middlesbrough is always portrayed in a negative light and we are trying to show that it's nothing like its made out to be. It's great that you agreed to come up and see what makes people proud of Middlesbrough."
Her words were backed up by museum curator Ian Stubbs who said: "People live in the past. Middlesbrough is a town on the up."
And on a whistle-stop tour, it didn't take much to turn my head and change my mind - the mightily impressive Riverside Stadium, the home of Middlesbrough FC and the club that had set the ball rolling on the whole expedition, mima - the brand new Middlesbrough Institue of Modern Art with its commanding views across the town, the thriving and vibrant Middlesbrough College and a whole host of other new projects and developments helping to free Boro of its industrial past.
But as well as the new I was also in town to sample the old - and that meant braving a trip to the windswept pinnacle of the Transporter Bridge, the unusual landmark which helped put Middlesbrough on the map.
Rather than testing out the gondola which can carry 200 people or nine cars at a time across the River Tees, I tackled the 210 steps to the top - dressed in a vivid red lovemiddlesbrough T-shirt naturally - to take in the breathtaking views across the sprawling town and also to the North Yorkshire Moors beyond.
But it was here things began to take a bizarre twist. For also accompanying me on my jaunt were a crew from Tyne Tees TV and a photographer from the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette.
Without even trying, I'd become an overnight media celebrity on Teesside. The film crew recorded me on four separate occasions across the two days - including everything from shaking hands with men dressed as apes, trading political punches with Ray Mallon and tucking into a parmo at one of Middlesbrough's top restaurants. More of that later.
And that's not even mentioning the seven minutes of airtime devoted to my visit on BBC Radio Tees or the countless pictures taken by an ever-obliging and ever smiling Yaffa Phillips, a born and bred New Yorker now proud to call Teesside her home.
It was this pride that came across in leaps and bounds as I was ushered into the offices of Mr Mallon, the sometimes controversial directly-elected mayor of Middlesbrough - the man dubbed Robocop by the media and whose so-called Zero Tolerance approach to crime has won plaudits from the likes of Tony Blair.
Now in his second term as mayor, Mr Mallon is set to meet Doncaster's own Peter Davies next month - and it's clear the pair will have plenty to discuss - with both fiercely determined to get their towns back on track.
He said: "We want to make Middlesbrough a destination and a place to attract people. We have to sell Middlesbrough - I am a salesman and that's my job.
"We need to tell people the truth about Middlesbrough as perception can be a very powerful thing - it can damage a town and its citizens. We need more people like you to come to us and have their minds changed.
Middlesbrough has challenges, just as Doncaster does. We have to look at how we can tackle those sort of things and drive our towns forward."
But while the pair may agree on certain issues - such as clamping down on anti-social behaviour - it also became apparent from my 20 minute chat that there are areas where the two could clash when they meet in November. Middlesborough, for instance, enjoys strong links with four twin towns while Doncaster's mayor has been keen to end the borough's twinning arrangements.
Of course I couldn't leave without trying the town's famous delicacy.
One thing Mr Mallon is keen to tackle is unhealthy eating and obesity levels in the town - unfortunate then that one of its best-loved creations is the self-styled "heart attack on a plate" - the much talked about parmo - a Boro born and bred delicacy that has been handed down through the generations.
And so it was I found myself in Capaldi's, one of the town's best-known eateries tucking into a cheese soaked slab of chicken, all served up with bechamel sauce and positively oozing calories and stodge.
Under the glare of the Tyne Tees cameras, I apprehensively tucked in - and while the first few mouthfuls were more than palatable, believe you me, a whole parmo is an acquired taste and far too much to stomach.
Humble pie maybe, a parmo, no.
And so it was, as I walked off the stodge with a final stroll around Boro - and after a relaxing Indian head massage - that it was time to bid farewell to the town I'd royally slagged a few months previously.
So was I so wrong?
Middlesbrough is very much like Doncaster - a town that's experienced life in the doldrums and now, thanks to the influence of directly-elected mayors and the success of the towns' football teams, both are on the up again through development, investment and are being given vibrant new look.
Both have their bad sides, both have problems and neither are ever going to match the likes of Bath, Oxford or York in terms of sheer beauty. But one thing is for sure, there is far more to Middlesbrough than being a "smog and grime encrusted town."
Still prefer a Yorkshire pudding to a parmo any day though!
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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