Waterfront park set to open in late spring
Stockton CouncilA multimillion-pound urban park project designed to improve the fortunes of a struggling town centre is expected to open in late spring.
Work on Stockton's waterfront scheme, on the site of an old shopping centre, began in 2024.
The granite steps of an amphitheatre and viewing platform are almost complete, as is a bridge extension from the Millennium Footbridge connecting to Stockton town centre.
Councillor Richard Eglington, cabinet member for regeneration, said the "mammoth project" was making good progress.
He said: "The amphitheatre is taking shape, all the drainage systems and everything is being tested and making sure everything's working correctly, we've got flooring being put down.
"The play centre's in, it'll be handed over to us for the soft furnishings.
"All the hard ground work's done by the contractor, then we take over, to set it up how we want it to be, put bits in we want to put in, that's a four-week programme."
Stockton CouncilWork began on the site in December 2024 following the demolition of Castlegate Shopping Centre and the Swallow Hotel.
Eglington said there was no fixed date for completion but it would be "the back end of spring", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
"We'd rather make sure everything's right and the contractors hand it over and we've done all the work we want to do, rather than get it on a fixed date, start work then have to go back in and do remedial work," he said.
The planned £300,000 opening event has been cancelled because of Stockton council's financial worries, with the local authority previously saying it received a number of comments about it from the public.
Eglington said the council was looking for other ways to mark the opening.
