Proposals for a controversial cycle lane scheme went under the spotlight at a local authority committee. Middlesbrough Council’s overview and scrutiny board met for an extraordinary meeting on Friday, 06 November 2026 to discuss and debate the Green Lane active travel scheme, which was approved by the Labour Executive on Wednesday, 07 October 2026.
It was reported last week that Ayresome ward independent Cllr Jackie Young had triggered a “call in” of the Executive decision, backed by four of her fellow members, meaning that there would be a special meeting to debate the merits and faults of the process which led to the decision being made last month.
The proposals include not only a bidirectional cycle lane, but also changes to pedestrian facilities, aimed at improving a walker’s experience, along with additional parking spaces, on a number of roads, stretching from the Mandale roundabout all the way over to the James Cook University Hospital.
Cllr Young gave councillors a thorough account of the reasons why she thought the decision by the Executive was flawed. She detailed eight matters, seven of which centred around what she believed to be various inadequacies and inaccuracies in the consultation process, while one of the concerns centred around costing.
At the end of the meeting, councillors voted decisively to refer the matter to a scrutiny panel, to be reviewed further, after which the matter will return to the overview and scrutiny board.
At the meeting, before discussing the eight reasons for the call in, Cllr Young described a “catalogue of errors” from Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), which was in charge of the consultation process that took place over the summer of 2025. She said these included residents initially not receiving any notification of the scheme due to the “printer not working”.
Cllr Young did, however, praise the combined authority for putting on an extra consultation event and extending the consultation process for a month.
She thought that the proposal to move the Mandale bus stop should not have been included in the consultation process, describing it as an “unnecessary distraction”, asking why a bus stop that has been in place for “decades” would be moved, when the focus should be on “cycling, walking and wheeling to James Cook [University Hospital] and Roseberry [Park Hospital].”
Cllr Young discussed a number of other points in detail, including highlighting council papers which described how “no objections” were received from ward members as part of their engagement, to which she said: “My seven page write-up objected to quite a lot of the scheme, and that was just the part that was in the ward I represent.”
Numerous councillors concurred with Cllr Young as the meeting unfolded, with MICA Cllr Donna Jones describing the multi-million-pound spend on the currently proposed scheme as “ludicrous”.
Roads affected by the estimated £10.4m plans – to be funded by TVCA through a sustainable travel grant – include Levick Crescent, Croft Avenue, Green Lane, Emerson Avenue, Keith Road and Marton Burn Road.
Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability, Labour Cllr Peter Gavigan – who has responsibility for the scheme at a local council level – said he believed the call in should centre around the “robustness of the process, rather than the merits of the individual aspects of the scheme”.
Chairing the meeting, Labour Cllr Lewis Young described the call in as “quite a broad” one. The remit included: adequacy of consultation, the evidence presented to the Executive, the consideration of road safety and accessibility, value for money, survey results, bus services, alternative routes and whether an alternative of “do nothing” is not actually considering any proper alternatives.
Labour Linthorpe ward Cllr Naweed Hussain submitted a written representation. He asked once again for the decision to be deferred, as he had before at the Wednesday, 07 October 2026 Executive meeting.
Cllr Hussain spoke of 65% of respondents to the consultation not supporting the proposals, adding that residents’ concerns have not been “properly addressed”.
Responding to some of the comments made by Cllr Young, Cllr Gavigan conceded that consultation had not run perfectly, but added: “I don’t think that detracts from the robustness of the scheme itself.”
He said that some suggestions from residents during consultation were adopted into the scheme.
Cllr Gavigan added: “I can only speak for myself, but I’m satisfied that Executive members made themselves aware of all the arguments. The report that was presented was extremely comprehensive, we had opportunities to ask questions of officers… I’m satisfied that Exec members who made the decision on October 7, did so with a great deal of knowledge at their disposal.”
As for unhappiness about bus stops, Chris Orr, from Middlesbrough Council, told members that some bus stops are currently within 150 metres of each other, adding: “We haven’t removed them, we’ve rationalised the locations of them, which spread them better across the network.”
After a meeting that lasted well over two hours, there was a failed attempt to vote in favour of taking no further action.
This was followed by councillors agreeing to refer the matter to a scrutiny panel for further consideration, which will then report back to the overview and scrutiny board within 14 days, at which point the board will vote on whether to refer the matter back to the Executive or to take no further action.
