For a region which has contributed so much to the national economy, the Tees Valley has been strangely silent about its industry.

To some extent that's the nature of the people here. They prefer getting on with the job to talking it up. That's a pity, as the story of how we produce the steel that goes into tower blocks, the chemicals with a thousand uses, salt for the roads, fertiliser for your garden even the nylon in your clothes, is a fascinating one.

I am often a little annoyed at the way some people talk down and disrespect our industrial heritage, the steel, the chemicals, the potash. That's because it is a living heritage which remains the heartbeat of our region and the country.

Take the petro-chemical industry alone. It employs 6,000 people directly. Each one of those jobs supports another six in the region, and almost 50,000 jobs nationwide. It keeps the Home Counties commuters in employment. It probably provides the fuel that gets them to work each day.

In recent years it has invested £1bn to improve and modernise its operations. It has the best safety record of any UK industry. Whatever their appearance, chemical sites rank among the safest places in the country. As an example of sustained improvement in performance it is a model industry.

As the Tees Valley changes, as new technologies and investors come to our towns, we must never forget where we came from. Otherwise we will dishonour the memories of so many. Not just the famous ones, the Bolckows and Vaughans, but the thousands who toiled in the steel mills and ironstone mines and chemical works to make a living for themselves and prosperity for a nation.

They are celebrated marvellously in the film, A Century in Stone, by local lad Craig Hornby. I would make this essential viewing for every student in our schools, every industrialist and every person who is involved in the regeneration of the region.

Why? Because it teaches us that the opportunities we have today - and I believe they are limitless - were largely created by the people who built our traditional industries.

We can also learn from our living environment. Recently I visited the Dow Haltermann chemicals site in Middlesbrough, located on the fringe of the Middlehaven development. It provides work for more than 100 people and despatches around the world ingredients for an amazing array of products: paints, fuel oils, shampoos and photographic film, to name a few.

There have been chemical works on this site for more than 100 years and it is more than likely they will remain there as Middlehaven, with its emphasis on technology-driven jobs, takes shape and becomes a reality.

I certainly don't see this traditional industry as a barrier to new development. I'll go even further, I think the site looks impressive, a dramatic illustration of the way industry continues to influence our local landscape.

Perhaps then, Middlehaven will become a fitting symbol of the Tees Valley - a region which celebrates and sustains its past while building for the future. A region where old and new wealth creators can co-exist. However far we travel on the route to regeneration, we should never forget how and where we started.

Published: 11/02/2005