THOUSANDS of new homes, a £6m family adventure centre, and improvements to industrial estates and town centres are part of a massive new masterplan unveiled to help east Cleveland recover from the impact of job losses at SSI.

Tens of millions of pounds of new investment are being pumped into the area in a bid to create 1,600 jobs and more than 175 new businesses in the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council area.

The Area Growth Plans include projects to improve the borough’s tourism offer, refurbish high streets and support businesses and community-projects.

The council has committed £8m, £5m has been secured from the SSI Task Force for Redcar town centre, along with a further £2.8m SSI Task Force funding for industrial parks in the Greater Eston area.

The plan is to secure tens of millions more in funding from the lottery, Government and private sector.

The council cabinet report outlines funded, part-funded and long-term aspirational projects with money already allocated for many high street improvement schemes. Bigger schemes include: £4m plans to improve Redcar Railway Station and £6.6m plans to open a family adventure centre in the town, a £13m expansion of Skippers Lane Industrial Estate and improvements to Eston Town Square.

Many other projects are borough-wide and involve supporting both businesses and the community by delivering high street improvement grants for new businesses, increasing tourist accommodation, expanding industrial estates, building new homes and converting empty properties and including public space.

The plans cover the whole of the borough – east Cleveland, Greater Eston and Redcar.

East Cleveland projects include supporting a £2.3m community-led plan from the Guisborough Town Hall Gateway Project to return Guisborough Town Hall to use, tackling a number of empty buildings in Loftus town centre and investing in Saltburn’s tourism offer including preserving Victorian features.

Redcar has schemes that will expand the range of all-weather facilities on offer to visitors including £4m plans to improve the Redcar Central Station as a gateway site and business space.

The Family Adventure Centre in Redcar will be aimed at young children to teenagers and could include a climbing wall and bowling alley.

Councillor Sue Jeffrey, leader of the council, said: “For the first time today we are setting out the full set of projects that we are currently working on and show how together they create the momentum for further projects and more investment right across the borough."

She added: "There is a continuous pipeline of projects at various stages of development all targeted at growing the economy and creating new jobs.”