A TEESSIDE council will deliver the goods next year, the council leader has promised.

In a New Year message, David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said a number of projects the council has been championing will come to fruition.

Councillor Walsh said: "Next year will see the physical beginnings of a number of important schemes within the borough. We will see the beginning of work on the new Wilton Street Shopping Centre in Redcar, bringing new life to the largest shopping centre in the borough.

"Also in Redcar, we will see the completion of the new multi-million pound Rye Hills School - the most modern school in the North-East - and the beginning of work to demolish one of the worst planning mistakes of the 1960s - the Courts housing complex."

He said that in east Cleveland, the new Brotton bypass will open and flood defence measures in Skinningrove should be completed, while in Guisborough, work will start on new council offices, bringing more than 200 jobs to the town.

A new shopping centre is also on the way in Eston.

He said Single Regeneration Budget schemes will start in Loftus and Skinningrove.

"All this work goes hand in hand with other improvements the council is introducing across the borough including the neighbourhood warden service now being pioneered in Eston and Brotton," he said.

"These successes, combined with an improved financial climate, which can allow us, for the first time in years, to be bullish about both council tax levels and improvements in services mean that - I believe - we can now say we will be delivering the goods for our local residents and communities in the coming year."