A ten-year, £40 million programme for Park End and Thorntree is moving from a funding headline towards local decisions about what should change on the ground.

Each area has been £20 million through the government’s Pride in Place programme. Middlesbrough’s two neighbourhood boards will be led jointly by Charlotte Dinsdale, chief executive of Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation, and Gary Hamilton, a TS3 resident with a long record in sport, youth work and community projects.

Local boards will set the priorities

The co-chairs are recruiting 12 board members, six for Park End and six for Thorntree. People who live in either area, run a local business or are active in the community can put themselves forward. Candidates will be selected after short, informal interviews.

The boards will have support from Middlesbrough Council, councillors and the town’s , but the stated intention is that neighbourhood representatives decide where the money can make the greatest difference. Government guidance allows the funding to cover a broad range of issues, including housing, education, jobs, health and , transport and community safety.

That local discretion is important because £20 million spread across a decade needs clear choices. The programme could support physical improvements, but it can also invest in the people and organisations already working in the two neighbourhoods.

Two chairs with roots in the work

Dinsdale has spent more than a decade across two periods at the MFC Foundation. Her work connects sport with health, education, confidence and social ties. The foundation’s new base at Southlands Community and Sports Hub also places it firmly in East Middlesbrough.

Hamilton has lived in TS3 throughout his life. founded Active Tees Valley, now works for leisure operator Everyone Active and has been involved in projects that brought buildings back into use and created opportunities for young people.

Applications to join the boards were invited through a simple council process, with a deadline of 7 September 2026. That gives the co-chairs a first practical task: assemble two groups able to listen widely, weigh competing needs and remain over a long funding period.

The money will arrive over ten years, so residents should not expect every result at once. The immediate milestone is more basic and more important: putting local people around the table before the spending priorities are fixed.

: Appointments, funding and board details were checked against Middlesbrough Council’s announcement of 17 August 2026. Image: Middlesbrough Council.