The Evening Gazette, Teesside, is holding a historic Steel Summit at Redcar Bowl on Sunday.

The event has been organised following steel giant Corus’ shock announcement that it no longer needs steel produced at its Redcar works – and the site must stand on its own by selling into international markets.

A total of 2,900 steel jobs – and a further 7,000 in the Teesside economy – rely on Corus for their future.

Because of the impact to the region, the Evening Gazette has spent the last month organising the public ‘question and answer’ summit so that people can understand the issue and how it might be addressed.

The event, which will be broadcast on BBC radio and TV, will offer a chance to the powers-that-be to prove their intentions by outlining their plans for the future of steel on Teesside.

The venue holds 800 people and a capacity crowd is expected. National union leaders, MPs, government representatives and the region’s key regeneration bodies will all be in attendance.

A panel of experts will be there to answer questions. They include: Kevin Curran, who becomes general secretary of the GMB union on the same day; Michael Leahy, general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation; Bob Shannon, national officer of the steel industry with the union Amicus; Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland; Vera Baird, MP for Redcar; Alistair Arkley, chairman of the Tees Valley Partnership and board member of Regional Development Agency One NorthEast and George Cowcher, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce.

Other attendees include: Stockton South MP Dari Taylor, a representative from the Department of Trade and Industry; Colin Moore, chief executive of Redcar and Cleveland Council and Joe Docherty, chief executive of Tees Valley Regeneration, the area’s urban regeneration company.

The Gazette’s editor, Steve Dyson, will chair the event, which starts with a 15-minute World in Action-style documentary on the history and importance of the Teesside steel industry.

That will be followed by an introduction to panel followed by Question Time-style session. Questions will cover a range of topics and will be aimed at Corus, government, unions and the area’s regeneration chiefs. Then at 12.40pm there will be a live broadcast from the summit by BBC TV’s Sunday Politics Show, followed by keynote speech from union leaders.

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