:00:02. > :00:08.It's great to be back. In the next half-an-hour, meet the Corus worker
:00:08. > :00:11.who trusted his redundancy money would be as safe as houses. I feel
:00:11. > :00:17.like we've been conned, cheated. The mortgage is over �2,000 a month
:00:17. > :00:23.which is impossible to meet. Just how tough is it to find work
:00:23. > :00:30.in these hard times. Follow our northern jobseekers. Spaghetti is
:00:30. > :00:36.80p a tin so no spaghetti for now. Take a fresh look at one of our
:00:36. > :00:40.best-loved landmarks celebrating its 100 anniversary. The moon is
:00:40. > :00:45.under the bridge. As a child, looking up at that bridge, it was
:00:45. > :00:55.higher than the moon. Stories at the heart of life in the north-east
:00:55. > :01:06.
:01:06. > :01:10.and Cumbria. If you're made redundant you'd want
:01:10. > :01:13.to be sure any pay-out you get is used wisely. So how mad would you
:01:13. > :01:16.be if the investment advice you're given turns sour? I've been hearing
:01:16. > :01:26.from families who claim the deals set up by a Teesside businessman
:01:26. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:32.We're talking mind-blowing figures. A �500 million property scheme. We
:01:32. > :01:38.feel like we've been conned, cheated. Glossy brochure, catalogue
:01:38. > :01:43.of problems. We were just fodder. Just another commission and we were
:01:43. > :01:48.just used. And I'm here to find out how what started out as a cast iron
:01:48. > :01:53.investment crumbled before their eyes.
:01:53. > :01:58.It all started on Teesside. And an Independent Financial Advisor who's
:01:58. > :02:01.meeting Dave and Judy Biggs. I knew I was getting made redundant from
:02:01. > :02:10.Corus.I wanted somewhere to invest part of my money, the lump sum, in
:02:10. > :02:14.Cyprus. So they're shown a DVD of St George Hills. Apparently, a new
:02:14. > :02:21.dawn in investment opportunities. It's a resort being built in Cyprus.
:02:21. > :02:26.The idea? Buy an apartment off plan, then sell as soon as it's finished.
:02:26. > :02:31.So after three years you were looking at �60,000 profit. Sit back,
:02:31. > :02:40.sell it on and make a profit. Simple as that? That's the way it
:02:40. > :02:42.was sold. Because the guy wasn't a salesman he was Andrew Laird, a
:02:42. > :02:45.Director of Teesside estate agents Roseberry Newhouse and trusted for
:02:45. > :02:51.giving sound financial advice. been our financial advisor for 10
:02:51. > :02:57.years. And it looked like a good investment, low mortgage, for us to
:02:57. > :03:00.afford, good rentable properties and we liked the sound of it.
:03:00. > :03:06.Andrew Laird was arranging the sale of all the apartments under the
:03:06. > :03:10.name of Roseberry Overseas Property, or ROP UK. They would do it all for
:03:10. > :03:12.you, hassle-free. ROP UK sold apartments for a developer in
:03:12. > :03:14.Cyprus, Alpha Panareti, and to shift hundreds of properties,
:03:14. > :03:22.Andrew Laird had an army of Independent Financial Advisors
:03:22. > :03:25.across Britain. I just wanted to find another way of paying off the
:03:25. > :03:27.mortgage until I was 65, but instead, during this conversation,
:03:27. > :03:34.he brings up the subject of investing in overseas property,
:03:34. > :03:37.None of the risks, were mentioned at all. It was all very confident
:03:37. > :03:41.and you really should get involved in this, otherwise you're going to
:03:41. > :03:43.be left in the cold. So all the building blocks were in place. The
:03:43. > :03:52.investors, the financial advisors, all selling under the banner of
:03:53. > :03:56.Teesside-based company ROPUK. that's where we get it right.
:03:56. > :04:01.Getting it right means engendering trust. And to gain that trust ROP
:04:01. > :04:05.UK had one trump card. The phrase due diligence came up again.
:04:05. > :04:09.diligence. And again. Due Diligence meant they thoroughly investigated
:04:09. > :04:19.the potential investment. Great! But what happened next, might make
:04:19. > :04:22.your toes curl. I've come here because buyers who dealt with
:04:22. > :04:24.Andrew Laird and his company ROP UK say they're tied to paying
:04:24. > :04:31.crippling amounts of money, for properties that they might not ever
:04:31. > :04:34.own and are not even finished yet. When were the builders last here? I
:04:34. > :04:37.wanted to start at the beginning, with the information brochures ROP
:04:37. > :04:43.UK gave to buyers. And I've arranged to meet a leading local
:04:43. > :04:46.surveyor. He's agreed to look at a ROP UK buyers guide. Now I can
:04:46. > :04:51.understand why all these overseas people were coming to Cyprus and
:04:51. > :04:53.buying! It looks great. I would buy one. It may look great, but, he
:04:53. > :04:58.says, he's found questionable calculations, exaggerations and
:04:58. > :05:01.even a tax added that they don't have to pay. Yet in a document
:05:01. > :05:07.given by an independent advisor, what he's struggled to find, is
:05:07. > :05:11.independent advice. If I'm making a reasoned investment in something I
:05:11. > :05:14.want to be told the good and bad things about it, I want to know the
:05:14. > :05:21.risks. I think it's a very optimistic brochure and a brochure
:05:21. > :05:24.that fails to highlight the various that fails to highlight the various
:05:24. > :05:28.risks involved. One risk is that you might end up paying double the
:05:28. > :05:30.original ROP UK estimate for your mortgage. How? Many of these
:05:30. > :05:33.mortgages were in a foreign currency, Swiss francs, and there
:05:33. > :05:38.was no explanation of how fluctuations in that currency may
:05:38. > :05:42.increase payments people needed to make on a monthly basis. There's
:05:42. > :05:48.more. Our buyers all say the bank in Cyprus is charging them far more
:05:48. > :05:52.interest than they'd been led to expect by ROP UK. So, why sign up?
:05:52. > :05:58.Well, the investors say they didn't. It was their lawyers in Cyprus,
:05:58. > :06:01.that ROP UK had recommended who signed the deal. We didn't see the
:06:01. > :06:04.terms of the loan, no details of the mortgage whatsoever. So you've
:06:04. > :06:07.been lumbered with a mortgage you don't understand. Absolutely don't
:06:07. > :06:11.know anything about it, nothing at all, and it certainly isn't
:06:11. > :06:15.anything like Andrew Laird told us it was going to be. How stupid are
:06:15. > :06:22.we? What have we done? But when we've talked to everybody else and
:06:22. > :06:26.there are 200, 300, 400 people who have been told the exact same story.
:06:26. > :06:30.And the result of all that? A nightmare they can't escape from.
:06:30. > :06:35.What are you in for now, in terms of owing? About 350,000. On a
:06:35. > :06:45.property which cost us 200,000. The mortgage is over �2,000 a month,
:06:45. > :06:51.
:06:51. > :06:54.which is impossible to meet. There's another problem. In Cyprus,
:06:54. > :06:58.it's notoriously difficult to get hold of your title deeds the bit of
:06:58. > :07:02.paper that says you own your house. Let's assume this is the property
:07:02. > :07:05.you've bought and it's on this bit of land and the developer has also
:07:05. > :07:08.a number of other properties he's building here. You sign the
:07:08. > :07:13.contract, you hand your money over and you move into the property.
:07:13. > :07:15.Right, so give me my deeds. Sorry, can't have them. Why? You can't
:07:15. > :07:22.have these deeds until this complete development, which could
:07:22. > :07:27.have 200 apartments, is completed. I've known people who've waited 20
:07:27. > :07:30.years for their title deeds. that's bad, because it means it's
:07:30. > :07:34.much harder to sell your property. All our buyers say this was never
:07:34. > :07:36.explained to them. You think it's ROP UK's responsibility to have
:07:36. > :07:42.done this rather than the individual buyers? Oh yes,
:07:42. > :07:46.Absolutely. You don't buy a new car from somebody and then ask have you
:07:46. > :07:48.put any oil in it, do you? So when it says In Cyprus, property
:07:48. > :07:57.conveyancing is almost a mirror image of the English conveyancing
:07:57. > :08:00.system? That's very, very misleading. The buyers are already
:08:00. > :08:03.down around �30,000 - their deposits. And now the bank is
:08:03. > :08:10.asking for mortgage payments from some of them. So what have they got
:08:10. > :08:19.to show for it? First stop, a resort buyers thought would be
:08:19. > :08:22.finished nearly two years ago. There's the swimming pool. The rest
:08:22. > :08:25.is still a building site. And up there is the penthouse Dave and
:08:25. > :08:32.Judy Biggs are waiting for. ROP UK gave them an update in 2009. Even
:08:32. > :08:35.in the global crisis, the resale value was 410,000 euros. It makes
:08:35. > :08:39.you laugh? It makes me laugh because it's completely off the
:08:39. > :08:42.mark. So, what's it worth today? think you'd be looking at 130,
:08:42. > :08:49.140,000 euros. Remember - they say their mortgage is �350,000 and
:08:49. > :08:51.rising. The mortgage was taken out against our property. So you could
:08:51. > :08:54.lose your home in the UK? Definitely, there's a possibility
:08:55. > :08:57.we could lose our home. In a statement, the developer told us
:08:57. > :09:00.it's the buyers who had a personal responsibility to understand the
:09:01. > :09:03.terms of the contract. To do their own due diligence. It said the
:09:04. > :09:06.decision to buy was based on information passed on by the UK
:09:06. > :09:11.advisor and that some buyers insisted everything went through
:09:11. > :09:16.the agent. The developer said it was ROP UK that allocated the
:09:16. > :09:18.Cypriot lawyers who had a duty to point out problematic issues. Alpha
:09:18. > :09:23.Panareti said it couldn't be responsible for the impact on
:09:23. > :09:27.buyers' ability to pay caused by the global financial crisis. What
:09:27. > :09:32.about where Olwyn Harrison from Stockton bought? Alpha Panareti has
:09:32. > :09:41.had nearly all her mortgage money. I would expect for that, apart from
:09:41. > :09:44.the furniture, ready to move in I'd have thought. Wouldn't you? I don't
:09:44. > :09:48.know how to break this to you. So what has Alpha Panareti done with
:09:48. > :09:56.her loan money, because it hasn't been spent here. When were you
:09:56. > :10:00.expecting to be handed the keys? September 2010. Oh! Well, you can
:10:00. > :10:06.have the keys but there's no door to put them in! If it were finished,
:10:06. > :10:13.and it's a big if, you'd be looking at 70 to 80,000 euros at best.
:10:13. > :10:19.mean her mortgage is going to be in the 200 to 300,000 bracket. For a
:10:19. > :10:23.property worth 70 now. Yes. What you're telling us is what we
:10:23. > :10:28.suspected. Gutted. I know she almost has a laugh in her voice,
:10:28. > :10:31.but that's because she's been through this for so long. She'd
:10:31. > :10:34.probably have been more amazed if I said it was ready, to be honest
:10:34. > :10:37.with you. Alpha Panareti says all payments it had from buyers'
:10:37. > :10:42.mortgage accounts were authorised by the bank's surveyor, based on
:10:42. > :10:44.how much of the whole development was completed. We didn't see any
:10:44. > :10:50.evidence of ongoing building work here, or here, but Alpha Panareti
:10:50. > :10:52.insists work has never stopped. It doesn't deny delays in completion.
:10:52. > :10:55.It blames the world financial crisis, strikes, government
:10:55. > :11:02.interference, poor winter weather, the local electricity supplier, and
:11:02. > :11:05.some buyers who have withheld payments. The situation's getting
:11:05. > :11:08.political. MEPs have asked the European Commission if it can act
:11:08. > :11:13.against what one has even described in a parliamentary question in
:11:13. > :11:16.April as a fraudulent property scheme. The Commission is
:11:16. > :11:19.investigating with the Cypriot government. Alpha Panareti
:11:19. > :11:22.vigorously denies the MEP's claim and says it will respond to the
:11:22. > :11:27.commission, from whom it has yet to receive any communication
:11:27. > :11:31.whatsoever. So what does ROP UK say? Their big message is it's
:11:31. > :11:34.nothing to do with us, guv. I think that in reality it was clear that
:11:34. > :11:40.what they provided was a very influential part in the whole
:11:41. > :11:50.business. I've been doing a bit of digging and found out Andrew Laird
:11:51. > :11:55.
:11:56. > :11:58.has bought a property, only this I came here to speak to Andrew
:11:58. > :12:03.Laird but apparently, he doesn't want to talk because he's involved
:12:03. > :12:13.in legal action. He might be keeping his cards close to his
:12:13. > :12:16.
:12:16. > :12:20.In almost a quarter of households in the north-east, no one has a job.
:12:20. > :12:23.That's the worst figure in the UK. But what is life really like for
:12:23. > :12:26.the people behind the statistics? Over the next few months, we'll be
:12:26. > :12:36.following a group of jobseeker's through the ups and downs of trying
:12:36. > :12:47.
:12:47. > :12:50.I've just come because I saw a dishwasher job. It's not really
:12:50. > :13:00.what I'm looking for directly, but I really want to get off job-
:13:00. > :13:05.
:13:06. > :13:11.seekers. Thanks for coming down. Tell me a little about yourself.
:13:11. > :13:21.like music. All sorts of music actually. You're looking for full-
:13:21. > :13:21.
:13:21. > :13:25.time work. Hopefully, I'm flexible. Matthew did great. You can tell he
:13:25. > :13:28.is keen to get back to work I liked him! I always feel hopeful, I'd
:13:28. > :13:38.rather go home thinking I said something and maybe they'll call me
:13:38. > :13:41.
:13:41. > :13:49.something and maybe they'll call me up. We have had a phenomenal
:13:49. > :13:53.response 2,000 people for 150 jobs. I graduated with a degree in
:13:53. > :13:57.economics. Last year I finished a Masters in management leadership
:13:57. > :14:00.and learning. Redundancy came as a bit of a shock. The hard part was
:14:00. > :14:05.thinking what would I like to do next? It is almost like a full-time
:14:05. > :14:15.job itself chasing work! Probably this week I have applied for 15-20
:14:15. > :14:17.
:14:17. > :14:20.posts. The type of work I'm looking for is very limited in the North
:14:20. > :14:24.East. In the time I have been looking, I can honestly say there
:14:24. > :14:34.have only been a handful that I could say, yes, that is what I
:14:34. > :14:34.
:14:35. > :14:38.want! We're off down to Bradford. Job looks really positive. My
:14:38. > :14:42.daughter is eight. Her name is Cherise. It is hard with the money
:14:42. > :14:46.I am on at the minute. It's awful living on the dole. She asks for
:14:46. > :14:49.stuff every day that I don't have the money to give her. I am trying
:14:49. > :14:52.really hard to find a job. I am reading papers trying to find jobs,
:14:52. > :14:56.asking around shops, sending off application forms. It is really
:14:56. > :14:59.hard at the minute to find a job. I am determined to find a job, turn
:14:59. > :15:03.my life around, then I could take my daughter out to places she wants
:15:03. > :15:06.to go. I am sick of having no money. I want to shout to the roof-tops,
:15:06. > :15:09.look, I have these qualifications, this experience or whatever but you
:15:09. > :15:13.have to complete this diary and it is so humiliating. It is illegal to
:15:13. > :15:19.be ageist but it does come into it. Age is a factor trying to prove
:15:19. > :15:25.that is near impossible. I have come to help promote an
:15:25. > :15:28.organisation called Shared Interest. Volunteering is important to me
:15:28. > :15:38.because I learn social skills, problem solving. I'm willing to
:15:38. > :15:42.
:15:42. > :15:46.give most things a try if I'm given the opportunity and a decent wage.
:15:46. > :15:49.I had an autistic son. He got to 20 and day services ended for him.
:15:49. > :15:54.Richard got terminal cancer. He needed 24 hour care so it was
:15:54. > :15:57.impossible to work. We were in and out of hospital, hospices, and all
:15:57. > :16:01.of a sudden, Richard died. He only lasted six months from beginning to
:16:01. > :16:05.end. I'm not bothered what the job is as long as I'm capable of doing
:16:05. > :16:09.it. I'm not expecting a job with mega-pay. I'm happy with basic pay.
:16:09. > :16:13.It must be my age, but if you think about it, but if you think about it,
:16:13. > :16:16.I'm not going to leave to have children. I am not going to take
:16:16. > :16:23.time off to look after children with measles, chicken pox. This is
:16:23. > :16:28.the best time for me to work. I was getting into trouble with
:16:28. > :16:34.police, causing problems, offending quite a lot. It ended up with me
:16:34. > :16:43.being homeless. Fairbridge has changed me round, got me how I want
:16:43. > :16:49.to be. Heading towards a job I want to do. I have just moved out of the
:16:49. > :16:57.homeless hostel into my own flat in Middlesbrough. It is brilliant.
:16:57. > :17:01.Spacious. Perfect for getting started again. I am taking part in
:17:01. > :17:11.a course with the Princes Trust on placement with Newcastle United. I
:17:11. > :17:12.
:17:12. > :17:22.am hoping to get the skills to become a youth worker. I have just
:17:22. > :17:24.
:17:24. > :17:27.66p in the bank and I need to buy some food. This is my cupboard. It
:17:27. > :17:31.would be nice to stock my own cupboard. It would be nice to have
:17:31. > :17:34.spaghetti, haven't had spaghetti in a long time, but it is 80p a tin,
:17:34. > :17:41.so no spaghetti for now. It's like I'm always asking for a handout and
:17:41. > :17:51.I don't want a handout. I'd like someone to give me a job. My sister
:17:51. > :17:51.
:17:51. > :17:59.treats me all the time. It would be nice to treat... Treat her for a
:17:59. > :18:09.change. My name is Letricia and I am phoning up to see if my
:18:09. > :18:14.
:18:14. > :18:18.Jobseekers money has gone in today, please. I have to phone Friday?
:18:18. > :18:28.They will call me back, last time I left it and they didn't. Oh God,
:18:28. > :18:39.
:18:39. > :18:43.why? I am very happy. Very settled. I am really enjoying it working
:18:43. > :18:46.hard! I am in the dish washing area but I could end up working in the
:18:46. > :18:50.kitchen. I could end up supervisor here. It is not about
:18:50. > :18:56.qualifications but what you bring as a person. It is nice to be
:18:56. > :18:59.appreciated and wanted. Please don't give up hope. It is about
:18:59. > :19:01.what you bring as a person. There are places opening and changing.
:19:01. > :19:05.There will be things coming soon. Congratulations go to Aiden, who
:19:05. > :19:08.has got a new contract with a credit card company. Well done. If
:19:08. > :19:14.you are looking for work and would like to share your story, why not
:19:15. > :19:18.add your voice to my blog. 100 years ago today, this was
:19:18. > :19:21.opened. Since then, the gondola of the Transporter Bridge has made a
:19:21. > :19:24.fair few trips across the Tees, when it's not closed because of
:19:25. > :19:27.wind! But really, these days, what does the Transporter Bridge mean to
:19:27. > :19:33.Teesside? Kirsten O'Brien's come home to Middlesbrough, to re-visit
:19:33. > :19:36.a landmark that just maybe we take for granted.
:19:36. > :19:40.The worst part is if you're doing house insurance or something like
:19:40. > :19:43.that and they ask you for your job. What do you mean you drive a
:19:43. > :19:46.bridge? Well, we have this bridge in Middlesbrough that we drive,
:19:46. > :19:50.that moves. What do you mean it moves, a bridge can't move. Well,
:19:50. > :19:53.ours does. Well, you say you work for the council? Yeah. We'll put
:19:53. > :19:55.you down as a council worker then. I says that'll do, local authority.
:19:55. > :19:59.Fine. Absurdly brilliant. And typically
:19:59. > :20:02.Teesside. This is a look at the Transporter from another angle, a
:20:02. > :20:05.different perspective. What's the point of it? What do we need it for
:20:05. > :20:08.these days anyway? Why's it that blue colour? What does it
:20:08. > :20:18.symbolise? What does it mean to people? And, what does the future
:20:18. > :20:18.
:20:18. > :20:23.This was one hundred years ago today. The reason it was built so
:20:23. > :20:26.tall was to allow sailing ships up. The river was so busy as well and
:20:26. > :20:33.those ships had to have free passage up and down the river all
:20:33. > :20:36.the time. So you're saying that would be moving and ships just
:20:37. > :20:40.dodging it as it was going along? Well, I like the word dodge and it
:20:40. > :20:42.probably was in the early days, given the number of ships. Now, a
:20:42. > :20:45.picture that illustrates this perfectly has just been discovered
:20:45. > :20:48.at the Teesside Archives. This is 1912 and this is an impression of
:20:48. > :20:54.how the river Tees might've looked soon after the Transporter first
:20:54. > :20:57.opened. Just before the Transporter was built there was a study
:20:57. > :21:01.revealed that there were 70 different types of vessels going up
:21:01. > :21:04.the Tees every day. Yet they had millions of people a year that were
:21:04. > :21:08.crossing from their homes on the side of the river to north side of
:21:08. > :21:18.the river where most of them worked on the iron and steelworks and
:21:18. > :21:27.
:21:27. > :21:31.shipyards. Its hard to know when I first became aware of the
:21:31. > :21:36.Transporter Bridge. It's one of those things you just except and it
:21:36. > :21:40.is massive on the horizon. There is the moon. It's under the
:21:40. > :21:50.bridge. The bridge is higher than the Moon and as a child looking up,
:21:50. > :21:57.
:21:57. > :22:01.it was higher than a month. The first time I drew it I was
:22:01. > :22:04.about eight and there was a school trip. I didn't want to go up it.
:22:04. > :22:11.All the others wanted to go over the top but I stayed down the
:22:11. > :22:19.bottom with a little pad and I drew the bridge. It's a terrific
:22:19. > :22:23.adventure, we always thought it was magical. We used to use it to get
:22:23. > :22:33.to the seaside so that was always associated, for me as a child, with
:22:33. > :22:39.
:22:39. > :22:43.going somewhere great. For someone of my generation, the bridge means
:22:43. > :22:45.just a symbol of home but there's a whole generation of people who
:22:45. > :22:48.really remember the bridge. Remember it as part of a bustling,
:22:48. > :22:50.working environment, filled with men with their bait boxes, their
:22:50. > :22:53.bikes, scruffy faces. I worked at bikes, scruffy faces. I worked at
:22:53. > :22:56.Port Clarence, in the Calor Gas factory. We used to get the trolley
:22:56. > :22:59.bus to the old exchange, then run like hell to jump on here, get
:22:59. > :23:09.across. You will know that this symbolises what Teesside's all
:23:09. > :23:11.
:23:11. > :23:14.about, hard work, strong. granddad used to tell me that it
:23:14. > :23:17.was threepence, according to his story, to get the gondola on the
:23:18. > :23:20.bottom across the river, but only a penny if you wanted to walk with
:23:21. > :23:24.your bike across the top and down the other side. Most importantly,
:23:24. > :23:28.Alastair, have you been up the top carrying a bike? Ha! You're joking,
:23:28. > :23:34.aren't you! Will you buy us a Parmo if I do it? Oh definitely I'll have
:23:34. > :23:40.a ladies parmo too in celebration. And of course, back then, the bikes
:23:40. > :23:49.were much heavier! For many, the Transporter was almost the symbolic
:23:49. > :23:54.heart of a British Empire. Teesside steel was building some of the
:23:54. > :23:57.world's most iconic structures. The Tyne Bridge, made in Teesside. The
:23:57. > :24:03.Sydney Harbour bridge, made in Teesside. The Transporter Bridge,
:24:03. > :24:06.made in Glasgow? It actually went to a Scottish company to build the
:24:06. > :24:16.bridge. And therefore, much of the transporter is actually Scottish
:24:16. > :24:18.
:24:18. > :24:21.steel. Slightly galling, isn't it? It's an incredible decision. It may
:24:21. > :24:28.be Scottish, but take it away and you'd soon feel the wrath of
:24:28. > :24:38.Teesside. I'm the creator of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. I'm responsible
:24:38. > :24:44.
:24:44. > :24:53.for taking the transporter, from Teesside to Arizona. But when it
:24:53. > :24:56.went out as a programme, everybody panicked?
:24:57. > :24:59.People would ring or write and really be annoyed - you've got no
:25:00. > :25:03.right, it's our heritage. So, power of TV, I'm afraid. Normally, you
:25:03. > :25:13.say no animals were hurt in the making of this programme. We had to
:25:13. > :25:17.say no bridges have been taken in the making of this programme.
:25:17. > :25:21.grandad must have been a very fit fellow doing this a very day. What
:25:21. > :25:25.have you. So Ali Brownlee's seeing the bridge
:25:25. > :25:30.from a different perspective. And so am I. On the other side of the
:25:30. > :25:33.Transporter. Port Clarence is one of the most cut off communities in
:25:33. > :25:43.the region. It has a Middlesbrough postcode.Yet if the Transporter
:25:43. > :25:44.
:25:44. > :25:54.isn't running, it's very hard to get to the town centre. If you are
:25:54. > :25:56.
:25:56. > :25:59.dependent on public transport, it's not reliable. It's frustrating
:25:59. > :26:08.standing on one side, seeing where you want to be but you just can't
:26:08. > :26:18.get there. There are over here going, we physically need that for
:26:18. > :26:26.
:26:26. > :26:29.a livelihood and a lot of cases. When I first started, it was a lot
:26:29. > :26:32.busier but there's no work anywhere and it's like everywhere it's just
:26:33. > :26:35.dying off. The bits all around are a bit, I think play into the hands
:26:36. > :26:38.of the stereotype that everybody outside this area tends to think of.
:26:38. > :26:44.It's bleakly industrial, it's run down. We've got this amazing bridge,
:26:44. > :26:51.this amazing structure and it's stuck in a corner somewhere.
:26:51. > :26:55.There's nowhere to get a coffee or to stand and admire the view. That
:26:55. > :26:59.is in many ways quite typically Middlesbrough. Yeah, it's there, go
:26:59. > :27:02.down and have a look if you want. The bridge has had a fair few paint
:27:02. > :27:07.jobs. It's re-invented itself many times before and to survive it has
:27:07. > :27:13.to do it again. More than �2 million in Lottery funding will
:27:13. > :27:23.build glass lifts to the top, a new visitors centre. And many are now
:27:23. > :27:30.
:27:30. > :27:37.seeing it from a different perspective. Treasure it because it
:27:37. > :27:47.is one of the most beautiful and dusty objects in the world. Each
:27:47. > :27:56.
:27:56. > :28:03.town has something that specify is what it is about, this is ours.
:28:03. > :28:06.never going to do this again. Howdy get down?
:28:06. > :28:09.I've gained more of a respect for this bridge, in the way that you
:28:09. > :28:19.have an elderly relative that you never knew what they went through
:28:19. > :28:20.
:28:20. > :28:25.in the war. When they tell their stories, you realise what happened
:28:25. > :28:32.and I have that with the bridge now. For a generation of people, this
:28:32. > :28:42.bridge enabled them to get home. Well, I for one love it. That's it
:28:42. > :28:43.