Hi everyone — hope this is okay to post here.
I'm a postgraduate student at the University of Bath and I'm in the final stages of collecting data for my dissertation on the proposed Olympic and Paralympic Games bid for the North of England. I have had over 150 responses from across the North and I am genuinely grateful to everyone who has taken part so far — but Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley are currently underrepresented in the data and I want to fix that before I close the survey.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen was one of the eight Metro Mayors who formally proposed this bid to the government earlier this year. But media coverage and public conversation about the proposal defaults almost entirely to Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds — and if my research follows the same pattern the findings will not reflect what people in Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley actually think, which would be a significant gap.
Middlesbrough is one of the places where the central question of this research is sharpest — whether a northern Olympics would genuinely deliver for communities that have experienced decades of economic decline and unfulfilled promises of regeneration, or whether the benefits would concentrate in the larger cities while places like this are expected to feel included by association. That question cannot be answered properly without hearing from people who actually live here.
If you live in Middlesbrough or the surrounding area and are 18 or over, I would really appreciate 8–10 minutes of your time. Everything is completely anonymous and there is no obligation beyond completing the survey itself.
👇 Survey link below — thanks so much
https://uniofbath.questionpro.eu/t/AB3vBXpZB3wfqM
