Mike Young and the Conservatives: 'Hartlepool’s False Saviours'..
- teessidetoday
- Mar 4
- 5 min read
Whilst highlighting the investment brought into Hartlepool under the Conservative Led Independent coalition which collapsed in May 2024, the reality is neither the Conservatives or Labour are Hartlepool's saviours.
4th March 2025
Hartlepool's seen its fair share of political turbulence over the years, but few figures have epitomized the disconnect between promise and reality quite like the Local Conservatives & its leader Cllr Mike Young.
Once the leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, Young’s tenure was marked by grandiose rhetoric, ambitious projects, and a scandal that ultimately exposed the fragility of his credibility. His most recent social media statement—boasting of investments like the £35m Highlight Leisure Centre, £13m in hospital upgrades, £100m for road and rail, £16m for a Film & TV Studio Production Village, and £25m from the Town Deal—reads like a desperate bid to reclaim trust. Yet, it’s his closing jab at Labour’s “disastrous policies” and a vague plug for “the future of local Conservatism” that reveals the hollowness of his legacy. Mike Young, much like the Labour leadership he critiques, is not Hartlepool’s solution—he’s largely in fact part of its problem.
The Council Tax Freeze Fiasco: A Case Study in Deception
So, let’s rewind back to 2023, when Young’s leadership faced a reckoning. A Conservative leaflet distributed in the towns Hart ward boldly proclaimed that Young, as the new council leader, had “revealed that the next budget for 2024/25 will see council tax frozen for Hartlepool residents.” It was a tantalizing promise—relief for a town already strained by economic challenges. But when the then Labour Councillor Jonathan Brash dug into the claim, the façade crumbled. An email from the council’s managing director confirmed no such directive existed. Young’s defence? The leaflet merely “meant to say” they were exploring the possibility.
This wasn’t a harmless miscommunication—it was a calculated overreach. The extraordinary council meeting in October 2023, called by Labour, unanimously referred the matter to the Audit and Governance Committee, which found Young guilty of misleading the public. His ally, Councillor Tom Cassidy, who co-published the leaflet, was even referred to the Electoral Commission for investigation. Young welcomed the investigation at the time, perhaps hoping some transparency would absolve him of his huge political 'goof', But It didn’t. The verdict was a damning stain on his leadership, exposing a willingness to prioritize political optics over truth. For a town like Hartlepool, where trust in local governance is already fragile, this was considered a major betrayal & ultimately cost the local Conservatives control of the local council to the Labour Party. .
Leadership Under Scrutiny: Promises vs. Progress
Young’s tenure wasn’t without its highlights, The projects he now touts on social media were indeed set in motion under his coalition alongside a small group of independents, a partnership that held power since 2019. The £35m Highlight Leisure Centre, now well underway, promises a flagship wellbeing hub. The £25m Town Deal and £16m Film & TV Studio Production Village signal investment in jobs and regeneration. And who could argue with £100m in road and rail upgrades?
On paper at least, it’s an impressive slate. Young himself, upon taking the reins back in 2023, spoke of “exciting times ahead,” pledging to deliver for Hartlepool’s 36 councillors and its local residents.
But dig beneath the surface, and the shine quickly fades. Many of these initiatives—like the Highlight and Town Deal—leaned heavily on external funding from the Levelling Up Fund and Tees Valley Combined Authority and NOT coming directly from Hartlepool Borough Councils budget.
Delays repeatedly plagued the Highlight Leisure Centre project, leading to claims at one point that it may never actually get off the ground, prompting Young to reassure residents it was still on track. The Wesley Chapel restoration and Middleton Grange overhaul, all tied to the Town Deal, remain very much 'works in progress', their benefits even to this day seemingly yet to materialize for a community very much impatient for change. Young’s coalition may have secured the cash, but execution visibly lags, and his leadership often felt more like a cheerleader for government handouts, rather than a architect of any transformative policy.
Worse still, his council tax debacle eroded the goodwill these projects might have earned. When residents needed clarity on their finances, Young offered locals smoke and mirrors. His most recent claim that “we want you to trust us again” rings hollow when it was his own actions that undermined public confidence both in him, as a leader & of the Conservative Group he leads. .
The Social Media Swan Song: Blame Labour, Rinse, Repeat
Fast forward to March 2025, and Young’s latest social media missive is a masterclass in deflection. Listing multimillion-pound investments—many of which he can only claim partial credit for—he pivots to a tired attack on Labour’s “disastrous policies,” accusing them of hiking taxes to the maximum and neglecting the vulnerable. It’s a convenient narrative: the Conservatives as Hartlepool’s thwarted saviour's, undone by Labour’s recklessness. Never mind that Young’s own party, nationally, presided over deeply damaging austerity cuts and economic stagnation that hit towns like Hartlepool the hardest. Never mind that his council tax misrepresentation mirrored the very opportunism he now decries. The nod to “the future of local Conservatism” is equally telling. It’s less a vision than a plea—an attempt to rally a base disillusioned by his spectacular fall from grace. Young’s most recent blog link, presumably outlining this future, is a mystery without context, but one suspects it’s heavy on nostalgia and light on accountability. Hartlepool deserves better than recycled partisan sniping.
Hartlepool’s Real Problem: Stagnant Politics
Here’s the rub: Mike Young and the Conservatives aren’t uniquely culpable. Labour, now in leadership of Hartlepool Borough Council, has its own dirty laundry list of failures—maxed-out tax hikes, as Young notes, and a penchant for policies that sound progressive but falter in practice.
Both Labour & the Conservatives seem to be trapped in a cycle of blame, each time pointing fingers at each other whilst Hartlepool challenges—poverty, crime, infrastructure decay, and a lack of opportunities. Young’s coalition delivered projects, sure, no ones not going to deny that, but not the systemic change Hartlepool actually craves, with Labour’s response been as equally uninspiring.
Young’s downfall wasn’t just about a misleading leaflet; it was a symptom of a deeper malaise. He embodied a politics of expediency—big promises, shaky follow-throughs, and a quick pivot to scapegoating when the heat was eventually turned up. His social media flex is the last gasp of a failing local Conservative leader clinging to relevance, hoping residents have forgotten the actual investigation that laid bare his flaws.
Hartlepool doesn’t need any more of Mike Young’s brand of Conservatism, nor Labour’s predictable counterpunches. It needs leaders who prioritise substance over spin, leaders who deliver without fanfare, and who own their mistakes, rather than re-writing them.
Until then, figures like Young will simply remain cautionary tale to the Hartlepool Electorate—proof that in this town, the problem lies with the system that's electing those inadequate to lead & failing both the town & its residents in the process...
