Airport lands Growth Fund cash to fund new road

A key road building project at Durham Tees Valley Airport has secured funding from the Government’s Local Growth Fund programme.

The move has been described as “a welcome recognition of the importance of the airport in driving forward the area’s economy.”

The new road, which will open up access to 150 acres of land to the south of the runway, is among ten schemes included in the Tees Valley ‘Growth Deal’ which will eventually see investment of over £90million by 2021, bringing forward at least £100 million of additional investment from the private sector and local partners.

Strategic planning director Peter Nears said: “It is very encouraging that Tees Valley Unlimited has strongly supported the inclusion of the airport road scheme in the Growth Fund programme—and that is has now received Government backing.

“As our Master Plan for the airport makes clear, maximising the potential of the whole airport site is crucial in securing the long-term future of the airport…and the availability of a large area of land to the south side of the runway is one of our strongest assets.

“We have been working hard for some time to make the case for the funding needed to ‘pump prime’ the Southside development and bring in tens of millions of further investment—and very significant numbers of jobs—through attracting a wide-range of aviation related businesses.

“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward and we will now be working closely with Tees Valley Unlimited and our other partners to ensure that we can take the project forward as quickly as possible.”