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Durham Tees Valley Airport controversy escalates as 2,000 signature petition takes off

Over two thousand people have signed a petition demanding an inquiry into the sale and decline of Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Middlesbrough mayoral candidate Andy Preston organised the petition after local councils turned down Freedom of Information requests from ‘Save Teesside Airport’ campaigners, as they insisted details were “commercially sensitive”.

Both a paper petition and an online version proved popular with people across Teesside, while an online poll saw 319 participants agreeing there should be an inquiry, compared to just 11 who were against the idea.

Mr Preston, a Middlesbrough-born businessman and charity leader, aims to hand the petition to Middlesbrough Council “to show the strength of feeling the vast majority of Teessiders have about what most of us still call Teesside Airport.”

He said: “It really wasn’t difficult to get 2,000 names on the petition. People were often queuing up on the street and outside the Riverside Stadium to sign it. I’m sure we could get thousands more if that’s what it takes.”

Mr Preston is calling on councils to be transparent about the secret deal they did to effectively sell the airport. He fears that the deal done may have been a very weak one that may ultimately cost council tax payers many £millions.

He is backing an ongoing campaign calling for local authorities to reveal the exact details behind a deal that saw Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar & Cleveland, Hartlepool, Darlington and Durham councils sell almost all of their shares in the region’s airport.

It is understood that the 2003 sale of 79% of shares in the airport saw the councils receive a meager sum of just £500k between them.

After many years of decline for the airport, majority owners Peel Holdings are now proposing that housing be built on part of the land, a move many Teessiders feel will the first stage in the airport’s closure.

Its estimated that closure of the airport could make the land worth more than £100m if sold for development.

However, despite Freedom of Information requests by local campaigners, the councils have refused to reveal details of the deal with Peel.

Formerly owned by the five local authorities, the airport passed into Peel’s hands in 2003 when they purchased 75% of the shares – before the councils sold them a further 14%.

Peel now own 89% of the shares, with the remainder held by Middlesbrough (1.69%), Stockton (2.08%), Darlington (2.91%, Redcar & Cleveland (1.7%), Hartlepool (1.08%) and Durham (1.45%).

Both Middlesbrough and Stockton councils insisted the information is “commercially sensitive”.

Mr Preston added: “Many local people believe the councils carried out a secret deal to sell the airport. That deal and the airport’s subsequent decline is raised with me more often than almost any other subject.

“People are understandably upset and angry – but getting to the bottom of what has happened, and continues to happen, is proving tough.

“An investigation is needed. It’s very clear that rate-payers may well have forgone tens of millions of pounds of value.”

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