THE Mayor of Stockton has called for an independent inquiry into the owner of Durham Tees Valley Airport's development plan for the site.

Cllr Ian Dalgarno made his comments as altered plans for a £5m link road which will enable warehousing and distribution centres to be built at the airport were discussed at Stockton Borough Council's planning committee.

Owners of the airport, Peel, already had permission to build the South Side Business Park at the airport but wanted to alter the road plans which were unanimously approved by the committee.

The plan for the 1.8km link road between the north and south areas of the airport must also be approved by Darlington Borough Council.

Stockton council had received 143 letters of objection from people across Teesside, most of whom objected to Peel's Master Plan for the airport which includes building 400 new homes.

Objectors included Peter Cook, editor of the Now and Then Teesside magazine who claims nearly 3,500 have objected to a petition he has organised against the plan, Cllr Chris Hobson, leader of the Middlesbrough council Conservative Group and Cllr Jason Hadlow, leader of Yarm Town Council. The near-6,000 supporters of the Save our Airport Facebook site were encouraged to object.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Dalgarno urged councillors to defer making a decision on the road and said: "There should proper enquiry into the Peel plan."

Councillors on the committee were repeatedly warned they were not allowed to make a planning decision on the commercial objectives of Peel but only on planning rules.

Peter Rowe, agent for Peel, pointed out that the alterations to the road were consistent with existing planning permission and said the business park would help the economy.

After meeting a spokesman for Peel Airports said it would be inappropriate to comment further until the link road alteration had also been considered by Darlington council.