A MAYOR’S ambitious plan to buy a regional airport continues to come under scrutiny from councillors across the Tees Valley.

Ben Houchen has laid out his vision for his election pledge to bring Durham Tees Valley Airport into public ownership.

The Tory Mayor of the Tees Valley faces a crunch vote next week but his £40m plan is already attracting plenty of scrutiny.

Councillor Sue Jeffrey, the Labour leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, has strongly criticised the mayor over his plans to incorporate the airport scheme into a wider investment strategy for the region.

Next Thursday, the five council leaders that make up the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) Cabinet will be asked to vote to approve the combined authority’s Investment Strategy.

The Investment Strategy places mayor Houchen’s plans to buy DTVA alongside other key investments such as the release of funds to redevelop the former SSI site in Redcar.

On Wednesday, it emerged that Hartlepool Council leader, Cllr Christopher Akers-Belcher would be supporting the plan which requires unanimous consent from the Cabinet.

“I will be supporting the plan at the Cabinet meeting next week as I believe each of the five local authority areas across the Tees Valley will benefit and I would encourage my fellow Cabinet members to do the same,” he said.

But Cllr Jeffrey attacked mayor Houchen for his plan for refusing to separate out the various projects contained within it.

During a meeting of Redcar and Cleveland’s Resources Scrutiny and Improvement Committee, Cllr Jeffrey said: “You’ve got to laugh – here we are with absolutely crucial decisions for the Tees Valley.

“Despite frequent requests for them to be separated out and voted on separately, it has been insisted that they all go together into a single investment plan so that we have no opportunity to separately consider them.”

“Isn’t that what we do with our budget in the council?” asked Cllr Steve Turner, Conservative councillor for Longbeck.

Cllr Jeffrey replied: “This is separate, this is not a budget – this is an  investment plan.

“It’s about making significant chunks of expenditure on specific projects all of which need their own business cases and their own proper assessment about whether or not  they should proceed.

“To tie them all together and say one will fall rather than the other if you don’t vote for them all is just a complete nonsense.

“It also completely belies the fact that there may well be projects in here that you would want to support and others that you wouldn’t.

“And in that instance you need to have the opportunity to be able to separately consider them.

“I asked on multiple occasions for this report to be presented so that it could be considered separately – that was refused.”

She added: “This is a hugely important plan. What this plan does is it shows the ambition of the Tees Valley Combined Authority to invest in the Tees Valley.

“It shows how successful we have been as five Labour local authorities working together to secure the devolution deal and to ensure we have this investment available to Redcar and Cleveland and the rest of the Tees Valley.

“We should not be ashamed of this plan, I’m very proud of this plan, I think it’s an excellent plan and I think we need to move forward very quickly to deliver it.”

Cllr Jeffrey made the comments during a meeting after committee members took the unprecedented step of allowing the press to hear items that had been marked as confidential by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

And yesterday, members of the TVCA Overview and Scrutiny meeting continued the grilling of the mayor's plan.

Darlington councillor Ian Haszeldine had questions on the “loan repayment” with repayments not coming back until 2026 at low interest rates.

Mr Houchen said: "t’s important not to lose sight of the fact the TVCA is an agency for economic regeneration. Even if it was £15m we wave goodbye to, to 1,100 jobs it would still be the best money we ever spend."

Councillors will make their decision on the ambitious plans during an emergency cabinet meeting due to take place next Thursday.