DEVELOPMENT of the new Southside Park at Teesside International Airport was launched today in a ground-breaking ceremony.

Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen broke the ground with the aid of a digger, on the new Southside logistics and manufacturing park at the south side of Teesside International Airport, kick-starting a £200m private sector investment.

The development will create 3.4m square feet of logistics, manufacturing and commercial space built, on 270 acres of land over the next ten years, through a joint venture partnership.

Mayor Houchen said: “This has been in development now for about 30 years and lots of people have talked about it for some time. But it’s pleasing to make sure everyone can come here and see physically that we’re actually going to get some spades in the ground because talk is often cheap and a lot of local people get quite cynical about new pots of money being announced and developments being announced, whereas today we will be putting the first spade in the ground.”

Theakston Land, local developers based in Stockton and JC Musgrave based in Wynyard Park have delivered between the two businesses somewhere around £4m to the region across a range of employment sites.

Christopher Harrison, managing director of Theakston Land, said: “We’re locally based and we’ve looked at this for many years and seen the opportunities that the airport can bring. I think for us what’s key is that Ben committed as one of his mayoral pledges to acquire the airport and bring it back into public ownership, he achieved that, he’s then gone on to secure more investment, not only retaining the flight with KLM but bringing in new flights with Eastern Airways, so we’ve got a real strong base on which to grow. We’ve seen the commitment of over £23m for forward funding this site which is crucial. We’re here we’re local, we’re committed to this region and we want to see our supply chain come from this region as well.”

There is potential of between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs to be created in the next 15 years due to the project.

Peter Gibson Conservative MP for Darlington, who attended the launch, said: “I’m pleased to be here representing the new Conservative MPs for the Tees Valley. It’s great to see once again another project that Ben announced coming to fruition.”