A MULTI-MILLION pound business park that may create up to 1,200 jobs could be held up - by a protected species of newts.

Plans for 11 two-storey office blocks on a brownfield site at Durham Tees Valley Airport, near Darlington, had been expected to be heard by council planning officers yesterday.

A report by planning officers at Darlington Borough Council had recommended the application be refused because of potential problems with road access - and great crested newts.

Planning officers wanted more information about the presence of the rare newts on the site and were concerned the access to the site was not up to the required standard.

Access to the site is planned to be via a road connected to the main airport access roads.

However, developer Sven Investments withdrew the application before the meeting for more information to be provided by the Highways Agency.

A spokesman for the developer said it expected to resubmit the application within a fortnight.

The report to be put before the council meeting stated: "The site is within close proximity of a known great crested newt habitat.

However, insufficient information has been submitted with the application to establish the presence, or otherwise, of the newts on the site.

"Without the submission of full and detailed ecological survey work the local planning authority is unable to establish the degree of mitigation works that may be required to ensure the protection of the protected species."

The plans, on the northern side of the airport, were for smaller, start-up companies linked to the expansion of the airport.

They are on the site of an abandoned leisure and retail complex, which included a half-built swimming pool.

Earlier this year, the team found hundreds of newts, and other amphibians, trapped in the swimming pool complex.

BHP Develop, the planning team behind Sven Investments, enlisted specialist licensed ecological consultants, Naturally Wild, to rescue the creatures.

They included common frog, common toad, smooth newt and at least one great crested newt.

But the developer's spokesman said it hoped the plans would be approved as quickly as possible, because they included a newt pond to home the animals.

The plans will now be heard at a future council meeting once Sven Investments resubmits its application.