A NORTH-EAST MP has called for a top-level Government investigation into the role of local authority shareholders at Teesside International Airport.

In a letter to the Transport Minister Lord Macdonald, Stockton North MP Frank Cook says he fears the situation has reached a stage where there are "serious questions" about whether the letter and spirit of the Act which governs the running of local authority-owned airports is being observed.

He argues that the shareholders' decision to pursue the possible handing over of the operation of the airport, "taken in the teeth of the well-documented and well-argued oppositions of the Airport Board and management" not only over-ruled the legitimate rights and responsibilities of the Airport Board, but also caused significant direct damage to the commercial interests of the airport.

Mr Cook said that was best illustrated by the fact that the airport is now about to lose both its managing director and head of marketing, linked in "no small way" to the uncertainty caused by the shareholders' actions.

But he says latest developments at the airport are even more alarming.

He told the minister that he believes the shareholders have enforced decisions on the board on the procedure for the appointment of a new managing director, using methods "which are in clear breach of the spirit and letter of the legislation".

Mr Cook added that he understood a draft job description for the new MD, prepared under the instructions of the shareholders, excludes any reference to the need for candidates to have suitable experience in airport management, even though this is required under the Airports Act.

The MP said: "I really do think it is time that the increasingly interventionist role being taken by the shareholders in the airport should be subject to public debate and scrutiny.

"The legislation governing the running of local authority-owned airports is clearly designed to ensure that there should be an 'arm's length' relationship between shareholders and the management of what is a commercial company.

"I fear that, far from being arm's length, we are moving towards a situation where the shareholders are seeking to grab the operation of the airport by the throat, and the risk is that, in the end, its future development could be strangled."