THE economic future of the Tees Valley could be jeopardised by road chiefs, it was claimed yesterday.

The North-East Chamber of Commerce estimates that the Highways Agency could halt £700m of development and 9,000 jobs from coming to the Tees Valley because it believes the region's trunk roads cannot take any extra traffic.

The agency can stop developments which would cause further congestion on the A66, A1 (M) and A19 - and business leaders fear this could prevent or slow down future regeneration.

George Cowcher, chief executive of the chamber of commerce, said: "The Highways Agency has issued what is called an Article 14 direction on various sites in the area. It has said that every new development that would mean more traffic should not be allowed to go ahead."

There are a number of Article 14 directions in the area, including on the old Samsung site, the North Shore development and the Corus plant.

John Lowther, of the Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit, said: "Our problem is that the A19 and A66 are close to capacity. The bottom line is we need more money to improve trunk roads."

The area has £8m a year to spend improving the A19 and A66 - the equivalent of only one interchange a year.

The Highways Agency said most directions asked for permission to be postponed rather than rejected.