I WAS very surprised local council leaders from the Tees Valley combined authority signed off a massive £23.6m loan to develop land on the south side of Teesside Airport (Echo, Dec 21), a decision taken behind closed doors, with no questions asked or raised by the panel.

The plan, yet another one in a long line of Mayor Ben Houchen’s Walter Mitty announcements is to transform airport land into a logistics and manufacturing park and create a whopping 4,400 jobs.

The expectation is rents from the site will rake in a mouth-watering £3m a year which can then be pumped straight back into the airport.

However, there is one big problem. I hear the list of interested parties is about as short as a hermit’s address book.

Stephen Dixon, Redcar