A POLITICAL leader has vowed to fight plans to make taxpayers pay towards road signs designed to help an airport change its name.

Teesside Airport is to change its name to Durham Tees Valley and the airport's owner wants the public purse to cover some of the £250,000 costs of changing 60 road signs.

Stephen Smailes, leader of the Conservative Group on Stockton Borough Council, said he agreed with Labour's Stockton South MP Dari Taylor that any costs to change the signs to the airport should come entirely from the airport's owner.

Coun Smailes said: "No one I've spoken to wants this name change and it is being imposed on the people of Teesside. The name Teesside Airport has been established for more than 40 years. I see no reason why our hard-pressed taxpayers should have to pay to change it."

Hugh Lang, the airport's chief executive, said a mixture of public and private cash would have to pay for the change of signs across Teesside, County Durham and North Yorkshire. A spokesman for the airport suggested that regional development agency One NorthEast may be approached for cash.

Development company Peel Airports is the majority owner, with 75 per cent of shares. The rest is owned by six councils, Stockton, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Durham County Council and Darlington.