TEESPORT owner PD Ports is lobbying the Government to halt further expansion at "overheated" Southern ports to allow it to invest £300m in a deep-sea container terminal on the Tees.

This terminal would allow retailers to bring in goods from the Far East directly to the North, instead of shipping into Southampton and then transferring cargo by road.

If PD Ports is allowed to go ahead with its investment, retailers could set up import centres at the port - an overall development that has the potential to create up to 7,000 jobs in an unemployment blackspot.

The company is campaigning for a National Ports Strategy to allow more balanced expansion in ports across the UK, and its efforts are backed by The Northern Echo's Support Our Port campaign.

Unemployment in the Tees Valley is 3.4 per cent, against the UK average of 2.3 per cent.

In June, this meant more than 13,500 people were jobless.

On top of the initial 7,000 jobs created by the port, import centres and transport sectors, the deep-sea capacity would subsequently act as a magnet for inward investment.

Martyn Pellew, group development director at PD Ports, said: "PD is committed to attracting private investment of up to £300m to create a deep-sea container port at Teesport.

"This investment would help revitalise the North-East economy."

The high-profile campaigning has led to one retailer, Asda, building an import centre at the site and the supermarket is already shipping in non-food goods through the port.

Creating the Northern Gateway at the port would remove more than one million containers from roads in the South of the country, in turn saving on congestion and emissions.