TOP-level management changes have taken place at Teesport operator PD Ports to enable the group to concentrate on plans for a £300m container terminal.

The Australian investment group which bought out PD Ports earlier this year has switched management at the Teesport operator.

Chief executive Graham Roberts is switching to a non-executive director role, along with his finance director Paul Daffern.

Mr Roberts is being replaced by PD Teesport managing director David Robinson.

The moves have been instigated by Australian infrastructure group Babcock & Brown, which bought the port operator in January and took it private.

The de-listing of PD Ports from the stock exchange means its directors can concentrate more on the day-to-day workings of the port - and its crucial plans for a deep-sea container terminal, which could bring up to 7,000 jobs to Teesside.

Over the past four years Mr Roberts has helped lead a turnaround of PD Ports, strengthening the organisation, improving profit performance and successfully floating the group on the stock exchange.

He recruited a strong management team which helped lead the transformation of the ports business, increasing traffic through the Tees and Hartlepool ports and looking to the future development of the business.

From May 1, Mr Roberts will move to the non-executive role and be replaced by Mr Robinson.

But he has pledged to continue his work in the region, which includes the role of chairman of Tees Valley Regeneration.

Jerry Hopkinson, managing director of PD's ports and logistics division, will take up the role of chief operating officer and Dermot Russell will become chief finance officer of PD Ports Ltd, replacing Paul Daffern.

PD Ports is asking businesses and the public to back its plans for the container terminal on the Tees, which would be built on brownfield land near the mouth of the river.

With backing from local businesses, PD hopes to drum up support from shipping lines, and help it compete against three ports in the South which were given the go-ahead by the Government last year.

Backed by The Northern Echo, PD had been lobbying the Government to halt expansion at London, Harwich and Felixstowe to allow its own plans to go ahead, bringing jobs to the North and removing millions of lorry miles from the roads.

Now the Government has approved all three southern ports, PD faces a race to get its expansion plans approved, and the terminal built, before its rivals.

Its planning application is expected to be with the Government within two weeks.