PROPOSALS to amend planning conditions at Durham-Tees Valley Airport will be "extremely detrimental" to the surrounding area, a parish council has warned.

Middleton St George Parish Council is to take legal advice, after the airport submitted plans to Stockton Borough Council to change the conditions on a previous application at land south of the airport.

When the application for a freight village at land south of the airport was granted in 1999, a condition was attached that the brownfield site would only be used for airport-related business.

However, the airport is seeking to change the conditions so approximately 50 acres of the 250-acre site can be used for general employment.

At their latest monthly meeting, members of Middleton St George Parish Council reacted angrily to the proposal.

Chairwoman Doris Jones said: "I object very, very strongly to this.

"It's not going to be easy to object, because it's part of the Tees Valley Regional Strategy, but I don't like it. It's going to be extremely detrimental to this village.

"They have more of an interest in building an industrial estate than an airport. You've only got to look at the empty industrial spaces we've got in Darlington and Stockton to see this is not necessary."

Councillor Ian Dodds said: "This is going to be a major commercial development, which is going to cause dramatically more traffic than the airport."

The council agreed to speak to its planning consultant Dr John England about the best way to object to the scheme.

Coun Fred Salt, the Western Parishes ward councillor for Stockton Borough Council, said he was not aware of the application and did not wish to comment on it.

Nobody from Durham-Tees Valley Airport was available for comment.

* The parish council is to write to the airport, after complaints about low-flying aircraft.

Coun Andy Hill said the large passenger jets were not the main cause of the problem, but rather the smaller private planes.

The council agreed to send a letter to the airport's managing director, Hugh Lang, to see if he could speak to the air traffic controllors to resolve the problem.