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PD Ports is taking legal advice to ensure its £300m expansion plan for Teesport is judged on a "level playing field". The port owner cleared its first hurdle in April when local planners granted it outline approval for a scheme to transform Teesport in Middlesbrough into a deep-sea container terminal which would create at least 5,500 jobs. The only objector to the project was rival operator Hutchison, which owns port facilities at Felixstowe and Harwich. It claimed that PD's Northern Gateway terminal  would cripple the surrounding road network.

At the time PD Ports' group development director, Martyn Pellew, described this objection as "not at all surprising and purely in Hutchison's commercial interest". Now he adds: "We're currently speaking to our lawyers about the fact that we're supposed to be working on a level playing field, where all ports are treated the same way. "There are issues we also want to look at regarding road and rail access for the London Gateway in comparison to us," he adds, "and in regard to Hutchison's objection to our proposals." Pellew also reported that he is meeting with Hutchison in an attempt to avert a public inquiry, which could delay the Teesport scheme by at least a year.