A regional daily has launched a campaign to persuade ministers to back plans for a huge new port development that could create thousands of jobs.

The Grimsby Telegraph wants government backing for plans for a Marine Energy Park at North Killingholme in North East Lincolnshire.

It says the plan will create thousands of jobs in manufacturing, engineering and logistics, all connected to the offshore wind industry.

Thousands of new turbines are already being installed in the North Sea, 35 miles off the Humber, as part of the government’s plans for offshore wind.

Telegraph editor Michelle Lalor said in an editorial:  “We are days away from a government decision that will have a huge economic impact on northern Lincolnshire.

“Able Marine Energy Park could unlock the Humber’s Energy Estuary ambition, creating thousands of jobs. The knock-on effect of a successfully delivered scheme will be tremendous. Not just for allied industries either.

“The operations and maintenance element of  this burgeoning sector is already having a positive impact on the housing market in North East Lincolnshire, with hotels and restaurants feeling the benefit too. That ripple has been created by a few hundred jobs. Several thousand could bring a tidal wave of opportunity.

“The signs are promising. The advancing of the dualling of the £90-million plus A160 connection to the A180, the Enterprise Zone status, the huge Regional

Growth Fund pots that have poured in to the South Bank. The pump is certainly primed.”

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin is shortly due to announce a decision on whether to approve the plans.