News

A conservation group is demanding Shepway Council throw out plans to expand Lydd Airport at a crunch meeting in January.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) say the plans would damage wildlife on the sensitive Romney Marsh.

Plans to expand Lydd airport are due to be discussed and voted on at a specially convened meeting of the full Shepway Council on January 30. The RSPB views the plans as unacceptably damaging and believes they should be rejected.

It is reported RSPB Regional Director Chris Corrigan said: "The New Year is an opportunity to make a new start: a chance to make a commitment to improve your life and the lives of those around you."

"Shepway councillors should take this opportunity to improve the lives of the people who elected them by removing the blight cast on the area by the misguided plans to expand Lydd airport.

"By resolving to reject the airport's plans, councillors can make a positive statement about the environment.

"If the airport expansion goes ahead, it could cause irreparable damage to the unique wildlife of the Dungeness peninsula.

"The increase in pollution that would undoubtedly come from the air and road traffic using an expanded airport could tip this fragile ecology over the edge, resulting in the potential loss of several unique species and many rare or endangered habitats."