A Devon company wants to close two city airports and open a new terminal in a greenfield area in the south of the county.

The company which runs Plymouth Airport, the Sutton Harbour Company, is proposing closing Plymouth and Exeter airports and building new facilities in the South Hams area.

The company suggests the former sites of the old city airports could be sold off and used to build new housing.

However, the owners of Exeter Airport, Devon County Council, are against the idea and it is not likely to prove popular with environmentalists.

Exeter Airport: a "promising future", says council

The site being proposed for what would be a bigger, more reliable airport is in the Sherford Valley in the South Hams.

The site is currently earmarked for 3,000 new homes.

But the Sutton Harbour Company believes the selling off of the Plymouth and Exeter airport sites will raise the necessary funds for the new complex.

A spokeswoman for the Sutton Harbour Company said: "For Plymouth, we have an airport that can only use certain aeroplanes because of runway size, which places huge constraints.

'Promising future'

"We want to expand, but it's also a built up area.

"What we're proposing is a straight swap between the South Hams and Plymouth so as to make more international flights available using different sizes of aircraft."

However, Devon County Council, which owns Exeter Airport, said it would be opposed to any such development.

Greenfield site

The council said it believed that the current airport site has a very promising future.

Members of the campaign group South Hams Against Rural Destruction (Shard) have already opposed the plans for using the valley for 3,000 homes.

The group said the development would eat up a valuable greenfield site and would only be a commuter town serving Plymouth.