Under the plans the runway would be extended for jet aircraft

The owners of Lydd airport on the Romney Marsh want to be able to handle jet aircraft, serving up to two million passengers every year.

The Mayor of Le Touquet said the airport would benefit the many English people living in the French town.

But campaigners against the plans said the environmental costs are too high.

New jobs

Paul Outhwaite, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "The development has got to prove its case, it's got to prove that there are no alternatives, it's got to prove the over-riding economic interest.

"If it can't prove those facts then the development shouldn't be allowed to go ahead,"

The Lydd Airport Action Group is strongly against the expansion plans as it claims a vast amount of the area would be wiped out.

But Councillor Graham Cubby said Lydd's improved links to the continent would be "wonderful".

His words were supported by the Mayor of Folkestone, George Bunting, who said the airport would provide hundreds of new jobs for the next generation.

"Why shouldn't the young people of the Romney Marsh have something to look forward to?"