The leader of Uttlesford Council has described the White Paper on aviation as a Government wish list that "won't wash down".

Immediately after the announcement on Tuesday that Stansted was Whitehall's first choice, Councillor Alan Dean said: "Despite the fact that the Government has set Stansted first in the queue, this will not fly because the economics do not stack up.

"Also other airlines such as British Airways (BA), Virgin Express all wanted the runway to be at Heathrow."

Mr Dean said he expected the airlines and the BA shareholders to fight the decisions.

He added that the council would be meeting tonight to plan their next moves.

Published Tuesday December 16, 2003

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