Southend Airport should be expanded to three million passengers a year and plans for a major airport at Cliffe scrapped, according to a Government-sponsored development panel.

Thames Gateway South Essex, a Government-backed scheme to rejuvenate the area, said expansion could bring 7,000 new jobs and the reintroduction of flights to Europe's major cities and holiday resorts.

But campaigners fighting to protect St Laurence Church, which would have to be moved to allow the expansion at Southend, are dismayed.

Thames Gateway has responded to the Government's South East Regional Airport Study, which sets out options for airport development, by supporting Southend Airport. It believes Southend should be allowed to expand to the size of London City Airport.

The Gateway's Mary Spence said: "Southend Airport has been identified as a key economic driver."

The airport flies 5,000 to 6,000 passengers a year to Jersey between April and October.

Airport director Roger Campbell said the airport could reintroduce the destinations it served in the 1960s including Amsterdam, Geneva, Strasbourg, Zurich, Rotterdam, Nice and Majorca when 692,000 passengers flew a year.

He said: "This backing has vindicated what we have said all along - that Southend Airport has an important part to play in the area as a regional airport."

But church campaigner Eamon McNichols said: "These proposals are laughable in their one-sidedness.

"It does not make sense for Thames Gateway on one hand to support the expansion for Southend Airport and its unsubstantiated benefits but oppose the proposed Cliffe development because of the accepted adverse environmental impact."

Published Thursday, December 5, 2002

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