Growing public concern about the number of aircraft using the skies over Essex was highlighted at a county council meeting last week.

Councillor Dennis Ramshaw warned that the number of near misses was inevitably growing -- and one error could be catastrophic.

Aircraft were stacking over the county as they waited to land, not only at Stansted, but at other airports, he said.

"As air traffic volumes grow, as the number of aircraft flying in and out, and stacking in the skies over Essex gets greater, public concern gets greater," he said.

"There are now inevitably getting to be more and more near misses in the skies above Essex. It will only take one to go beyond being a near miss.

"It is nothing to do with who owns or provides air traffic control. Whoever owns or controls it, the number of aeroplanes flying at low level above Essex, and stacking above Essex, is now far more than anyone envisaged, and will probably increase.

"We are talking about one error -- one fatal mistake -- that would be catastrophic. "

It was as important to consider congestion in the skies as on the roads, said Cllr Ramshaw.

He was speaking at a meeting of the county council's environmental services board, which was considering asking the British Airports Authority to meet councillors to discuss proposals for the future of the airport.

Many of the emergency services workers who were involved on the night of the Stansted cargo jet crash in December have complained of throat and chest problems.

On Monday, the House of Commons was told that there was radioactive iodine in the cargo in addition to the depleted uranium (DU) used as counterweights in the aircraft.

Many of the police officers who were first on the scene of the blazing wreckage have reported sore throats and bad chests, Essex Police Federation has said.

Four crew members died when the aircraft crashed just after take-off. Four of the 20 DU units, each weighing about half a hundredweight, are still missing.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.