Angry councillors are campaigning against a plan to increase the number of passenger flights over Brentwood and Ongar using fast-growing Stansted airport.

All MPs in Essex are to be lobbied to over-turn the decision by Transport Minister Glenda Jackson to allow take-offs and landings to leap from an annual 120,000 to 185,000.

The move has already sparked safety fears about more planes using the overcrowded skies above Essex but the councillors are also worried about the impact on the environment.

Ongar Tory planning spokesman Gerard McEwen said: "This effectively doubles the present level of aircraft noise which is already unacceptable in many rural areas.

"If you live below a flight path you literally can't hear yourself speak on occasion, and the prospect of more of this is just appalling."

Councillors are calling for any increase in passenger movements to be phased according to demand to reduce the effect on the environment.

Cllr McEwen accused the British Airports Authority of reneging on earlier promises and of cheating over the average number of passengers on planes.

He added: "We look upon this as development by the back door. They want to make Stansted as large as Gatwick or Heathrow when everyone knows that the growth of Heathrow has been this country's biggest planning disaster."

Cllr John Whitehead from Thaxted, near the airport, said: "This will allow them to reach, and no doubt exceed, the planned development limit of 15 million passengers per annum. This, in addition to the cargo traffic movements, will make a tremendous impact."

A BAA spokeswoman said that when Stansted opened in 1991 it was planned for long haul charter traffic with larger aircraft and fewer flights. But it developed into an airport for short haul, scheduled flights using more but smaller planes.

The movements restriction was raised in 1996 from the original 78,000 to 120,000. The latest expansion was in line with plans to double the number of passengers to 15 million.

She added: "At night, planes are restricted to clearly defined flightpaths and quieter, more fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly aircraft are being introduced all the time."

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