THE strength of public fears over plans for an airport at Cliffe was shown when hundreds of people turned out for a protest meeting. The village's community hall was packed to overflowing.

The meeting was organised by members of the Dickens Country Protection Society who are among the campaigners fighting to stop an international airport being built on the Hoo Peninsula.

The audience was told that more than 1,100 homes, two villages, numerous listed buildings and natural areas with the world's toughest protection orders, face destruction if a new international airport is built only yards from the hall.

The society's chairman, Robin Theobald, said: "The Government is suggesting we can stop going to London and work in Cliffe. They will also have to bring people over from Essex to meet the need for the estimated 53,000 employees at the airport.

"I would suggest that you will need a new town to accommodate them all. Certainly the reports suggest the Green Belt will be compromised."

Campaigners agreed at the meeting that they should stage a march along Whitehall in London with thousands of objectors taking part. They said it was the most likely way the Government would take notice of the fight to save north Kent's environmental heritage.

Medway MP Bob Marshall-Andrews agreed with the proposal. "Let's march, and let's do it in October when Parliament reconvenes," he said.