MEDWAY and Kent councils, both opposed to the plan for an airport at Cliffe, are today hoping they will shoot down Transport Secretary Alistair Darling in the High Court.

They have won the right to question whether Mr Darling was right to exclude Gatwick from his 30-year plan for airports in the south east.

They have been given the go ahead for Britain's top lawyer on administration to consider whether a local planning agreement to bar a second Gatwick runway for 40 years was right.

The councils will tell Mr Justice Maurice Kay that instead, he has ignored the world's strongest environmental protection to propose building on the Thames Marshes at Cliffe.

They will say that the Ramsar Convention is backed by more than 130 countries including Britain, and that there are numerous other European and British legal protections on the land that deserve at least the same consideration as the Gatwick agreement.

Ironically, Crawley council, next to Gatwick airport, support their arguments. The hearing is expected to last three days.