CAMPAIGNERS are ready to fight against plans for a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

Five years have passed since the No Airport at Cliffe action group secured protection for one of the UK’s most sensitive areas for wildlife.

Now a similar airport proposal, which includes a tunnel linking Kent with Essex, is firmly back on the agenda.

The Thames Reach airport project has the backing of Tory mayoral candidate for London Boris Johnson and the boss of one of Medway’s biggest firms.

Kent Reliance chief executive Mike Lazenby says the region’s economy needs to be put before "inconvenience" for a number of birds.

But George Crozer, a leading light of the last campaign, said: "Plans for an airport on the Hoo Peninsula were rejected before, why try again? If they want to go ahead and build an airport let them. We’re ready for the fight and we won’t let it happen."

The prospect of an airport is a reality once again, after a business consortium went public on a scheme, currently in the hands of officials at the Department for Transport.

Bluebase wants to build a 24-hour hub airport, close to the Hoo Peninsula, with new road and rail links between Kent and Essex.

The Kent Wildfowling and Conservation association, one of the biggest land owners in the Medway stretch of the Thames estuary, however, is also against the plans.

Chairman Alan Jarrett, who is also the deputy leader of Medway Council, said: "We fought proposals for an airport on the marshes before and we will fight it again. To say it will have no negative impact is just untrue."

In addition, there are plans for a new Thames tunnel affecting marshland to the north of St Mary Hoo. The backfill created from digging the new crossing would be used to reclaim land for the airport.

Kent County Council leader Paul Carter said any new airport for Kent should be at Manston, not in the Thames estuary.