AN INTERNATIONAL airport at Cliffe is not viable, is economically unsustainable and extremely damaging to the environment--that's the view of the Kent Partnership and the Kent and Medway Economic Board.

It warned campaigning by opponents to the scheme would probably win the day. In a joint report to SEERA, the members of the partnership and economic board said: "The overlap of the Cliffe airport project on top of the Thames Gateway project will be unsustainable in economic terms."

It added: "It will lead to serious transport congestion, undesirable urbanisation, shortages in labour supply and weaknesses in social and community services." It went on to say the loss of internationally and locally important environmental habitats would be unprecedented.