An action group against plans to expand Lydd Airport has been accused of scaremongering.

Lydd Airport Action Group has paid for a series of full page newspaper adverts which show a jumbo jet on a collision course with the nuclear power station at Dungeness.

The advert has the headline “60 seconds to disaster” and urges people to “say no to Lydd runway extension”.

However, those who back plans for a bigger and busier airport, have slammed the advert as being misleading, inaccurate and frightening.

Tim Crompton, a member of Friends of Lydd Airport, known as FLAG and also landlord of The George in the town said: “The advert is disgusting. It’s totally misleading and could not and would not happen.

“We need the airport expansion to regenerate the Romney Marsh, so that children in the area can stay and get good quality jobs. “

Another member of FLAG, Michael Walsh, a former Shepway and Lydd councillor, said: “The advert is disgraceful and we have complained. It is scaremongering..

“A jumbo jet would not be using Lydd Airport, the advert show a flight path going north to south when in reality it goes east to west and planes would not go directly over the power station.

“And even if something did go wrong the nuclear reactors are protected by the infrastructure and a plane crash would not have an impact..”

Lydd Airport Action Group said it is “delighted” with the impact the advert is having and that it will continue to be used.

Louise Barton, who chairs the group, said the advert has been used many times over the past two years and it was previously reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by a local resident, but the organisation said the commercial was fine.

She said: “It is responsible, it is correct and we have the right to use it.

“Airports and nuclear power stations are incompatible.”

For more on this story, see Thursday's Kentish Express