The Hoo Peninsula, where homes will be balloted

by Alan McGuinness and Dan Bloom

More than 20,000 people in the path of a planned international airport are being asked for their opinion as opponents ramp up their fight.

Volunteers for Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless are delivering ballot papers tomorrow to all 6,000 homes on the Hoo Peninsula.

Major architects including Lord Foster, who designed London's Gherkin building, have eyed up the area for a Thames estuary airport.

Mr Reckless said: “This is a chance for people across the Hoo Peninsula to have their voices heard and help me get the Davies Commission to rule out an estuary airport once and for all.”

The commission will rule after 2015 on several ideas to solve Britain's air capacity problems, including airports in Cliffe and the Isle of Grain.

Residents will be able to choose a "yes" or "no" answer and return it to the MP, who has declined to say if he will resign if the government decides to build an estuary airport.

These will be collected and presented in one of three ways: as a petition in Parliament, to the commission or to London mayor Boris Johnson, who supports the idea.

George Crozer from Friends of the North Kent Marshes, who have backed the ballot, said: “It’s really important we keep the message alive that they’re talking about an airport on the peninsula.”

Opponents like Mr Crozer argue among other things that an airport would cause untold environmental damage and cost too much money.

Those in favour claim it could create thousands of jobs and attract investment to the area.

The push from campaigners comes at the same time as a 16-page special report on the issues in today’s Medway Messenger.

Behind the headlines: Thames Estuary airport special report

The supplement explains how homeowners could win back the full price of their houses, but with no price on sentimental value.

It also reveals how almost 90% of the local jobs at an airport could end up being low-grade and low-paid.

Among other exclusives are the story of the £20,000 robotic birds which it's claimed could clear the estuary of wildlife - despite doubts by the RSPB.

John Olsen, the man behind a new Cliffe plan, laid down the gauntlet to Medway Council in an exclusive interview. He said: "Do you want malnourished and ill-educated children growing up?

A plane flies over rooftops. Library picture

"The politicians have been watching 40 years of collapse in Medway. Are they going to wake up and see something needs to be done?"

Yet Medway Council's leader Rodney Chambers, who is firmly against the idea, threatened to force a planning inquiry on the scale of Heathrow's Terminal 5 if the government pushes ahead.

In an in-depth interview, he said the council could easily trigger the legal hearing - which for Heathrow took four years.

The full report is available in today's Medway Messenger.