'No new runway at Heathrow'

Demand for air travel is expected to more than double over 30 years

Air pollution laws will prevent a new runway being built at Heathrow for at least another decade, according to a newspaper report.

Stansted provides the only realistic option for a proposed new runway in the South East, says The Times.

To cope with the predicted increase in air travel, the government is considering new runways at Heathrow in west London, Stansted in Essex, Gatwick in Sussex or a new £9bn airport at Cliffe in Kent.

The plans have provoked huge opposition among those living in the affected areas.

But Heathrow will be ruled out until airport operator BAA has dealt with the high levels of pollution around the airport - which is unlikely to be until 2016 or later, according to The Times.

I think residents around Heathrow will not be jumping up and down with joy John Stewart, anti-expansion campaigner

It reports the Department for Transport has found Heathrow residents would be exposed to nitrogen dioxide above new EU limits, which are due to come into force in 2010.

Because the countryside around Stansted is sparsely populated, whereas 250,000 people live under Heathrow's proposed new flight path, air pollution is not such an issue.

John Stewart, of anti-Heathrow expansion group HACAN ClearSkies, told BBC London: "This is very much a temporary reprieve.

"I think residents around Heathrow will not be jumping up and down with joy.

"Essentially what it means is we will not get a runway now, but we might get one in 15 years' time - and that means blight in a big way."

Heathrow 'still feasible'

But Reuters news agency has reported that BAA was still considering expansion at the three major sites.

"It remains the case that we see feasible options at each of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and we await the White Paper next month," a BAA spokeswoman told Reuters.

Protesters from both Stansted and Heathrow released a joint statement on Wednesday accusing BAA of "struggling desperately" to keep its own airports in running for new runways.

It said: "The reality is that the environmental impacts of expanding Heathrow or Stansted are wholly unacceptable and would be contrary to a raft of national and European regulations.

"Neither option would be deliverable."