PROTESTERS have gathered outside Southampton International Airport to launch a new campaign group opposing plans for any future expansion of the facility.

About 60 people helped launch AXE Against Expansion at Eastleigh, and voice their anger at the increasing number of planes at the airport and the effect it was having on neighbours as well as the environment.

Made up of residents, campaigners and environmentalists, the group held a peaceful rally outside the airport and handed their demands to airport staff.

They are calling on the airport's owners, BAA to abandon plans for further expansion; not to build a new terminal or introduce new flights, to refrain from extending the runway and stop plans for a new link road.

Leading the group was Dave Hubble from Bitterne Park, who said: "We don't want to see new infrastructure and terminals built. There are concerns from neighbours about the noise, the quality of life and the impact on the environment with all the carbon emissions. These are the sort of issues BAA should be looking at and not expansion plans."

Don and Val Robertson have lived in Southampton all their lives and moved into their Bitterne Park home 19 years ago.

"Airport staff argue that the airport was there first and we should have considered that before we moved in," said Don.

"But 19 years ago this was a small commercial airport, not an international one with a flight every six minutes or so."

And John Steege, also from Bitterne Park added: "I live at the top of the hill so close to the planes that I can see the pilots. I can actually feel the wind pressure pulling as the planes fly over. If the airport expands then larger planes might start flying in and their wake could be quite dangerous."

Last year airport owners BAA unveiled a master plan for Southampton Airport, paving the way for one of the fastest-growing airports in the country to spread its wings.

The proposals could result in as many as six million passengers using the airport by 2030.

Accepting the new pressure group's demands, an airport spokesman said they would read their concerns and hopefully have a meeting with them at a later date.