CAMPAIGNERS are more than half-way towards the £100,000 they need to raise for experts to represent them at the public inquiry into proposals to expand Stansted airport.

CAMPAIGNERS are more than half-way towards the £100,000 they need to raise for experts to represent them at the public inquiry into proposals to expand Stansted airport.

A spokesman for the Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) group said so far more than £55,000 had been raised to pay for technical and expert advice and more fundraising events were being planned.

These will include author and columnist Will Self leading the 6th annual Runway Ramble to highlight the threat from the airport expansion plans for both the single runway and planned second runway to 1,000-year-old Hatfield Forest.

The Evening Star's Air Fair campaign is highlighting the huge increase in planes which will fly over Suffolk if Stansted is allowed to use its current runway to the maximum - adding another ten million passengers a year.

There has already been a big increase in flights in the past three years since the capacity of airspace over the Felixstowe and Ipswich area was increased by 30 per cent.

SSE said it had considerable expertise in its in-house team but needed to reinforce these with specialists to speak and challenge BAA's witnesses at the inquiry, which starts at Endeavour House at the airport on May 30.

A spokesman said: “SSE intends to play a full and active role in representing the community at the public inquiry through its established volunteer team, reinforced by external specialist support in the form of expert witnesses and legal advisers.”

Offers of support for the appeal fund had come from other airport communities around the country.

Mr Self will lead the five-mile ramble at Hatfield Forest on September 15 to highlight how the tranquillity of the forest could be put in jeopardy by airport expansion.

The public inquiry is expected to take three months and will consider whether to allow the currant cap on flights in and out of Stansted to be raised from 241,000 to 264,000 a year.

Uttlesford District Council forced the inquiry by rejecting the planning application for the extra use of the runway.

Is the noise from aircraft over Suffolk getting worse? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk