AN ORGANISATION has claimed it is being ignored by Medway Council as the authority pushes through redevelopment plans for Rochester Airport against the advice of a senior planning inspector.

The council recently agreed to redevelop part of the airport as a science and technology park. It effectively cuts flying to a single grass runway.

It was the latest twist in a long saga over the airport's future. Fliers and local residents had been campaigning to keep the site as an airport. Now the Rochester Airport Consultative Committee - set up by the Government to advise on planning issues affecting flying in and out of the Maidstone Road site - is threatening to drag Medway Council through the courts.

At a press conference at the airport it accused the council, its cabinet, and officers of ignoring letters. Council leader Rodney Chambers did not escape criticism.

He promised in April the committee would be consulted. Then they heard that the cabinet and the council had give itself permission to build on 25 hectares at the airport. Committee chairman Harry Deakin, a former county planner, said: "This council isn't that incompetent: It doesn't intend Rochester airport should function."

They will ask the government to call in the proposal - to review what the council is up to. On Wednesday this week planners are to debate proposals to build a four-storey office block. The committee says it could interfere with flying, but the council says the Civil Aviation Authority doesn't have any views on the plans.

Brian Kingsley-Smith, the committee secretary and a local solicitor, said: "They are intent on shutting the airport by hook or by crook. We will have to decide whether to take the council to court because they aren't listening to anybody. The council is determined to make money out of the airport, and to hell with the law."

The committee have set up a website at; www.rochesterairport.flyer.co.uk