The Stop Stansted Expansion group has taken its fight against airport expansion across the Channel with a delegation travelling to Brussels to meet European civil servants and politicians.

Representatives of the campaign group met senior civil servants from the Transport and Energy and Environment departments of the European Commission to discuss the measures the European Union intends to take to make sure the 'polluter pays principle' is applied to the aviation industry.

Meetings were also held with British Government aides from the Foreign Office and a delegation of Euro MPs from the Eastern region.

Stop Stansted Expansion lobbying consultant James Drewer, who was part of the delegation, said: "Our objective was to establish which existing or forthcoming European legislation would provide the most effective platform from which to fight the Government's expansion plans.

"We're pleased with the results and have come away armed with some extremely useful information about various European directives and conventions that will prove invaluable in strengthening our case.

"It's clear the Government's air travel forecasts and airport expansion plans take little account of the future European agreements that will force airlines to pay for the environmental damage they inflict.

"We believe these measures will go some way to reducing the predicted rate of growth in air travel and, as such, negate the need for so many extra runways in the South-East." as part of the on-going programme to persuade senior officials of the dangers of further growth at Stansted Airport