THE Green MEP for the South East has slammed the Government’s aviation strategy as “nothing but an environmentally ignorant promise to pander to airlines.”

Keith Taylor was speaking after the strategy was published for public consultation on Friday.

He said: “What do you get if you ignore the UK’s deadly air pollution crisis, ignore residents’ calls for a decent night’s sleep, ignore the inequality of air travel and the urgent need to work to mitigate the very worst effects of catastrophic climate change?

“”What you get is the government’s new aviation strategy, an environmentally ignorant promise to pander to already heavily subsided airlines.

“Yet again, we’re presented with the persistent myth that there is an airport ‘capacity crisis’.

“There is no airport capacity ‘crisis’ in Britain. It has always been a myth.

“In fact, every airport in the UK, apart from Heathrow, is operating under capacity.

“Existing rail services can offer genuinely workable alternatives for the nine out of the ten of the most popular routes out of Heathrow airport.”