Shoreham airport could be redeveloped with a new runway and even a hotel, we can reveal today.

At a meeting of Worthing Borough Council, a member of the airport committee confirmed there was a plan to realign and extend it.

A report was presented to the council's policy and resources committee last month but its contents kept secret because of their commercially sensitive nature.

Airport manager John Haffenden said his vision for the future did involve changes to the airport's facilities.

He said: "We do have plans for the buildings on the south side of the airport.

"These are constrained by the Town and Country Planning Act, so we wouldn't be able to expand beyond the existing building area.

"But we do have scope to redevelop the building, which has been there since 1935.

"We have a spare site by the side of the terminal building which we have said would be nice as an integral part of our facilities - let's call it an operational centre.

"If we are talking about family facilities and I use the word hotel, we are not going to have something like on Brighton seafront. But if it's viable, that would be a good idea.

"Realigning the runway also sounds like a jolly good idea. The runway we have at the moment, which we extended to its maximum amount, is capable of taking the traffic we have now.

"We are constrained by the Town and Country Planning Act but within that constraint it sounds like an excellent idea."

It is understood the runway is likely to run east to west rather than north to south as at present.

The airport is jointly owned by Brighton and Hove City Council and Worthing Borough Council.

However, any planning application would have to go before Adur District Council.

Adur planning officer Keith Morgan said: "This is news to us. There have been no planning applications."