DAMON Hunt [reference above] from BAA tells us expansion at Heathrow airport will only take place 'within strict environmental standards.'

Now you don't have to be a NASA scientist to know that if you increase flights there will be more noise and more pollution.

There are no super-clean aircraft on the drawing board to dramatically improve the figures.

The Government knows this and its next move will be to apply for derogation.

That means nicely asking the EU to lift the deadline for the pollution criteria to be met.

This will give the Government extra time - extra time to fly more planes - bringing more noise,more pollution and, yes, more road traffic.

Already Hounslow Primary Care Trust is getting ready to sue BAA for the additional costs the NHS will incur if Heathrow gets a third runway.

This means you and I will be paying through our taxes for the NHS to deal with the victims of an expanded Heathrow.

No, Damon Hunt, further expansion at Heathrow is not in the local or national economic interest.

It might of course be in the interests of multinational financiers and the Spanish construction company that owns BAA, but our national retailers don't seem to be jumping up and down saying their businesses will fail without a third runway.

We can bat figures back and forth across the pages of our local press but let's not.

Let's talk about the real costs - to people,to families, to communities, to local health services, to education services, to the road network.

Further expansion of Heathrow is not essential: it's lunacy.

CHRISTINE M. SHILLING,

No Third Runway Action Group (NoTRAG) press secretary,

Candover Close, West Drayton.