THE new head of the organisation created to protect the country's environment is hoping the Government rejects the case for expansion at Heathrow Airport.

Lord Smith of Finsbury is now in charge at the Environment Agency and believes the Government is losing sight of its responsibility to be green and warns a third runway would be very detrimental to human health.

He was speaking after a cabinet reshuffle saw former Labour chief whip Geoff Hoon take over from Ruth Kelly as the secretary of state for Transport - meaning the decision to proceed with expansion now rests with him.

Lord Andrew Adonis has also been given a ministerial post within the Department for Transport (DfT) after being relieved of his work within the Education department.

Lord Smith said: "We are concerned about the impact a third runway and increased use (mixed mode) of existing runways will have on air quality, which may be illegal under European Law and damaging to the environment.

"We do not think that the evidence presented in the consultation is sufficiently robust to conclude that the proposed Heathrow development will not infringe one of the NO2 limit values set by the first EC Air Quality Daughter Directive, bearing in mind the uncertainties that need to be addressed.

"This is because the assessment of air quality pays insufficient attention to these uncertainties and to the range of possible future scenarios for issues like road traffic, meteorological variability, climate change, background air quality and atmospheric chemistry.

"We do not contend that the evidence does not exist to support the case for meeting the air quality requirements, but that, as presented in this consultation, the case is not made.

"When these uncertainties and scenarios have been considered in more depth it may be possible to conclude robustly that there will be no infringement, but this conclusion cannot yet be drawn from this consultation.

"We do have serious concerns about airport expansion and climate change, particularly in light of the UK target to reduce greenhouse emissions by 60% in 2050 from 1990 levels.

"However, objections on planning applications on the grounds of CO2 emissions do not fall under our remit, but under the local authority.

"We believe development at airports presenting major adverse and irreversible, environmental impacts should be avoided. Airport development can have serious implications for biodiversity, local air quality, and contaminated runoff from tarmac to surrounding soils and watercourses.

"Cumulative effects of an airport expansion are often very significant."