If the proposed extensions to Shoreham airport go ahead, some people will naturally be concerned about increased noise and air pollution.

Others will doubtless roll out the stock response that, because the airport has been here a long time, we should put up with it.

Perhaps the best approach is to welcome an expansion of this historic and commercially-important feature of our area but insist it should be accompanied by modern environmental controls.

The exhaust emission controls increasingly common in parts of Europe and the US should, of course, be applied to aircraft using the airport, along with strict noise limits, measurable by permanent sound sensors around its perimeter.

Airport expansion is fine if it encourages craft which can comply with these sensible modern standards but the airport should become out of bounds for aircraft which do not.

The restriction could be lifted on, perhaps, one or two days a year, when historic craft would be allowed for special air shows.

-Ray Chandler, The Drive, Shoreham