Residents have been warned they face a council tax hike if plans to extend the runway at Shoreham airport are scrapped.

Many are angry at proposals to increase the number of flights from the airport from 75,000 to 100,000 per year.

Plans to extend the runway to 1,200 metres could allow up to 40 commercial flights to leave Shoreham for short-haul European destinations per day.

Councillors said flights must increase to help pay a £3.8 million debt.

Brighton Labour councillor Don Turner said the airport's annual profits were in danger of being swallowed up, creating a shortfall that would have to be covered by tax-payers.

He said: "If something is not done we won't be able to keep up repayments on the debt.

"That money will have to come from somewhere and I don't want to ask council tax payers for it."

Adur residents are worried the scheme would increase noise pollution and traffic on the A27 and A259 would go up during the busiest times.

Terrance Godfrey, 58, an engineer, lives near the end of the runway at Lancing.

He said: "This is a disgrace. We moved here three years ago because it is such a beautiful area and these plans threaten to ruin our peace and quiet."

Mr Godfrey spent 18 years living in Crawley but got fed up with the constant noise from Gatwick airport.

He said: "It seems that because Shoreham is not making enough money the people living nearby are going to suffer. Why don't they just sell off the land? It must be worth a fortune."

Brighton and Hove City Council and Worthing Borough Council, which jointly own the airport, set up a taskforce in September 2001 to outline schemes to make the airport more profitable.

Consultants say the extension would take four to five years to build.

If it gets the go-ahead, 500,000 passengers will fly from Shoreham by 2008 and 771,000 by 2018 - an average of 2,110 per day.

Alan Cooke, from The Aviation and Travel Consultancy, said airports such as Southampton had been used as a model to forecast levels of demand.

He said: "After extensive research we know a significant number of people in the district would use the airport ahead of Gatwick."

People are being given another month to give their views on the future the airport.

The new closing date for comments is January 16.

There will be a public meeting at Lancing Parish Hall tomorrow between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

A new runway would allow commercial flights on British and European routes.

The alternative would be to make more use of the existing runway for general aviation.

Coun Turner said: "We have already heard from a large number of Sussex residents but we want to hear from everybody."

An exhibition of proposals will be staged at the Adur Civic Centre in Shoreham between January 5 and 16.

Additional reporting by Daniel Sanderson