THE Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has ridiculed a plan for an £18.2bn airport south of Abingdon.

Bristol architects firm Pleiade Associates has submitted a plan for a four-runway airport to the Government’s Airports Commission, which is looking into the future of the UK industry.

But in a statement the CPRE said: “It was tempting to ignore these suggestions as just ridiculous nonsense, but stranger things have been known to come to pass.”

The group said it opposed the plan on numerous grounds, including that the “geographical and historical context of the local area” had been ignored and the “scale of population needed to service such an airport” had been “grossly underestimated”.

The CPRE also said the proposals did not reflect “significant damage” that would be caused to the local landscape, including nearby conservation areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

The architects have said the airport would have 125 million passengers a year.

The CPRE has submitted a formal response to the public consultation on all plans, which closed on September 27.

It said: “We trust the Airport Commission will dismiss the proposals without further consideration.”