The government has been accused of hiding figures on the number of people who would be affected by the noise from a third runway at Heathrow.

A report by Halcrow Fox, the government's consultants on a third runway, estimates that an extra 205,000 people would suffer from more noise.

Forum Response: British Airways

A spokesman for British Airways told ePolitix.com: "At the Terminal Five decision, the government stated that the area around Heathrow affected by 57 decibels of noise should not exceed 145 square kilometres. British Airways believes that area can remain the same with a third short runway.

"Improvements in aircraft technology resulted in aircraft noise levels reducing by 70 per cent at Heathrow between 1980 and 2000 despite a 69 per cent increase in take-offs and landings during that period.

"As well as spending £1.5 billion on replacing older aircraft in recent years, we have also taken the initiative in improving continuous descent approaches which keep aircraft as high as possible during the approach to landing thus reducing noise levels."