Thank you very much for offering to help with the activities we were planning for the Shepway Council meeting on January 30. I am pleased to be able to tell you that your support won't be needed that day because, since we asked people to help, the situation has changed dramatically. The Council has backed away from taking an early decision and is no longer meeting on January 30.

It all happened very suddenly when on Monday morning at 10.45 a.m. Shepway District Council issued a statement saying that needed more time to gather information about the impacts of the airport expansion. As a result, they were postponing the Council meeting on January 30 for between two and six months.

Although this doesn't mean that we've seen back of the airport expansion plans, we believe that the Council is at last beginning to recognise how serious an impact a larger airport will have on the surrounding area. The very fact that they are asking for extra time to gather information to help inform their decision is further proof of the complexity of the issues and adds weight to the argument that the final decision should be made at a Public Inquiry.