Residents living near the marshland site on the Hoo Peninsula are angry after it had been shortlisted for a possible new airport with up to four runways.

But the potential threat the development may pose for migrating birds may be enough to prevent building on the site near Cliffe Marshes in north Kent.

Alexander de Roo, vice chairman of the European Parliament's environment committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the area was a protected area.

Such a massive airport will disturb the birds

Alexander de Roo

He said: "They will have to submit this to the European Commission, who will be very, very critical.

"Such a massive airport will disturb the birds.

"The European Commission will say that is simply not allowed under the 1979 Birds Directive, which is very strict.

"The British government is bound by that, they cannot simply ignore it."

He added the government would have to prove it was of national interest and that there was no alternative.

A new airport on the Cliffe Marshes site is one of several options being considered to help cope with rising air traffic over the next 20 years.

The area is popular with birdwatchers

The area, which was made famous in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, includes a 230-hectare nature reserve.

Joan Goddard, who along with her neighbour Ann Parker has set up the No Airport At Cliffe action group, was not convinced the government would pay the warning much heed.

She said: "The government was fully aware of all of those points before it invested what I should imagine is millions of pounds of our money to put forward this proposal.

"They haven't been deterred by this point so far."

She added that while the birds were important, she felt that the human cost of building an airport that would effectively wipe out two villages - St Mary Hoo and Allhallows - had been sidelined by the media.