Fears over new flight paths planned for Luton Airport

• Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Elodie Harper on the concerns of people living in Bedfordshire

People living in Central Bedfordshire fear Luton Airport will press ahead with its new flight path in spite of it being rejected in a public consultation.

The airport says the change in route is needed to split traffic heading into Stansted Airport in Essex and Luton.

Local campaigners in Potton say the impact on the lives of thousands of people will be considerable if the new flight route goes ahead.

Richard Landen, from Community Alternatives to Luton's Flight Path, says the proposals would route every single aircraft arriving over Luton over his village, which is would be very different to the present arrangements.

Fellow campaigner Mark Williams says the information that they've been given isn't clear but that he's very concerned about a big increase in overhead flights.

"Our best guess is that we're going to get regular noise about 300 times a day with overflights of around 60 db which is about equivalent to a lorry going past your house.

The rural area around Cockayne Hatley will become much busier if the flight path gets final approval from the Civil Aviation Authority.

The aim of the new route is to split arrival pathways into Stansted and Luton to reduce delays.

There is frustration here at how the consultation has been run.

Cllr Adam Zerny, Central Beds County Council says if the public are ignored they will feel there's no point in taking part in consultations in the future.

The National Air Traffic Services says residents' views will be taken into account.

It says splitting arrivals into Luton and Stansted is necessary and it has taken on board 2,400 responses from people living in the area.Luton Airport have said that the consultation was not a referendum and that airspace design proposals cannot be based purely on popularity.