PLANS to expand an airport in Essex has been refused by a district council.

Uttlesford District Council held an extraordinary meeting to discuss a petition to refer Stansted Airport’s planning application back to the council’s planning committee.

The petition on Change.org has received more than 1,600 signatures.

Plans included provisions to increase passenger numbers up to 43 million a year up from 35 million.

However, the council refused the plans on several grounds including carbon emissions and allowing the planning committee to scrutinise the plans again.

Following the meeting, a spokesman for London Stansted said: “We are concerned that the Council has not only chosen to ignore the recommendations of its own officers but also disregarded its independent legal advice which supports the original view that there is no legitimate reason to withhold approval for this application.

“Our frustration at this delay will no doubt also be shared by the considerable number of residents, businesses, staff and on-site partners who have passionately backed these plans, which will boost our region’s economic growth and deliver 5,000 additional jobs.

“From the outset we have listened to local views and this feedback lead us to put forward a proposal which maintained the cap on the number of flights and committed to deliver the growth within a legally binding smaller noise footprint than our existing permissions require.

“This forms part of a comprehensive set of mitigation measures which have been independently endorsed.

“We remain in discussion with the Council while we consider all the options available to us."