Campaigners fighting a third runway at Heathrow today expressed concern following reports the Department for Transport (DfT) compiled dossiers on them and handed the data to police.

Residents' groups accused civil servants of spying on potentially thousands of people who have spoken out against the £9bn expansion plans.

John Stewart, chairman of campaign group Hacan, said: “If he had any honour at all, Transport Minister Geoff Hoon would resign over this. But it is a clear sign of the Government’s desperation that they are losing the battle over a third runway that they have to stoop as low as this.

“If we ever have meetings with civil servants, they may as well caution us that anything we say will be taken down and used as evidence against us and handed to the police.

“In the longer term, the challenge for the next Government will be to clean up the DfT and have a wholesale clear out of the civil servants in the aviation sector.”

He said about 20,000 people have attended protest meetings, while 70,000 responded to the official consultation.

A spokesman for the DfT said it monitored opponents of the third runway during the run-up to the Government’s approval in January in order to find out whether protesters planned to cause trouble at public consultation events.

He said: "In light of the high-profile opposition to the proposed expansion, the police were notified of where and when Heathrow public exhibitions would be held and the department made sure it kept abreast of information published on protest groups' websites and coverage in the media to see if any direct action was planned at these events.

“The information gathered was readily available in the public domain, and simply used to alert staff and the police to any disruption that was anticipated at these public events."

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