The most dominant and controversial issue in West London for the last 50 years has undoubtedly been Heathrow airport and its rate of expansion This week the Times spoke to John Stewart, chair of leading anti expansion campaign group Hacan Clearskies, about his hopes for the airport and why, after all these years and lost battles, he is still hopeful that they can make a difference.

The campaigning group first came into existence in the late 60s, when a group of local residents from Kew started Kacan Kew Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise.

John explained: "It was more of an extension of a local residents' group and even in the 70s when it became Hacan Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise it was still relatively small, although it had started to encompass areas like Barnes and Hounslow."

He cites their first major success as getting runway alternation, to give residents some respite from the noise of overhead planes.

His spirits do not seem dampened when he talks about the battles they have lost, from campaigning against Terminal 4 in the 80s to Terminal 5, Runway 3 and even the battle against night flights which they "only just lost" at the European Court of Human Rights.

Terminal 4, he explains, was crucial for Hacan because the inspector at the time recommended: "That should be it there should be no further development at Heathrow and the politicians at the time seemed to go along with their advice. Many members believed the promises and that they could live with T4 as aircraft would get quieter and there was a cap on the number of planes."

Whilst he is obviously a fierce campaigner, he is also at pains to point out that he is not pressing for the closure of Heathrow. "No one wants it shut down, but there needs to be a balance between the airport, the prosperity and work it brings to the area and the conditions that the people who live nearby have to endure."

With T4, he says people felt the balance was "on the whole about right". But then, in the early 90s came the proposals for Terminal 5. The plans were subject to the longest public inquiry in history and lasted four years, but eventually it was given the go-ahead, a decision which John admits was "a major disappointment".

Again he stresses the fact that the authorities stated that T5 should be the end of expansion at Heathrow and that flights should be capped at 480,000, which the government seemed to accept, yet barely nine months later, proposals for a third runway were being mooted.

John says: "At the end of the day, if they finish alternation and build a third runway, there will be capacity for 735,000 flights a year. Our members are angry and bitter and feel let down. They have lost faith in the system and in particular in government."

Hacan and Clearskies, the south London campaigning body against aircraft noise and stacking, joined forces in 2000 and John became the chair of the new merged group.

"Each stage of development reflects how aircraft noise has become a wider and wider problem.

"Heathrow is like an octopus spreading its tentacles, affecting more and more people. This has been reflected in the last few years where our membership has grown in areas further away from Heathrow such as north London, Greenwich, the Thames Valley and Windsor."

He continues: "There are people who bought in places like Clapham, Brixton and Dulwich, where there was originally no issue with noise, but now there is. The government and the aviation industry have not been honest with people about what's been happening."

This has had two effects on his members, he says, some have become more dispirited while other have become more feisty.

"The feeling we are getting from members is that they want Hacan to take more radical action and be less nice to the authorities. Some are even urging us to take direct action."

This has resulted in Hacan deciding to change tack and next month they will announce detailed plans for their future campaigning strategy.

For now though, John can only say: "The government needs to forget about expansion and deal with the current situation now, which is already unacceptable. That's where we are going to begin talking before we start discussing limiting expansion. We are going to be more proactive and have a more aggressive role.

"We've always played the traditional role of a pressure group but now we will be pushing harder. Some of our members are even pressing us to go down the route of civil disobedience, they are so frustrated."

The government's white paper last December was very disappointing, says John: "Blair talks a good talk about tackling climate change, but the white paper is going in the wrong direction. He's given into the persistent, powerful and rich aviation industry lobby.

"The government was looking to end the discussion on new runways and schemes, but because the paper came in for such criticism, especially in London, it didn't and the whole issue is still the focus of considerable speculation as it failed to rule out the third runway, threatened to end alternation and increase night flights.

"It's not just Hacan, most local authorities believe further expansion should be ruled out too. Even boroughs like Hillingdon and Hounslow, where residents are dependent on the airport for work, think that further expansion will ruin people's quality of home life and make living conditions unacceptable."

Hacan has also become involved with Airport Watch, founded two years ago, which brings together airport campaigning groups around the UK and environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth.

They have three main objectives.

Firstly, aviation is the fastest growing contributor to global warming, so if the government is serious about climate change, they have to tackle the aviation industry.

Secondly, the tax concessions received by the aviation industry are worth around £9 billion in tax free fuel and no VAT on aviation transactions. This, they argue, is artificially stimulating demand and these huge hidden subsidies are keeping prices low. They want the aviation industry to be accountable for the true cost and fares to reflect this.

The final change is that the individual groups have stopped their Nimby' approach and are now working together. Each group is still fighting hard to stop expansion in their area, but they are no longer saying that the expansion should be somewhere else.

John says: "I think this unity has taken the government by surprise and we've also launched www.airportpledge.org.uk, which encourages individuals to take personal action if the government goes ahead with expansion.

"We need a radical change in policy away from aggressive go for growth to expansion only on demand, otherwise we are always going to be fighting against the aviation industry's huge demand for expansion.

"But they are just trying to chip away at it, starting with night flights and stopping alternation in the day time. There is no sign that the government or airlines are looking for anything other than expansion, which is why we have to fight on a wider level with wider alliances and we are building these, not just with Airport Watch but throughout Europe.

"The next few years are going to be interesting. We have new developments and links and a new way of campaigning and challenging the governments and aviation. The next few years will be critical as something has to give."