A GWENT Assembly Member has called for a feasibility study into the proposed Severnside Airport, at Newport, as a matter of "urgent necessity".

Phil Williams, AM for South Wales East, said: "If we are to have a major international airport, Severnside does seem to be the one location we could take seriously." Mr Williams was speaking after a presentation by the UK Department for Transport on the future of air transport in Wales.

Chris Cain, from the airport policy division of the transport department, was at the Assembly to seek the views of the environment, planning and transport committee on possible developments.

A number of options have been put forward including new runways at Heathrow and Stansted and a new airport at Cliffe Marshes, in Kent.

Options for increasing air passengers in Wales include: creating a new Severnside Airport; expanding Cardiff airport; development of route networks to airports outside Wales, especially Manchester for North Wales, Birmingham for Mid Wales, and London and Bristol airports for South Wales.

But Mr Cain said analysis suggested a new Severnside Airport would mean "the closure of Cardiff and Bristol airports, and heavy constraints on the South East and Midlands airports, to attract sufficient traffic to make them viable".

The airport, he said, would be expensive to build, and investment already made in other airports would be lost.

He said: "The big problem is lack of information about the proposals. "We are looking forward to further details because we want to consider this very carefully with our colleagues at the Welsh Assembly."

Plaid Cymru AM Mr Williams said: "I think we have a duty to make sure Wales is not forgotten in the overall UK plan."

He said the environmental consequences of an airport on the Severn Estuary needed to be compared to the potential economic benefits to the area.

"I call for a serious feasibility study as an urgent necessity. This message goes more to the Assembly."

Newport East AM John Griffiths said there seemed to be a lack land available in the short to medium term as he understood the land at Llanwern was being sold for a development to include housing, shops and factories. "The other proposal for using the Severn Estuary is fraught with greater environmental difficulties."