A third runway at Heathrow airport has been given the go-ahead despite fierce opposition.

Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, today announced the ÂŁ9 billion airport expansion, which will also include a sixth terminal, to the House of Commons.

As a concession, the Government promised to build a new high-speed rail link between the airport and central London.

Mr Hoon also outlined measures to limit noise and emissions from Heathrow, requiring airlines to use only the latest, least polluting planes in new runway slots.

He told the Commons: “Doing nothing would damage our economy and have no impact on climate change.”

The 2,200 metre-long third runway, which will run parallel to and north of the existing runways, would be completed by about 2019/20.

In one ray of light for local residents, the transport ruled out the introduction of mixed mode, under which residents would have had to suffer flights all day every day.

"The safeguarding of runway alternation is a victory for local people,” Richmond Park MP Susan Kramer told the Commons. “Our lives would really have become unliveable if we had been forced to suffer more noise.

However, the plans will condemn the medieval village of Sipson to the history books and a dual carriage way will run through its Cherry Tree cemetery.

The plans were opposed by not only environmental groups, local councils and residents, Lib Dems, Conservatives, but also up to 50 Labour backbenchers.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London who has pledged £15,000 in public funds to fight the plans in court, called the announcement a “truly devastating blow for millions of Londoners”.

“No amount of sweeteners in the shape of transport infrastructure will fundamentally alter the fact that the Government is hell-bent on exacerbating a planning error of the 1940s and that Heathrow is not fit for purpose.”

Greenpeace, who has bought a piece of land earmarked for the development, vowed to “fight this every step of the way”.

John Sauven, the director of Greenpeace, said: “These new emissions caps aren’t even legally binding. The loopholes in this are so big you could fly a jumbo jet through them.

“A marginally more fuel efficient plane will not solve the problem of climate change. Hoping for an aeroplane that doesn’t cause global warming is like holding out for a cigarette that doesn’t cause cancer.”

Alistair McGowan, the TV impressionist and Barnes resident who co-owns the land with Greenpeace, said: “This decision will now unleash a tsunami of protest.

“We have our small piece of land in the way of that runway and if Gordon Brown thinks he’s getting it back, then the joke’s on him.”

Darren Johnson, the chair of the London Assembly environment committee, said: "Expanding Heathrow airport is a massive mistake.

“London's government is against Heathrow expansion - I find it hard to believe how central government can justify their decision."


Reaction to the Heathrow decision

Battersea MP Martin Linton

"It’s good news that the Government has rejected the idea of all-day flights, so that we won’t have any increase in noise from aircraft directly overhead and we will still have a period every day when there are no flights.

“But it’s bad news that the Government is going ahead with a third runway.”

2M - an all-party alliance of local authorities

"It is difficult to know just what weight we can attach to today's promises when so many similar assurances in the past have proved worthless.

“For now we seem to have won the battle on mixed mode although none of us believe for one minute that this will be the last of it.

“The so-called Heathrow Hub is a red herring. Why would you spend £4.4bn on a 15-mile tunnel from Heathrow to St Pancras when the whole country is crying out for fast rail links?”

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson

“This is a truly devastating blow for millions of Londoners whose lives are now set to be blighted by massive increases in air pollution and noise.

“The Government has singularly failed to deliver a convincing case for expansion throughout or adequate solutions for the nightmare problems this would cause.”