PERMISSION has been issued for the application to extend Southampton Airport's runway.

Following the decision to grant planning permission for the application on April 10, there had been calls for the government to call in the application.

Now though, Eastleigh Borough Council says it has issued a decision notice to grant planning permission for the extension.

This means that work on the runway is now permitted to start and comes after council officers worked with the airport to draft an S106 Legal Agreement.

This agreement is aimed at ensuring the detailed package of mitigation and long term management of the airport as set out in the within the committee report, are secured.

In April, officers within the Planning Casework Unit (PCU) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) asked the Council to delay the issuing of the Decision Notice.

This was in order to provide the Secretary of State time to assess the case and decide whether or not to call in the application for a public inquiry.

The government department had previously advised that it had received several requests for the Secretary of State to consider call-in of this planning application.

But now a council spokesperson has said: "The Council agreed to, and abided by, this informal request and advised PCU Officers mid-May that the Council intend to issue the decision by the end of May.

"The Council had not received a request from the Secretary of State to not issue the decision and had not received further correspondence from officers within the PCU by the end of May and has now issued the decision notice to grant planning permission for the runway extension."