HANDS OFF Chiantishire! A budding “jet set” of Britain’s young rich have joined forces to stop a new airport that would bring planeloads of holidaymakers to invade the cultured climes of Tuscany.

Not for these protesters a long vigil in a muddy camp attached to the apron of an airfield. Yesterday they staged their first demonstration on the steps of the National Gallery in London. It lasted a civilised three hours.

An Italian bank sponsoring an exhibition of Renaissance art from Siena at the gallery is also one of the main financiers of a plan to develop a small aerodrome outside the walled city into an international airport that can handle up to 500,000 passengers a year.

One of its directors is Prince Girolamo Strozzi, whose 16th century palace near San Gimignano provided Tony Blair and his family with free summer holidays during Blair’s premiership.

Tuscany has long been a favourite holiday destination of the rich and famous attracted by its hills and vineyards, its paintings and art treasures and its wine and cuisine.

The protesters say they want to stop the environmental damage the £50m expansion would cause to the Tuscan countryside. But there are also fears that once built it would expose the undulating countryside and forests that are the home of wild boar to thousands of backpackers arriving on budget airlines.

Most of the protest group are in their late teens or early twenties. Many can recall idyllic summers spent in Tuscany at the villas of their parents or grandparents.

Leading the campaign is Fred Lambton, grandson of Lord Lambton, the former Tory cabinet minister who lived out his life in Tuscany after resigning from the Heath government over a call-girl scandal.

Others include models Rose Hanbury and Zita Lloyd; Joseph Getty, grandson of billionaire Sir Paul Getty; George Frost, son of Sir David Frost; Rollo Weeks, an actor; Arthur Jeffes, a polar explorer; Marissa Montgomery, founder of the Pussy Glamore lingerie range; and members of such society families as the Guinnesses and the Heskeths.

The Save Siena group claims there are already enough airports within driving distance of the city to serve its 55,000 population. The streets are crowded each summer for the Palio, a medieval horse race around the Piazza del Campo, a square which has been declared a world heritage site by Unesco.

Lambton, 22, heir to the Earldom of Durham and stepson of Jools Holland, the musician and television presenter, said: “I spent a lot of time out there when my grandfather was alive and I have seen what the airport would do. The site is completely surrounded by a national park and has a delicate ecosystem. Building an international airport would be disastrous on so many levels.”

Lambton, who has previously fought campaigns against the power of supermarkets and the expansion of Heathrow, added: “The point of the demonstration at the National Gallery is to expose the hypocrisy of a bank which is celebrating Siena and betraying it at the same time.”

A Tuscan regional policy plan for 2005-10 states that lengthening the runway at Siena should be ruled out. The protesters say this has been ignored and the airport expansion plan has been presented as a fait accompli to local residents.

Older lovers of Tuscany are more relaxed about the scheme. Sir John Mortimer, the creator of Rumpole, said: “You can’t say, ‘Don’t come to Siena.’ You can’t say, ‘You are vulgar people – we don’t want you all here.’ I am sure they will filter into the landscape and we won’t notice.”

A venture group called Galaxy is behind the expansion plans. It has financial backing from the Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) bank, sponsor of the art exhibition at the National Gallery.

Strozzi said last week: “I am on the board of the bank. I cannot speak about this.”

Additional reporting: Helen Brooks

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