SSE embarks on a final mission: “NEVER AGAIN … but we’ll settle for 50 years”
major expansion at Stansted Airport.
be permitted at Stansted until 2060 at the earliest.
out the justification for the moratorium, as follows:
at Stansted Airport for almost half a century. On four separate occasions since
the early 1960s we have had to mobilise, raise funds and expend enormous amounts
of time and energy, fighting one public inquiry after another in order to defeat
the threat. On each of those four occasions we have ultimately won the argument,
but only to find that the same or similar plans for an additional runway or runways
at Stansted are resurrected a decade or so later. We believe this is profoundly
unfair and that it is time to say that ‘enough is enough’.
long term peace of mind by entering into a legally binding agreement with the
local planning authority that it would not build a second Gatwick runway for a
period of at least 40 years, i.e. before 2019.
for the reasons we have explained above we regard 50 years as the appropriate
duration for a Stansted moratorium."
included in the Government’s new National Policy Statement on airports, due to
be published in draft form early next year. This will largely determine the long
term future for Stansted and will be finalised following public consultation in
2011.
of the forthcoming National Policy Statement and its new campaign is designed
to raise local awareness so that as many people as possible respond to next year’s
public consultation. As part of the build up to this the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ theme will feature prominently in a new poster campaign.
from all relevant local authorities in the vicinity of Stansted Airport as well
from local MPs and all East of England MEPs. SSE will also be meeting Government
Ministers and other leading politicians to press the case for a 50 year moratorium
on major expansion at Stansted Airport.
to – and defeat – the threat of a second Stansted runway four times in the past
50 years, we believe that the people of this area have now earned the right to
be given 50 years peace of mind. And there is already a precedent. In 1979,
BAA gave a legally binding guarantee that there would be no second runway at Gatwick
for at least 40 years. It’s now Stansted’s turn."
is available on request. In addition to seeking a long term moratorium on new
runways at Stansted, SSE is pressing BAA to demonstrate that the immediate threat
has been removed by putting back on the market all of the houses it acquired in
connection with its second runway plans. SSE believes that the original owners
should be given the first option to buy back and, in the case of rented properties,
the tenant should be given second option.