Six local airport campaigns issue unanimous message to Airports Commission – no new south east runways are needed
Sir Howard Davies and two fellow Commissioners (Vivienne Cox and Geoff Muirhead) have had a meeting with 6 representatives of local campaign groups from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, the Thames Estuary and Birmingham. The campaign groups are all opposed to new runways or radical expansion plans within their areas and issued a unanimous message to the Airports Commission explaining that there is sufficient capacity within the existing airports to meet UK demand to 2050, possibly longer; therefore there should be no new runways in the south east. They also say demand for air travel can and should be constrained by fairer taxation of aviation, and it is unrealistic to assume future demand will be disproportionately concentrated in the south east. Due to future use of larger aircraft, capacity requirements can be met, even with a larger number of passengers. The groups urged the Airports Commission to set out the case for ‘no new runway’ and to publish that option alongside the short-list of new runway plans that they are due to publish in December.
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25 June 2013
Representatives of 6 local campaigns issue unanimous message to Government’s Airports Commission
Sir Howard Davies and two fellow Commissioners (Vivienne Cox and Geoff Muirhead) met with 6 representatives of local campaign groups on Monday: –
Richmond Heathrow Campaign: Peter Willan
Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign Brendon Sewill
No Estuary Airport Jon Fuller
Birmingham Chris Crean
Hertfordshire Against Luton Expansion Andrew Lambourne
HACAN Gareth Harper
The campaign groups are all opposed to new runways or radical expansion plans within their areas and issued a unanimous message to the Airports Commission explaining: –
• There is sufficient capacity within the existing airports to meet UK demand to 2050, possibly longer; therefore there should be no new runways in the south east;
• Demand can and should be constrained by fairer taxation of aviation, and it is unrealistic to assume future demand will be disproportionately concentrated in the southeast;
• Capacity requirements can be met by using larger more fuel efficient aircraft that carry substantially greater numbers of passengers;
• Aviation industry claims regarding job creation were challenged, noting that the aviation tourism deficit is currently in the order of £11.2 billion, equivalent to the loss of around 500,000 jobs (government should not be investing public money in infrastructure that assists the outflow of UK wealth);
• The airport governance regime must be improved to ensure that local authorities properly address the environmental impacts of airports, and that there is clear accountability for such impact; and
• The 1973 Land Act does not properly compensate for the loss of value of property – financial compensation should run from the start of the period of blight, which is likely to occur as from mid July this year when many airports are due to announce their plans for new runways.
Brendon Sewill, spokesman for the 6 groups said “The Commission were well aware that over the past forty years many plans for new runways had failed because of public opposition, and therefore listened carefully to the case we made. We urged them to set out the case for ‘no new runway’ and to publish it alongside the short-list of new runway plans that they are due to publish in December.”
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Web/contact addresses for each campaign: –
www.richmondheathrowcampaign.org
noestuaryairport@hotmail.co.uk
Airports Commission Airports Commission website