inel

Tories change course to fight expansion at Heathrow

Good.

Press release: Continue reading CO2 Councils opposing 2nd runway join with 2M Group to fight unsustainable airport expansion…

Don’t worry. The local transport infrastructure around LHR and the global economy will likely grind to a halt before we reach this stage: Continue reading BAA eco-profiteering? Heathrow kiss ‘n’ fly for 20 quid (GBP)…

A Sunday Times UK edition lead story today is:

Revealed: the plot to expand Heathrow

It links to this article:

Evidence fix led to third runway being approved

which is a good piece of investigative journalism supported by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Justine Greening MP for Putney:

• Heathrow FOI document 1 Notes from PSDH Mitigation and Forecasting Workshop 9 January 2007
• Heathrow FOI document 2 Note of Mixed Mode/R3 Noise Meeting 20 April 2007
• Heathrow FOI document 3 Heathrow Project Board Meeting Note 12 March 2007
• Heathrow FOI document 4 Re-forecast Email 9 February 2007

Last, but not least from a climate change perspective, we are also given a link to this:

• Leaked Environment Agency Thames Region response to DfT consultation ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport’

which raises a variety of environmental concerns about Heathrow expansion in a polite, but clear way. Continue reading Leaked Environment Agency response to ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport’…

BALPA calls for sixth terminal at Heathrow and longer third runway

In its submission to the Government on the future of London Heathrow airport, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) says that a sixth terminal will be vital to ensure that an enlarged Heathrow is able to handle the increased passenger volume effectively.

There’s only a press release available, no document to download for this one.

Mayor sets out case against third runway at Heathrow is the press release, and Adding capacity at Heathrow airport links to official files published by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, in response to the Department for Transport consultation on proposals.

Theresa May MP for Maidenhead expresses her Concerns about Heathrow Consultation in a letter sent to the Department for Transport consultation on ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport’ and copied to Ruth Kelly.

In today’s Press Release from Surrey County Council (SCC) the Executive makes it clear that the council does not support the Government’s proposals for ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport‘: Continue reading Surrey County Council opposes Heathrow expansion…

BAA’s response to the Government consultation ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport‘ has been published online:

Making the case for responsible growth (1,202KB)

I have only just found it and glanced at it—no time to read it until next week—so no comments from me on this.  Take a look.

Don’t ask me why it has taken until now for the Maidenhead Advertiser to pick up on this story for Maidenhead. It beats me why the newspaper did not promote the issue from the beginning, in November 2007.  Then residents would at least have had time to learn that they were threatened by proposals for Heathrow expansion and could have demanded, or at least politely requested, Response Forms for the DfT’s Open Public Consultation. The newspaper must have a reason for timing of this front page article. Perhaps because residents of Maidenhead were not consulted on proposals for ‘Adding capacity at Heathrow airport‘ as they do not live within the current noise contour of 57 dbA, the decision was to wait until after the deadline to raise this issue? Whatever.

Yesterday, the day after close of consultation, our local newspaper front page looked like this:

and there is a short story Heathrow expansion could spell misery online.