Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon has given the go ahead for the contentious third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport – essentially taking out a loan on a toxic asset.
Government takes out loan on toxic asset by supporting Heathrow expansion
Secretary of State for Transport Geoff Hoon seems about to announce the go ahead for the contentious third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, together with a new rail terminal. The announcement has been deferred for months, following a reported Cabinet split and a rebellion of backbench MPs.
Will Hoon give go ahead for Heathrow runway 3 & create even more chaos
There was no surprise when research recently published by the Department for Transport showed that people are more annoyed by aircraft noise now than they were in the early 1980’s when fewer aircraft dominated the skies.
The Government has promised a Progress Report on the Aviation White Paper – due out any day now. Can we expect to be told everything is OK or will the Government be brave enough to give us the stark reality?
The recent Stern Report on ‘The Economics of Climate Change’ highlighted the damaging and growing impact of carbon emissions from the aviation industry. The Government’s own watchdog, the environmental Audit Committee, has clearly called for the Government to undertake a fundamental rethink of its airport expansion policy.
SASIG has welcomed the Government’s promise to “bear down on noise at night” but is telling Members of Parliament that the proposals to increase the existing number of night flights at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted make a mockery of the so-called promise which was in the Aviation White Paper 2003.
One way or another a significant number of your potential voters are affected by aviation – either as passengers, employees or as residents subjected to aircraft noise and related pollution.
SASIG is calling on the Government to work towards eliminating night flights at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. At the same time SASIG has told the Department for Transport that no evidence has been produced by it or the aviation industry to justify claims that night flights have an overall economic benefit.
Alistair Darling has today announced the biggest ever disaster for air travellers, residents, airlines and the UK economy.