Third runway challenge starts December 13

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with a landmark case in the High Court

The case has been brought by an alliance of local authorities and
campaign groups representing airport communities at Heathrow, Stansted and Luton.

The claimants, led by the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Hillingdon, will argue that the Government's airports white paper published in December 2003 was unlawful.

The white paper called for a new third runway at Heathrow. This would be built in 2015 following the earlier completion of an additional (second) runway at Stansted in 2011.

The groups' legal team will argue that ministers knew the Stansted runway would not be financially viable as the no frills airlines that use the airport would not pay the increased charges needed to fund construction.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has ruled that new developments at one airport must be self financing and cannot be funded using cross subsidies from other airports.

Ministers also knew that long haul carriers would not move away from Heathrow and that the west London airport would continue to face unrelenting demand for extra capacity. The pressure from the airlines would mean that even before a third runway was built ministers would need to offer increased capacity by abandoning the traditional practice of runway alternation. This gives residents in west London some relief in the middle of the afternoon when aircraft switch runways for landings.

The Department for Transport admits that by changing to 'mixed mode' operations annual passenger capacity at the airport could go up from 480,000 movements a year to 551,000.

Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister said:

"The white paper sought to lull west London residents into a false sense of security by making it look as if expansion at Heathrow was a long way off and that anyway Stansted would suffer first. The truth about this white paper is that all roads lead to Heathrow. Whichever way you look at it Heathrow will go on getting bigger because that is what the airlines want.

"We are not arguing over some fine points of legal drafting. Our challenge goes right to the heart of the Government's intentions for Heathrow. Time and again we have been fobbed off with assurances that the latest expansion at Heathrow will be the last........ If we win, the Government will have to rethink its entire approach to airport expansion and in particular its support for continued growth at Heathrow. At the very least it will have to spell out openly and honestly its plans for Heathrow so that the people who put up with the noise, the congestion and the air pollution can see clearly which side their Government is on."

                                                     

December 3, 2004