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GROUPS CALL FOR FREEZE ON REGIONAL AIRPORTS EXPANSION House of Lords debate airports issue

02 Feb 1999

The Government is being urged to suspend all plans to develop or expand civilian airports until it releases its Airports White Paper[1]. Friends of the Earth and the Aviation Environment Federation have joined forces to express concerns about plans to expand a number of regional airports around the country.

Later today (Tuesday 2 February) the House of Lords is due to debate the rash of new proposals for regional airports. Crossbench Peer, Lord Gladwyn will lead the debate: "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is satisfied that current planning procedures respecting proposals for new commercial airports take adequate account of environmental considerations and policy requirements." Transport Minister, Lord Whitty is expected to reply to the debate on behalf of the Government.

Simon McRae, Transport Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
"Numerous plans for new and expanded airports are being put forward all over the country. Yet no policy exists to ensure that airport development takes account of all environmental, social and economic concerns. We call on the Government to stop this uncontrolled airport expansion until it publishes its promised Airports White Paper. "

Tim Johnson, Director of the Aviation Environment Foundation said:

"Until a cogent national airports policy is introduced our members will continue to worry about the spectre of unplanned and uncontrolled airport development"

[1] The Governments Integrated Transport White Paper, launched in July 1998 promised an Airports White Paper.

NOTE TO EDITORS:
Research by Friends of the Earth has uncovered over 35 RAF airbases that have closed since 1993. Although most are being reused for housing, industrial and commercial purposes, at least four proposals exist to turn these airbases into airports.

*Suffolk Business Airport Ltd submitted a planning application to turn RAF Bentwaters, near Ipswich into the Anglia International Airpark to take holiday &charter flights as well as freight. It was expected to generate 80,000 Air Traffic Movements(ATM) including 250,000 passengers a year in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Although the original proposal was recently rejected by the Suffolk Coastal Council they have not ruled out any further commercial aviation development on the site.

*Peel Holdings want to build a major international airport at RAF Finningley, near Doncaster to take passengers and air cargo. Peel will be releasing a scoping document in February and a planning application is expected to follow.

*The Wiggins Group plc wants to expand Kent International Airport by taking over RAF Manston near Ramsgate. Manston has operated as a joint RAF/civilian airfield for over ten years, but Wiggins now wishes to use Manston to develop a cheap flight network between six European airports. Wiggens are scheduled to take Manston over from the Ministry of Defence by Easter 1999 and claims it will not need planning permission to expand the airport operations, including night flying,unless it needs to lengthen the runway.

*Stagecoach Aviation would like to use RAF Northolt in West London as a relief airport for Heathrow for planes carrying fewer than 100 passengers. The House of Commons Select Committee for Transport support this idea but the Government has turned it down. Hillingdon Council held a travelling exhibition on development of the airfield in January to seek public opinion.

*A proposal to turn RAF Alconbury, near Huntingdon into an international air freight terminal has been withdrawn following a campaign by local residents. A road/rail terminal with up to 7,000,000 square feet of warehousing was proposed instead. Local residents are concerned that If this application is successful, the proponents will attempt to reintroduce air freight .

Besides disused RAF bases, an application has been submitted by BAA to increase ATMs from 120,000 to 185,000 to allow another 7 million people to use Stansted each year.Expansion plans also exist for Luton and East Midlands airports.

Aviation is the fastest growing source of the gases that cause global warming. It is already responsible for 2-3 per cent of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases and will increase to 5-6% in the next 20 years if no action is taken. The number of passengers travelling from UK airports is expected to double over the next 15-20 years. These predictions suggest that the London airports alone will need to find capacity for an extra 100 million passengers per year by 2015 - as many as currently use Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted combined. Regional air traffic is forecast to grow by an extra 79 million passengers per year over the same period - the equivalent to five times the current passenger throughput at Manchester Airport.

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