Archived press release

P.M. OPENS HEATHROW EXPRESS Free Guest Star Appearance Starts Big Payback to BAA

23 June 1998

Campaigners see today's appearance by the Mr Blair as another in a series of favours to BAA and BA from the Labour Government. They say the Big Payback will be two major anti-green schemes allowing massive widening of the M25 and, then, building of Heathrow Terminal 5 about which the Government claims to be neutral.

Mr Blair's appearance is not the first Government favour to BAA. BAA has been subsidised by the Government through its Civil Aviation Authority and the Monopolies & Mergers Commission which have allowed BAA to retain £60 million of additional profits to cover its costs at the Terminal 5 public inquiry - paying for a team of top barristers and support staff.Cash strapped Local Authorities and other opponents of BAA's plans receive no financial support or subsidy. [3] The Government has also used many of the same witnesses as BAA at the public inquiry undermining Government claims to be neutral about T5. [4]

Paul de Zylva, London Campaigns Coordinator for Friends of the Earth said:

“Why is Mr Blair opening the Heathrow Express? It is not an example of the integrated public transport that New Labour is supposed to favour. New Labour is far too cosy with BAA and British Airways, bankrollers of the ill-starred Millennium Dome. Tony Blair's Government has repeatedly shown bias in favour of BAA's destructive and unnecessary demands for a fifth terminal at Heathrow and for M25 widening.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The Heathrow Express (aka FastTrain) service will be opened by Tony Blair on Tuesday 23rd June - originally the date for the launch of the Government's much heralded White Paper on Integrated Transport. BAA's £440 million scheme will initially cost £5 each way (rising to £10) for a 15 minute trip (or 20 minutes to Terminal 4). BAA's figures show that the new service will attract only 3,000 cars off roads to Heathrow. This contrasts with BAA's evidence to the Terminal 5 public inquiry show that, if built, T5 will generate at least 46,000 vehicle journeys a day.

[2] BAA plc are contributing £3.8 million to the Millennium project. British Airways are contributing £6 million.

[3] Glenda Jackson MP, Transport and Aviation Minister, in a letter to the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise said that:

“BAA's investment programme for the five year period (1997 - 2002) includes £60 million for the costs incurred at the (Terminal 5) public inquiry...There will be a mid-term review by the Civil Aviation Authority if T5 is not approved, or if it proceeds on a very different scale...There is no question of subsidy to BAA...”

However, the CAA's mid term review of BAA's investment programme will be in 1999, well before the T5 the public inquiry is due to report. The CAA's allowance for BAA's expenses at the T5 inquiry amounts to a Government subsidy to BAA to present its case based on an assumption that T5 will be approved. The public inquiry is now one month into its fourth year.

[4] Friends of the Earth has compiled a list of six examples of where the Government has colluded with BAA by using the same witnesses and/or evidence at the Heathrow Terminal 5 public inquiry.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust