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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Cllr Stephen Knight challenges the Conservative Party to come off the fence on Heathrow expansion
January 21, 2008 12:33 PM
'The Conservative Party must come off the fence on Heathrow expansion.
Whilst local Conservatives have fallen over themselves to join the fight
against expansion, it is still far from clear that a future Conservative
government would not itself give the go-ahead.
The Party's 'Quality of Life' policy report declares that there should
be "no new runways at Stansted or Gatwick", but fails to make a similar
unambiguous statement about Heathrow. What it does say is that "the
effect of [Heathrow] expansion on our carbon footprint would be factored
into the equation before any go-ahead is given." This is hardly the
language of clear opposition to expansion.
Worse still, the Conservative 'Economic Competitiveness' policy report
argues for "operational changes" to increase capacity of the existing
runways, which must be a reference to ending runway alternation. It then
goes further: "Beyond these measures to maximise existing resources, the
question arises of further runway capacity in the South East region and
more specifically at the London Area airports."
Further on, the report says the environmental effect of expansion "needs
to be balanced against the fact that Britain needs to have and retain
world-class facilities and capacities, and strategically important
aviation links that will be important to our future economic success."
Finally it says: "We recommend that an incoming Conservative
government's priority should be the strengthening of London's, and
Britain's, main air transport hub at Heathrow".
The Conservative Party's Shadow Transport Secretary, Theresa Villiers
MP, in a press release issued on 22nd November 2007 said: "We recognise
that the economic arguments for expanding Heathrow are much stronger
than any other airport in the South East". So would a Conservative Government
give the go-ahead to a third runway at Heathrow? The answer seems far from
an unambiguous 'no'.
Cllr Stephen Knight
Liberal Democrat London Assembly candidate for South West London'
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