MASSIVE expansion plans for Heathrow and Stansted Airports were unveiled to MPs yesterday by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling.
Stansted Airport could be the site of three new runways, destroying 200 homes, 1200 hectares of high grade agricultural land, three scheduled ancient monuments and 64 Grade II listed buildings. The expansion would also see half of the Elsenham Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest bulldozed.
A third runway is also being proposed at Heathrow, just eight months after the Terminal Five inquiry capped flight numbers at what is already the world's busiest airport. If build, it will destroy 260 homes, 220 hectares of green belt land, a church, a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument and eight Grade II listed buildings.
But the proposed new runways, which will bring noise, pollution, ill-health to those living and working in their shadows, would be unnecessary without tax breaks and hidden subsidies of some £7bn artificially boosting demand for air travel, London's Green MEP Jean Lambert said today.
She said: "Expanding airports to meet rising passenger demand is both
economically flawed and dishonest. Increasing demand is due to low prices, which
in turn are available only because the government subsidises the industry to
the tune of £7bn every year."
"If the aviation industry had to pay fuel tax, VAT on aircraft and ticketing,
costs of ill-health caused by aircraft and airport traffic pollution but shouldered
by the NHS - to name but a few of the hidden subsidies and tax breaks received
by the industry - air travel would not be such a popular option.
"A level playing field for all forms of transport would reduce projected growth in demand for air travel and reduce the need for new airports anywhere in the region."
Mrs Lambert added: "Even if these new schemes are actually built the government will never be able to meet projected demand without covering the entire country in tarmac. Unless action is taken to make airlines pay the full costs of their activities UK passenger numbers are projected to reach 400m a year by 2020 - requiring the equivalent of another four airports the size of Heathrow.
ENDS
For more information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280 or 0776 997 0691
Notes to Editors:
* A copy of the Department for Transport's consultation document is available at www2.aviation.dft.gov.uk/aviation/consult/airconsult/se/pdf
*Figures quoted are taken from Aviation's Economic Downside by Dr John Whitelegg and Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon. The report is available from Ben Duncan on the above numbers or at the Green Party's Website: www.greenparty.org.uk/reports/2001/aviation/aviationdownsides.htm