Campaign group HACAN has accused Heathrow Airport of abusing the Airport Commission’s current consultation, which closes on February 3rd, by “flooding the Commission with thousands of pro-forma responses.”
In a letter to Sir Howard Davies (see letter and full HACAN response below), the chair of the Commission, HACAN, has said that Heathrow has “strained every sinew of its advertising budget to try to persuade as many people as possible to email or write to the Commission that they want a third runway at Heathrow”.
In its consultation the Commission asked for comments on whether it had correctly assessed the proposals put forward for a new runway at Heathrow and a second runway at Gatwick.
HACAN chair John Stewart, said “This was a technical consultation. What the Commission was not looking for was a flood of responses for or against a third runway. Yet Heathrow even went as far as placing post boxes in its terminals for passengers to pop in their letters of support. It is simply a side-show to the serious work the Commission is undertaking”.
Letter to Sir Howard: HACAN consultation letter to Sir Howard Davies
HACAN response to the Consultation: Response to the Airports Commission from HACAN January 2015 _2_