Campaign group HACAN has urged ministers to be bold enough to reject a third runway if the National Policy Statement consultation, issued today, reveals real problems with the proposal.\u00a0 As expected, transport secretary Chris Grayling when launching the consultation highlighted the importance of a new runway to the post-Brexit economy but HACAN, which gives a voice to residents under the flight paths, argues that the downsides of a new runway are also considerable.<\/p>\n
HACAN chair John Stewart said, \u201cThere is no way that a quarter of a million extra planes a year cannot but have a severe impact on many people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 A third runway will also mean the demolition of many homes and could add to London\u2019s air pollution problems.\u00a0 The Government must be even-handed in assessing the consultation and reject a third runway if, as we believe, its downsides are simply too high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart added: \u201cHeathrow still has considerable hurdles to overcome before a third runway can see the light of day.\u00a0 The Government has for the first time made permission for a new runway conditional on it serving unfashionable UK destinations for which there is a limited market and on Heathrow ensuring there will be no increase in airport related road traffic if the runway is built.\u00a0 These are very big asks indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The consultation will last for 16 weeks.\u00a0 After that the proposals will be considered by the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee.\u00a0 Parliament will vote on the National Policy Statement late 2017\/early 2018.\u00a0 Only if it is approved will a third runway become Government policy.<\/p>\n
If it is approved, next year Heathrow will need to draw up detailed plans for the new runway which are expected to go to a planning inquiry in 2019.\u00a0 Heathrow does not expect to get final approval for the third runway until 2020 or 2021.<\/p>\n
The Government also launched a national consultation today on its future airspace strategy.\u00a0 It will asking for views on the principles which it should use in making airspace changes \u2013 for example, if people prefer concentrated flight paths or a more dispersed approach.\u00a0 But it will not deal with detailed flight paths.\u00a0 It will be at least another 18 months before it becomes clearer where Heathrow\u2019s new flight paths will be if a third runway is given the go-ahead.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Department for Transport media briefing:\u00a0http:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/DfT-consultation-press-release-1.pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n For more information:<\/strong><\/p>\n John Stewart on 0207 737 6641 or 07957385650<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Campaign group HACAN has urged ministers to be bold enough to reject a third runway if the National Policy Statement consultation, issued today, reveals real problems with the proposal.\u00a0 As expected, transport secretary Chris Grayling when launching the consultation highlighted the importance of a new runway to the post-Brexit economy but HACAN, which gives a … Continue reading “Ministers must be bold enough to reject 3rd runway if consultation reveals real problems”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4984,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacan.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}