Call for airport judicial review

CAMPAIGN group Stop Stansted Expansion has filed for a judicial review in a bid to quash the Government's consultation paper on expanding airport capacity in the South East.o

The group is to challenge the lawfulness of the document, which includes building up to three more runways at Stansted Airport, as it believes it fails to consider all the possible options for increasing future air transport in the region.

The group claims the Department for Transport was wrong to exclude any expansion of Gatwick Airport on the basis of a planning agreement made in 1979 between airport operator BAA and West Sussex County Council.

The agreement pledges no further runways at Gatwick before 2019, although the date which the Government predicts a third runway would be needed in the South East is 2024.

The group also claims the Government is breaching its duty under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights to protect the rights of people living near Stansted Airport.

Hundreds of homes will be destroyed if the plans for three runways are adopted.

It is hoped the move will put extra pressure on the Government to reconsider its options.

Stop Stansted Expansion chairman Norman Mead said: "We are totally against further inland airport expansion and believe that demand should be managed.

"However, if the Government is determined to expand airport capacity, there must be a level playing field in deciding the way forward.

"This means that all the options, including offshore airports, must be given proper and fair consideration."

09:52 Thursday 7th November 2002

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