Date published: 2007/05/30
The BBC says:
A public inquiry has begun into airport company BAA's plans to expand the capacity of Stansted Airport in Essex.
BAA wants to increase passenger numbers from 25 million to 35 million each year.
Plans were rejected by Uttlesford District Council so a final decision will now be made at the inquiry.
The Stop Stansted Expansion campaign group, which opposes the plans, staged a protest opposite Endeavour House where the inquiry is taking place.
BAA also wants permission to increase the number of air traffic movements permitted from the airport from 241,000 to 264,000 a year.
BAA said: "This is an important day for the future of Stansted Airport, and for the local community too. This independent public inquiry will take its time in the coming weeks to listen carefully to all points of view."
A spokesman for the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign told BBC News: "If Stansted were permitted to expand to maximum use of the existing runway, the local environment would suffer, the national economy would suffer and we would have taken a giant step backwards in the battle to combat climate change."
Carol Barbone, from the campaign group, said the expansion would not help the economy because it was encouraging people to go on holiday abroad.
The group said BAA's proposal of an extra 10 million passengers annually would create the same amount of additional carbon dioxide as would be saved if everybody in the UK switched from conventional to low energy light bulbs.
The only question is whether corporate interests will overrule local interests, given the additional caveat that British governments are now allegedly concerned about climate change. The corporate side is expressing the interest of the vast majority of citizens of the area who benefit from Stansted, but whose future benefits are not large enough that they would ever express an opinion one way or the other. The local side is of course expressing their own self-interest, but in addition they have the usual national academic middle class suspects, who hate the aviation industry, on their side.
Stop Stansted Expansion is a typical special interest pressure group and they only have one real reason to oppose the airport, and that is the local environment (mainly noise). The fact that the national economy would allegedly suffer and that climate change would be made worse is in reality totally irrelevant for them, they are just using these as excuses so that their campaign looks like it is more than just pure and simple NIMBYism.
Indeed, Barbone seems to be expressing the view that the citizens of Britain should not be allowed to holiday abroad. No doubt the same class of person would have said in the 19th century that the working class should not have a week's holiday at the seaside. Who is it for the middle class people who live near Stansted to decide who is and is not entitled to a holiday abroad, and when? Hopefully none of the SSE supporters ever flies anywhere, because no doubt they wouldn't want to be accused of hypocrisy. (Heathrow good, Stansted bad. Just like four legs good, two legs bad.)
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").