The Government & Aviation

Press aticles

A parliamentary inquiry into lobbying, launched on 21st June 2007, considered external regulation, government interaction and funding by lobby groups. Details of BAA's lobbying groups and its close links to government formed part of this inquiry.

Written evidence submitted shows that a level playing field does not exist when it comes to BAA and BA securing meetings with the Secretary of State or the Under-Secretary of State for Transport.

The public administration select committee report said: "There has been widespread public concern that some areas of government policy have effectively been captured at an early stage by interest groups, usually within industry, and that public consultations have been unbalanced in the favour of these interests." It named Heathrow as an example of this and concluded that lobbying needed to be open to public scrutiny.

A separate investigation also revealed that BAA and the government “fixed” environmental targets while researching the impact of the third runway.

Some articles on these and similar subjects are referenced here.

Early Day Motions

On 17th December, 2008, an Early Day Motion (EDM) demanding a vote on the third runway in the Commons was submitted. Gordon Brown has refused a vote.

To see which MPs have signed this EDM, please click on the title below.

"ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THIRD RUNWAY AT HEATHROW"

On 27th October, 2008, an EDM opposing the government's policy on the third runway was submitted for debate in the Commons. Although few EDMs make it to the floor of the House, a debate was held on 11th November, 2008, with the number of MPs speaking out against Heathrow expansion vastly outnumbering those in favour.

To see which MPs signed this EDM, please click the title below.

"GOVERNMENT POLICY ON THIRD RUNWAY AT HEATHROW AIRPORT"

Tories pledge to axe Heathrow third runway PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 00:00

The Tories will include a commitment to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow in their general election manifesto. Shadow transport minister Julian Brazier said: "We are absolutely firm on our opposition to expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. It will definitely be in the manifesto." The pledge, putting the Conservatives on a collision course with corporate Britain, caused campaign groups to claim that the extra runway was now "dead in the water".

It comes three months after shadow international development minister Geoffrey Clifton-Brown hinted that the policy was open to debate. He said he expected the issue to be "revisited" after the election and this was seized on by Labour as evidence the Tories were being "secretive" about their true plans for Heathrow.

But at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Mr Brazier was adamant his party's stance on airport expansion would not change. He said: "Building more runways at London airports is not the answer. We want to focus instead on improving capacity at regional airports and building more high-speed trains. We are absolutely clear on that."

Read the full article in The Evening Standard.


To those outside the political arena and the aviation lobby it has been clear for some considerable time that Heathrow expansion is neither needed nor wanted.

This is the death knell for the third runway.
 
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