UK Government announces go ahead despite fierce opposition
The UK Government has approved controversial plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.
Transport secretary Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons today (January 15) that the airport was "critical to this country's long term economic prosperity."
The decision comes despite massive opposition from residents near the West London hub, environmental campaigners, about 50 Labour MPs and Britain's two other leading political parties.
Mr Hoon said: "Heathrow is vital to our economy. It connects us to the growth markets of the future - essential for every great trading nation.
"But for too long it has operated at full capacity, losing ground to international hub airports in other countries and with relatively minor problems causing severe delays to passengers.
"This third runway will help secure jobs now and in the future and ensure that Britain remains a place where the world can come to do business."
Mr Hoon said a new company, High Speed 2, will look into building a high speed rail link between London and Scotland via a Heathrow hub station.
Mr Hoon also announced a raft of new environmental measures in an attempt to allay fears of increased emissions, and a £6bn investment into the UK's transport infrastructure.
The controversial scheme is backed by leaders of industry, the trade unions and aviation who believe it is vital to Britain's economic future and will create thousands of jobs.
British Airways, by far Heathrow's largest airline, "voiced strong support" for the announcement.
Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said: "This is the right decision for jobs and investment in the UK. Heathrow is our national hub airport and Britain cannot succeed in a global economy without the capacity for excellent air links already built by our international competitors."
Mr Walsh welcomed government promises to impose tougher environmental safeguards and improve rail links, but was "disappointed" at the rejection of mixed-mode.
He said mixed-mode, a system allowing aircraft to take-off and land on the same runway, would have reduced vulnerability to delay.
The department for transport said mixed-mode would result in Heathrow's runways being used more intensively, not popular with local residents.
Bmi, Heathrow's second largest airline, also welcomed the decision.
Tim Bye, bmi's deputy chief executive officer, said: "If Heathrow's development was denied it would have a far reaching impact on the whole economy of the UK.
"However, we fully support and endorse that any expansion must be kept within clear environmental guidelines and limitations."
But other airlines have not been quick to voice support. Monarch, who flies from Gatwick and Luton, said 200,000 more flights a year would be "hugely detrimental to the local communities in West London."
Monarch said it would have preferred a decision for an additional runway at London Gatwick Airport.
Representing a third of the UK's private sector workforce, CBI director-general Richard Lambert, said it was "not an easy decision" but "balances the needs of the economy with those of the environment, and provides the right framework for the country's long-term needs."
Environmental protestors and residents have vowed to fight the project "every step of the way."
Mr John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group and vocal opponent of the scheme said: "This new runway cannot and will not be built. If it's a green light it will shred the last vestiges of (Gordon) Brown's environmental credibility.
"An expanded Heathrow would become the single biggest emitter of CO2 in Britain. Labour MPs will lose seats over this as the anti-runway movement grows and grows.
"We'll fight it every step of the way because the lives of millions of people depend on us all slashing carbon emissions."
Mr Sauven said Greenpeace had already bought the land earmarked by the Government for the runway and will defend it in the courts, and will never allow BAA bulldozers onto the site.
He said that more than 10,000 people from across the world have already signed up to be beneficial owners of the plot.
At full capacity, an expanded Heathrow would become the biggest single source of C02 emissions in the country. It would emit nearly 27 million tones of CO2 every year - equivalent to the emissions of 57 of the least polluting countries in the world combined.
The decision could also lead to a court case from Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, who favours building a new airport in the Thames Estuary.
The Conservatives have proposed scrapping the plan for a third runway, cutting up to 66,000 flights at Heathrow and building a high speed train service between London and Leeds.
The shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said approval of the scheme would show Mr Brown was "deaf to the concerns of his own party and millions of people living under the flight path."
But Lord (Clive) Soley, a former Labour MP and now campaign director of Future Heathrow, which represents groups in favour of expanding the airport, said Heathrow brought jobs and "prosperity" to the surrounding areas and in an "ideal world" the expansion would not be needed.
"But the ideal world doesn't exist and it isn't true to say that Heathrow isn't at risk.
"It is at risk and if it continues to decline, then the consequences for west London and the Thames Valley will be very, very serious indeed," he said.
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