No to Heathrow Expansion - Richard Tracey, London Assembly candidate for Merton & Wandsworth
Last night I went to support my colleague Justine Greening, MP for Putney, in a debate about the Labour Government’s proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport and the inevitable extra number of flights. What a splendid performance was put up by Justine in addressing 700 local residents packed into St Mary’s Church, Putney ( the location of Cromwell’s Levellers Debates!) - they were in the church galleries and standing several deep all around the body of the church. The other speaker was John Stewart, from the campaign body HACAN. No audible sign though of anybody from the Labour Party !
There is no doubt that local people, woken up like my wife and myself in Wandsworth Town from about 5am in the morning by noisy aircraft coming into land, are solidly against the Government’s plans. And they are angry at the inadequate and misleading charade of a consultation about the plans, where most of us have not been sent the documents and have to read them on the internet, and we have no exhibitions staged by the Government to explain the plans .
If we need more airport capacity in this country, it should come from regional airports, not overcrowding Heathrow even more. And we should cut the transit flights and stop domestic flights from Heathrow, and we should encourage use of high speed trains in this country and to Europe. Then, if we still need more capacity in the London area, we should follow the excellent suggestion from one of my London Assembly candidate colleagues, Kit Malthouse to go east in the Thames estuary.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2925884.ece
UPDATE 5th FEBRUARY - In front of a packed audience of Battersea residents at Belleville School, in answer to my challenge the Battersea Labour MP has agreed to join Justine Greening MP in all-party campaigning against expansion. Battersea Conservative Parliamentary spokesman Jane Ellison spoke strongly in favour of all-party opposition to the Heathrow plans.
Elmar Wirtenberger said on January 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm:
I’m afraid I don’t agree at all with your position on the Heathrow expansion. This airport is absolutely vital to retain London’s position as the leading commercial capital in Europe, in order to benefit from enormous financial contributions. Airports in Frankfurt, Paris and other major cities are aslo close to city centres. The proposition to open a new airport in the East of London is not viable as many of the business travellers not only visit London but also transit to other countries via Heathrow and it would be impossible to make connections from East London. Also, as a resident in SW London I would not be too happy to have to travel to East London in order to catch flights to Europe. It would be feasable to base UK flight from there but again the problems for connection flights would apply. The usage of the railway would be an option, unfortunately the system in the UK is so appalling, unreliable and far too expensive compared with Europe, that it is not a realistic option. I have now lived 20 years in SW London and do not hear any of the planes. The only exception was Concorde, when it was still flying. Wandsqorth is not close enough to warrant the arguement of noise. The overall benefit of Heathrow has to outweigh the minor inconveniences.
Richard Tracey said on January 29th, 2008 at 5:08 pm:
Interesting. I wonder where exactly Elmar lives in South West London, because if the house is not under the flightpath, like 700 or so people at the recent meeting and many more not there, there will not be much agreement. Can I suggest Elmar also reads again what I said about greater use of regional airports and high speed trains, and cutting down on transit and domestic flights to/from Heathrow to give us some relief. Furthermore, don’t dismiss finding the answer in airport development to the east of our crowded city.
J W Hawkes said on March 7th, 2008 at 6:40 pm:
Is there a commitment from the Conservative Party that should they form the next government, under NO circumstances would they allow the building of a third Heathrow Runway ?
Richard Tracey said on April 14th, 2008 at 6:21 pm:
Yes