Heathrow plan 'will damage quality of life'
2M warn ministers expanding Heathrow would "cause irreparable damage to the quality of life for people under runway flightpaths".
The 2M group says the airport has reached its maximum size and should not be allowed to grow any further. Members will resist measures to expand the existing runways or build a new third runway.
Councillors say the Transport Department has failed to prove that adding more flights at the airport could be achieved without breaching EU air pollution limits or making noise worse.
Councillors also warn that, without investment in local rail links, roads around Heathrow will become gridlocked and buses and tubes overloaded.
Civil servants' own forecasts show the numbers of road users and public transport users doubling by 2030 if a third runway is built.
Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister (pictured left),speaking on behalf of 2M:
"It's not good enough for ministers to say a bigger Heathrow would be good for the economy and simply ignore the environmental costs. It's time for an independent study which would compare the impact of airport growth with investment in a UK-wide high speed rail network. Then we could see the real consequences for jobs.
"We also want ministers to stop parading the so-called Heathrow Hub as evidence of their high speed rail credentials. Why would you spend £4.4bn on a fifteen-mile tunnel from Heathrow to St Pancras when the whole country is crying out for fast rail links?
"The first Midlands stretch of the 2M plan for a high speed line to the North would provide 100 times better value for money than a tunnel whose main purpose would be to bring in more air travellers to Heathrow from northern Europe.
"A comprehensive UK high speed rail network combined with efficient local rail connections to Heathrow would bring economic benefits to Scotland and the North - and to the airport as local connections were improved.
"The country is crying out for new and imaginative approaches to national transport policy. Giving BAA what they want does not work for London and does nothing for the rest of the country."
January 12, 2009
