LETTER: The Conservative Party must come off the fence on Heathrow expansion

12.00.00am GMT Mon 21st Jan 2008

Campaigning against Heathrow expansion - Simon Hughes MP, Cllr Munira Wilson, Brian Paddick, Cllr Stephen Knight, Cllr Andrew Dakers and Susan Kramer MP

Dear Editor,

The Conservative Party must come off the fence on Heathrow expansion. Whilst local Conservatives have fallen over themselves to join the fight against expansion, it is still far from clear that a future Conservative government would not itself give the go-ahead.

The Party's 'Quality of Life' policy report declares that there should be "no new runways at Stansted or Gatwick", but fails to make a similar unambiguous statement about Heathrow. What it does say is that "the effect of [Heathrow] expansion on our carbon footprint would be factored into the equation before any go-ahead is given." This is hardly the language of clear opposition to expansion.

Worse still, the Conservative 'Economic Competitiveness' policy report argues for "operational changes" to increase capacity of the existing runways, which must be a reference to ending runway alternation. It then goes further: "Beyond these measures to maximise existing resources, the question arises of further runway capacity in the South East region and more specifically at the London Area airports."

Further on, the report says the environmental effect of expansion "needs to be balanced against the fact that Britain needs to have and retain world-class facilities and capacities, and strategically important aviation links that will be important to our future economic success." Finally it says: "We recommend that an incoming Conservative government's priority should be the strengthening of London's, and Britain's, main air transport hub at Heathrow".

The Conservative Party's Shadow Transport Secretary, Theresa Villiers MP, in a press release issued on 22nd November 2007 said: "We recognise that the economic arguments for expanding Heathrow are much stronger than any other airport in the South East".

So would a Conservative Government give the go-ahead to a third runway at Heathrow? The answer seems far from a 'no'.

Cllr Stephen Knight

Liberal Democrat London Assembly candidate for South West London