The High Court Ruling today (23 June) on the Judicial Review brought by CAGNE, against the Secretary of State for Transport permission to allow a new runway at Gatwick Airport (the northern project).
The judgment found against all grounds brought by CAGNE.
CAGNE will not accept this ruling as the final word. Our legal team will now consider an appeal, and we will continue to stand up for the communities who will be forced to live with the consequences of this expansion.
CAGNE are obviously disappointed by today’s ruling. Communities across Sussex, Surrey and Kent helped fund this legal action because they have grave and legitimate concerns about the proposed expansion: the lack of airport funding for essential infrastructure, the absence of proper investment in sewerage treatment, the increased noise burden on local residents, worsening air quality, and the significant rise in CO2 and other harmful emissions.
Today’s ruling provides no reassurance for those concerns. It does not change the fact that local communities are being asked to carry the consequences while the airport fails to provide the funding needed to protect the people and places affected.
It is fundamentally wrong that taxpayers should be expected to meet the costs of new runway operations while shareholders stand to profit from an additional 101,000 flights a year and 80 million passengers. The public should not be left to pay for the infrastructure, environmental damage and disruption created by private gain.
This Government must stop viewing aviation expansion through rose-tinted glasses and relying on unsubstantiated claims of economic benefit while ignoring the vast local and global environmental costs. Communities deserve honesty, accountability and protection — not another decision that sidelines their health, homes and environment.