No New Runway at Gatwick Airport – let’s hope the Planning Inspectorate agrees!

  • It is a new runway, which goes against policy
  • Adding 100k leisure flights a year cannot be entertained if the government is serious about reducing CO2 emissions
  • A new runway would cost the taxpayer dearly – far more than any economic growth projections by Gatwick

It is quite unbelievable that airport expansion should even be considered, when we all know that aviation can’t decarbonise, either now or for years to come.  Airport expansion would be to the detriment of other sectors that are vital to our everyday lives, to heat and power homes” said CAGNE.  “We call upon the Secretary of State for Transport to refuse this application.  Tell Gatwick to submit a real planning application for a new runway, that pays up front for all the impact it would have locally and on the planet, as it will cost far more than any economic benefit this leisure airport could offer,” says CAGNE.

As COP29 closes, residents await the impending decision on the 27th February by the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP, the Planning Inspectorates’ recommendation having been passed to her in the week following COP29 (27th November).

Supporting CAGNE (the umbrella aviation community and environment group for Sussex, Surrey and Kent), residents have been working tirelessly to raise significant funds to employ qualified experts in air quality, surface transport, and aviation noise, as well as Kings Counsel in climate change and barrister in planning.  They will not know what the recommendation was, nor the government’s subsequent decision, until next year (27th February 2025).

Leading up to this date, CAGNE has already initiated work with the team that held Gatwick Airport to account at the recent hearings. Throughout, the CAGNE team made clear to the inspectorate how selective Gatwick has been with evidence on noise, climate change, sewage, surface transport, air quality, and the cost to the planet and surrounding areas.

It might seem like Christmas for Gatwick Airport management, shareholders and local taxi drivers, but not for residents of Sussex, Surrey and Kent who would bear the full burden of an airport as large as Heathrow is today.  There is simply no sustainable infrastructure, housing, or workforce close enough to this airport to support such massive growth, as the Airport Commission found in 2014.”

If Gatwick is permitted a new runway, it will be local authorities (the government and taxpayers) that will pay the price.  Even the new rail station was not built to withstand an anticipated increase of over 32m passengers (according to Gatwick’s sustainable transport plan).  Gatwick has offered little financial support to grow to almost double the number of pre-COVID passengers, from 46m to 80m.

The global cost to the planet, particularly third world countries, was a key focus of COP29.  Global warming is now becoming more conspicuous even in the developed world, as evidenced by recent events in Spain and other parts of Europe.

The government can instantly reduce carbon by not allowing a new runway at Gatwick Airport which would add 1-1½ m tonnes of extra carbon a year with an extra 100,000 flights annually, in addition to the emissions from the main runway.

Aviation continues to struggle to decarbonise, with alternative jet fuels (so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels) producing similar emissions to fossil fuels, and hydrogen still only on the drawing board and not being feasible any time soon for such commercial leisure flights.  Carbon trading and offsetting are all fiction as emissions are still released by flying, so the answer must be to reduce the number of flights.

Rt Hon Rachel Reeves could instantly increase public spending if she introduced a frequent flyer levy to reflect the impact flying has on the planet, as well as charging aviation VAT and Duty on fossil fuel.

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