Second Stansted runway would be ‘catastrophic’
05.04.08
A second runway at Stansted Airport would be ‘catastrophic’ and only achieved through the ‘wholesale destruction’ of the countryside, a meeting held by anti-expansion campaigners Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) this week was told.
Airport operator BAA's £2.5billion scheme, which includes a second terminal, hotel and new control tower, would occupy 442 hectares of land - instead of the originally proposed 700 hectares. But it would still mean the loss of 13 listed buildings, ten of which BAA plans to dismantle and rebuild elsewhere. It could see the airport grow to accept 68 million passengers a year by 2030, slightly more than Heathrow today.
Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield, who was one of more than a dozen speakers at the Stop Stansted Expansion rally held in Bishop's Stortford on Wednesday, said: ‘We're going to do everything we can everywhere to stop a second runway. It's basically another airport in Essex. It's a disgusting imposition and we are going to put all the resources and all the effort into stopping it. We will put whatever is required to fight the appeal - the inquiry. There are many, many issues.’
Douglas Kent from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings said the area surrounding the airport is ‘unique for its remarkable quality of architecture’ and he likened BAA's plan to move 10 listed buildings to ‘cutting a flower at its roots and putting it in a pot’.
Jackie Cheetham, deputy leader of Uttlesford District Council, which held a referendum among residents which showed 89 percent were opposed to expansion, told the meeting that a second runway would bring ‘catastrophic change to the character of our beautiful rural landscape’. She added: ‘Our communities are already over-flown by aircraft in one of the most congested airspaces in the world.’
Stop Stansted Expansion chairman Peter Sanders referred to the CO2 issue and the affect of additional flights. He said: ‘We're sometimes called NIMBYs - but only if our backyard is the planet. We should all stand together to defend this wonderful stretch of countryside.’ He urged people to ‘put the BAA monster back in its cage’.
Keith Turner, from the National Trust - which owns nearby Hatfield Forest - said the organisation was ‘totally opposed’ to airport expansion, adding: ‘It's imperative that a second runway is not built’.
Saffron Walden MP Sir Alan Haselhurst, the deputy speaker in the House of Commons - whose constituency includes Stansted - said: ‘We've heard a comprehensive case against a second runway at Stansted.’ He said the message to BAA was clear and simple: ‘No, no, no to a second runway’ which he said would bring ‘wholesale destruction’ of the countryside.
Labour peer Baroness McIntosh, Greenpeace and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England were among those at the event. Suffolk South MP Tim Yeo, Colchester MP Bob Russell, Tory shadow aviation minister Julian Brazier, East of England Conservative MEP Christopher Beazley and Liberal Democrats transport spokesman Norman Baker all sent messages of support to the rally but were unable to attend.
BAA declined to comment.
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