Stansted runway inquiry to be delayed until after election
18.06.09
The public inquiry into a second runway at Stansted Airport is to be delayed by at least 9 months, increasing the chances that the project will eventually be scrapped, the Times reports. John Denham, the Communities Secretary, said the start of the inquiry would be delayed until after the outcome of BAA’s appeal against the Competition Commission ruling that it should sell Stansted, Gatwick and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport.
The ruling is expected in February 2010 but if BAA loses it could appeal to the House of Lords. This means an inquiry is unlikely to start before the next general election, which must take place by next June, and certainly would not be finished given that it will last up to a year.
BAA had originally hoped to open the Stansted runway in 2012 but the earliest possible opening date has slipped to 2017, in part because of big falls in passenger numbers at the airport during the current recession. The Conservatives have ruled out a new runway at Stansted, but hinted that they might allow Luton to be expanded.
Nick Barton, Stansted’s development director, told the Times that Mr Denham’s announcement ‘does not alter the fact that new runway capacity is urgently required if the UK is to preserve its global economic competitiveness, and the case for a second runway at Stansted remains a strong one’.
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