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LOCAL ISSUE - TERMINAL 5
Stephen
Byers' Terminal 5 decision "puts
Londoners at risk" and
Putney hit with double whammy
as night flight decision postponed.
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Artists
impression of
the new terminal
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The
decision by Stephen
Byers to give
the go ahead
to a fifth terminal
at Heathrow will
blight the lives
of 1 million
people in London
and the South
East living under
the Heathrow
flight path Wandsworth
Council leader
Edward Lister
has warned.
Today's
announcement
is also a snub
for last month's
European Court
of Human Rights
ruling on night
flights, which
found that the
UK Government
was wrong to
have put economic
arguments ahead
of environmental
considerations.
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Cllr.
Lister said the minister was
taking a huge gamble in choosing
to bring in yet more flights
over the most densely populated
part of the country and added:
"Last
week the French chose to site
their new Paris airport 80 miles
north of the capital at Cheaulnes.
Yet we go on adding more and
more capacity to an already
overstretched airport in a city
with the most overcrowded skies
in Europe."
He
criticised the proximity of
the decision to September 11th
saying the Minister should have
paused to allow time for the
security and safety issues to
be properly examined.
The
Minister also revealed that
the situation on night flights
would only be reviewed in 2003
when the present contracts expire.
This disappointed campaigners
who were hoping for a commitment
to implement the Strasbourg
court's ruling. There was also
no commitment in the report
not to build a third runway
at Heathrow which had been expected
in some quarters.
Mike
Hodgkinson, BAA's Chief Executive,
said that the decision was good
news for the economy and "the
local community which has won
sensible safeguards. The approval
of Terminal 5 was conditional
on the number of flights annually
being limited to 480,000 and
the number of extra passengers
is not to exceed 25 million.
In addition there are new restrictions
on noise levels. A spokesman
for HACAN the residents group
campaigning against aircraft
noise pointed out that previous
commitments to limit air traffic
levels at Heathrow have been
breached. BAA told the T5 inquiry
in 1994 that flight numbers
at Heathrow would only have
risen to 473,000 a year by 2013.
This level has almost been reached
already with total numbers last
year running at 466,000 flights.
Cllr
Lister said that the Council
would continue to demand cast
iron guarantees on three remaining
issues:
- an
early end to all night
flights
- no
third runway
- no
parallel operations for
the north and south runways
He
added that the local authorites
in London opposed to the new
terminal have not yet reached
a decision on whether or not
to challenge the ruling.
BAA
say the fifth terminal will
increase capacity at Heathrow
to 80 million passengers a year
although local authorities believe
the real figure could top 100
million. The inspector has now
put this at 90 million. The
airport is already running at
64 million passengers (compared
to a nominal capacity of 54
million).
Aircraft
noise affects many thousands
of local residents in Battersea,
Wandsworth and Putney. The council
is part of an-all party group
of local authorities in London
and the South East opposed to
any further expansion of Heathrow
on environmental grounds.
Wandsworth
helped to raise more than £50,000
from other councils towards
the legal costs of the eight
west London residents who brought
the night flights case to Strasbourg.
The
building of Terminal 5 will
affect all residents within
SW15. Do you wish to voice you
opinion? Contact the forum
or write to the editor
Tony
Colman MP - gives us his
reaction to the decision.
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