Third Heathrow runway to crash and burn?

Protests against the runway expansion plan

Heathrow's controversial scheme to construct a third runway has officially been put on hold by the BAA, who fear a Conservative victory at the next general election will see their plans blocked.

The Tory party has long opposed the proposed expansion and with them being the current favourites to lead the next government, it has been reported that senior BAA figures will cease their fight for the new runway.

Speaking to The Times, Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said, "Last week BAA conveyed to us at our party conference that it will not be submitting a planning application before the election."

At the conference, shadow transport minister Julian Brazier had said "We are absolutely firm on our opposition to expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. It will definitely be in the manifesto", essentially sealing the fate of the third runway proposal.

BAA have meanwhile said, "We remain convinced that a third runway is the only viable, costed and thought through way of meeting the need for extra runway capacity to maintain this country's global connections to the rest of the world, particularly in an era where long haul links to markets such as China and India are increasingly important.

"The process of putting in a planning application is complex, particularly given the new planning structure put in place as recently as 1 October. The process was always going to take until after the general election. We continue to work on the application and will take as long as is necessary to prepare a proper submission."

The third runway project was deemed to be a massive mistake by the Labour party, who pushed through the plan despite the opposition of Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, and Ed Miliband, the energy and climate secretary. Protests followed from environmental campaigners and residents who claimed the government was "sacrificing their green credentials to the aviation lobby."

The plan hit a very public obstacle when Greenpeace announced it had bought a plot of land on the site of the proposed runway, with the ownership split between thousands of its supporters. Those who said they would never sell their plots to the BAA included actress Emma Thompson and comedian Alistair McGowan.

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: