Survey of candidates shows all other parties opposed
The Labour Party has become isolated in its support for a third runway at Heathrow. In a survey of candidates standing in the European Elections on June 4th, only Labour candidates refused to condemn the proposals to build a new runway. The campaign group HACAN wrote to all the leading candidates standing in the both the London and South East constituencies to ask their views on Heathrow expansion. No Labour candidate responded but the representatives of all the other political parties said they were opposed to the plans for a third runway (1).
HACAN Chair John Stewart said, “The silence from the Labour candidates has been deafening. We know there are many individual members of the Labour Party who oppose Heathrow expansion but this survey confirms just how isolated the Government is on the issue.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
(1). A selection of quotes from candidates below:
Conservatives Charles Tannoch MEP, standing for the Conservatives in London, emphasised the importance of high-speed rail as an alternative to expansion and said; “I oppose both as a resident and as a London MEP Heathrow expansion plans.”
His colleague Richard Ashworth MEP, standing in the South East, said: “The Conservative Party official policy is to oppose the construction of a third runway at Heathrow. I fully support this policy.”
Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrat London MEP Sarah Ludford said “Along with my Liberal Democrat colleagues at Westminster, in the London Assembly and in the European Parliament I am strongly committed to continue the Liberal Democrat campaign to stop a third runway at Heathrow. I have personally been an outspoken opponent of Heathrow expansion for the decade that I have been an MEP.”
Greens Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas MEP, standing for re-election in the South East, said, “I am completely opposed to the proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow and am campaigning to put the brakes on all airport expansion, because it is massively incompatible with the need to significantly reduce greenhouse gases by 2020.”
Her colleague, Jean Lambert, the Green MEP for London said, “I do not support the third runway because I believe it is bad for the environment, bad for health, bad for education and because the economic case is not made.”
UKIP Nigel Farage MEP, the UKIP Leader, standing for re-election in the South East, said, “I remain unconvinced that a third runway is necessary for any economic reason and from a social perspective it is highly undesirable.”
FTF Comment: Labour have also chose to ignore the excessive negative effects of expansion at London City Airport on the communities of south and east London. Mary Honeyball MEP has refused to answer our questions on London City Airport.
Vote for an MEP who listens to you and your concerns about your community!
HAVERING Council has been accused of deliberately stifling criticism of controversial flightpaths over the borough.
Residents at the Hornchurch Area Committee meeting held at Langtons Junior School last Tuesday, April 7, were furious that the council twice delayed debate on proposals for increased aircraft flights over Hornchurch.
Under a proposal made by the National Air Transport Service, two flight paths from London City Airport would be re-directed over Hornchurch.
Coupled with the airport's plan to increase flights by 50-per-cent, this could spell a daily increase of 40 flights per day crossing the borough.
Yet when Havering Council had the chance to voice an opinion on these proposals, which many residents fear will create added noise and pollution, it did not respond to consultations, or invite residents to comment, the meeting heard.
Labour Leader Cllr Keith Darvill planned to raise a critical motion on the administration's inaction at a full council meeting in early February. But he never got the chance as the meeting was cut short because of snow.
He was stopped from raising the issue at the last council meeting in March, when yet again, it ran out of time.
Cllr Darvill will now have to wait until the end of July - six months after he first planned to raise the issue.
Hornchurch residents slammed the delay at the area committee meeting, with one saying: "I was at that council meeting and it's pretty obvious that the administration deliberately tried to fiddle it so that this hasn't been heard.
"They don't want to debate it, they just want a vote where they can steamroll it."
Cllr John Mylod said: "It was up for debate on two accounts and it was talked out. Instead, they dealt with silly things they probably shouldn't have."
Cllr Keith Darvill said he wanted the motion to be debated, rather than simply voted on. He said: "There was a delay on debate because of a long discussion on members' allowances, and then the Ombudsman report on Mark Cannon."
Leader of the Council, Cllr Michael White said later: "I have become increasingly aware of residents' concerns about the planned changes to flight paths and we will contribute to the NATs consultation on the flight paths."
"All motions are placed on the agenda after general business, voting, reports, questions and other business are debated. Unfortunately we didn't get time to debate this motion but it is listed as the first motion for the next time and I look forward to the debate.
So the latest hole that the ruling party in Newhamgrad is trying to dig themselves out of is the one concerning their 'new' candidate in the Royal Docks: Steve Brayshaw.
It's funny as not so long ago we were copied into an irate letter from a local resident to Steve Brayshaw, in response to one of the spun up 'we love and have done so much for the Royal Docks' election leaflets. Labour have in fact done nothing for royal docks residents in terms of protecting them from more pollution - apart from Alec Kelleway who supported the airport, but then he also has more than £25,000 shares in WPP who owned Hill and Knowlton the PR company temporarily hired by LCA to 'push through' the expansion.
Not one other labour councillor showed any concern regarding the air and noise pollution levels, nor the failure of LCA to actually measure regularly for 8 years...they didn't want to listen to the evidence that childrens development is harmed by excessive aircraft noise either - despite Ofsted having identified nearly every school in the area having an above average level of children with learning difficulties.
Why was the resident so irate with Steve? Because in all the Labour bumpf Steve seemed to have suffered a severe case of amnesia - there was no mention of London City Airport at all! How strange, and FTF could hardly believe it, but we are innocent and naive souls here, always trying to see the best in people whatever they do.
Steve Brayshaw was in fact a strong objector to London City Airport's expansion at one point and he was in fairly regular contact with FTF and other objectors. He was active on this issue in an individual role, and indeed even turned up at Stratford Town Hall last summer to object to the 50% expansion plans. Steve was so concerned at the 8 years of lack of reliable noise and air data readings at the airport that he even wrote to DEFRA asking them about the data. Here's Steve's view on London City Airport Just 12 months ago in the Docklands 24 Paper. Strange what wanting to become a Labour candidate does to you.
“A call has been made for the application to expand LondonCityAirport to go to a public inquiry. Would you like your say on the plans?”
"LondonCityAirport should go to public enquiry. The airport measures noise over time so it can average out noisy planes with the silence in between. That's not the way my ears work. The planes are noisy and more planes equals more noise. With crossrail being given approval the entire remit for the airport should be considered not expansion.”
But now it seems, that he isn't worried about noise and air pollution anymore, nor the schoolchildren (shame on you, and we hope you can sleep at night) nor is he doubting the jobs claims! Apparently he is now claiming he's changed his mind (yeah right!) because of the 'jobs'. We are assuming he is not referring to the redundancies? And just how many directly employed airport jobs is he referring to have gone to residents in the Royal Docks in the past 20 years? He doesn't even know.
It seems to us that Steve Brayshaw traded in his concern for the well being of the community for becoming a labour candidate - kerching. Another one on the gravy train...isn't it just great that a candidate can forget all the harmful effects of the airport on the community, and the missing and flawed data with just a few months of spin?
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Today's Report on the Romford Recorder
