City Airport’s expansion is a green light to increased misery for many more Londoners – Caroline Pidgeon

CONTACT: Mark Morris, Senior Press Officer GLA Liberal Democrats, 020 7983 4336/ 07917214788

Immediate release: 20 January 2011

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on today’s Judicial Review decision upholding Newham Council’s decision to significantly expand London City Airport said:

"Many people in east and south east London are already facing serious problems with noise and disturbance from air flights. Today's decision provides the green light to increased misery for many more Londoners.

“I remain convinced that greater scrutiny should have been given to the initial planning decision by Newham Council. Questions also remain as to why Greenwich Council never objected to the planning decision despite the serious impact that the airport is already having on so many of its residents.

"Most significantly this decision sends out the message that the economic benefits of aviation are still being exaggerated while its environmental harm is largely overlooked."

ENDS

Press Release: DISMAY AS JUDGE ALLOWS NEWHAM’S GREEN LIGHT TO LONDON CITY AIRPORT EXPANSION

Friends of the Earth press release :

Embargo: For immediate release, Thursday, 20 January 2011

Contact: Neil Verlander, Friends of the Earth press office, 0207 566 1649

Anne-Marie Griffin, Chair of Fight the Flights: Tel: 07984 300558

Local people and green campaigners reacted with disappointment today after a High Court judge refused to overturn Newham Council’s decision to expand London City Airport. Campaigners are now considering an appeal.

Residents, represented by Friends of the Earth’s Rights and Justice Centre, took the council to court in November last year after it decided to allow a 50 per cent increase in flights. The community representatives argued that Newham Council failed to consider changes to Government policy on climate change and did not properly consult boroughs and residents in the surrounding area.

Reacting to the decision, Chair of local campaign group Fight the Flights Anne-Marie Griffin said:

“We are desperately disappointed by this judgement.

“London City Airport already causes major disturbance and pollution for people living locally – the disappointment we feel at this outcome will be shared by thousands of residents across East London who are severely affected by London City Airport’s operations but were not consulted about expansion.

“Without clear guidelines to local councils on aviation expansion, the emissions targets set have no hope of being met.

“Fight the Flights is currently taking legal advice as to whether to appeal.”

Friends of the Earth’s London Campaigner Jenny Bates said:

“Airport expansion will have a terrible impact on local people’s quality of life, as well as increase air pollution breaches and undermine efforts to tackle climate change.

“Many of the destinations served by London City Airport could easily be reached by fast rail travel.

“If this Government wants to keep its pledge to be the greenest ever it must develop a transport strategy which encourages people to use greener forms of transport over climate-wrecking flights.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. The High Court hearing took place on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 November 2010 at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in London.

2. Newham Council's decision to expand London City Airport by 50 per cent will increase flights from the airport from 73,000 to 120,000 a year. The decision was made in October 2008, after which Friends of the Earth's Rights and Justice Centre submitted a number of letters on behalf of Fight The Flights to Newham council in protest, raising the issues of climate change, air quality and race equality.

3. On 15 January 2009 the Government announced its intention to reduce aviation emissions to below 2005 levels by 2050. Newham Council issued a formal grant of planning permission at a meeting on 8 July 2009 without taking into account the Government's target in their decision-making.

4. Fight the Flights: http://www.fighttheflights.com/

5. Friends of the Earth's Rights and Justice Centre provides access to legal advice and representation to people wishing to use the law to protect their communities and the environment. The Centre operates a free legal advice line for members of the public on 0808 801 0405 (open between 6.30-8.30 pm on alternate Wednesdays).

6. Friends of the Earth believes the environment is for everyone. We want a healthy planet and a good quality of life for all those who live on it. We inspire people to act together for a thriving environment. More than 90 per cent of our income comes from individuals so we rely on donations to continue our vital work. For further information visit www.foe.co.uk.

FOE Press Release: Third runway plans for Heathrow scrapped

Third runway plans for Heathrow scrapped

12 May 2010

Commenting on the scrapping of airport expansion plans at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

"We're delighted that the new government has scrapped plans to expand UK airports - this is an encouraging sign that the coalition takes cutting aviation emissions seriously. They must now rule out expansion at regional airports too.

"We need a new aviation strategy which makes carbon reduction a priority and goes at least as far as Labour's target to limit aviation emissions to 2005 levels by 2050.

"Proposals to reform Air Passenger Duty are good news and will encourage airlines to use their planes more efficiently. But much of our emissions comes from flying goods around - so the new tax must cover freight flights too."

If you are a journalist seeking press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

__________________________________

FTF are proud to work with Friends of the Earth 

CAMPAIGN GROUP TAKES COUNCIL TO COURT OVER EXPANSION OF LONDON CITY AIRPORT

Friends of the Earth press release

Newham council is being taken to court today [28 September 2009] by local residents over its decision to allow a 50 per cent increase in flights at London City Airport without considering changes to Government policy on climate change or consulting local people.

Fight The Flights, a community group represented by lawyers at Friends of the Earth’s Rights & Justice Centre, says that before approving the airport’s expansion in July this year, the council should have considered the Government’s intention to reduce aviation emissions to below 2005 levels by 2050 – part of its effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Climate Change Act.

Fight The Flights said Newham council had also failed to consult neighbouring boroughs such as Waltham Forest, even though they will be significantly affected as a result of changes to flight paths since July.

Fight The Flights’ Anne-Marie Griffin said:

“Increasing flights at London City Airport is completely wrong – it will bump up carbon emissions and add to the misery of local people who are already suffering from poor air quality and noise disturbance. There are much better ways to bring jobs to this area.

“We appeal to members of the public who care about the environment and about our community to help us fight this decision by donating to help fund our legal challenge.”

Friends of the Earth’s Head of Legal Phil Michaels said:

“The decision to expand London City Airport is ludicrous and should be reversed – to tackle climate change we urgently need to curb flights, not increase them.

“This legal challenge aims to give both the planet and local people a voice in this sort of decision.

“Councils have a vital role to play in delivering the emissions cuts science tells us are needed – instead of supporting airport expansion Mayor Boris Johnson should be helping London boroughs boost their local economies in ways that will benefit both people and the environment.

“If the Government is serious about tackling climate change it must drop all its plans to expand British airports and concentrate on making low-carbon alternatives to flying – such as fast rail services and teleconferencing – an attractive and affordable option.”

Newham’s decision to expand the airport will increase flights from the airport from 73,000 to 120,000 a year. Fight The Flights is appealing to the public to help fund its legal challenge against the council by pledging donations via post and its website. The group will also be protesting at London City Airport tomorrow [29 September 2009], as the first of British Airways’ new twice-daily transatlantic business flights leave LCA for New York – also criticised by Friends of the Earth on climate grounds.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The decision to increase flights at London City Airport by 50 per cent was initially made in October 2008. Friends of the Earth’s Rights and Justice Centre submitted a number of letters to Newham council in protest, raising the issues of climate change, air quality and race equality. On 15 January 2009 the Government announced its intention to reduce aviation emissions to below 2005 levels by 2050. Newham council decided to proceed with expansion anyway, reconfirming their decision at a planning meeting on 8 July 2009 and issuing formal grant of approval. The council responded to Friends of the Earth’s letters in a report, saying despite the various issues raised, they would still proceed with expansion. http://mgov.newham.gov.uk/Published/C00000398/M00006654/AI00025265/ITEMONE.pdf

Fight The Flights has a blog at http://londoncityairportfighttheflights.blogspot.com/. To raise funds for the legal challenge they are asking members of the public to donate money. Cheques and correspondence should be sent to Fight The Flights Coalition, PO Box 64858, London SE28 9AQ. To pay by Paypal and for more information see http://londoncityairportfighttheflights.blogspot.com/2009/09/justice-donate-to-legal-challenge.html. Details of the group’s demonstration tomorrow against British Airways new business flights can be found at http://londoncityairportfighttheflights.blogspot.com/2009/09/tommorrow.html

Friends of the Earth’s reaction to the new twice daily 32-seater business flights from London City Airport to New York is available at
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/london_city_airport_business_flights_28092009.html

Friends of the Earth’s Rights & Justice Centre provides access to legal advice and representation to people wishing to use the law to protect their communities and the environment. The Centre operates a free legal advice line for members of the public on 0808 801 0405 (open between 6.30-8.30 pm on Wednesday and 11-2pm on Thursday). Further information at http://community.foe.co.uk/campaigns/rights/about_rights.html

Friends of the Earth believes the environment is for everyone. We want a healthy planet and a good quality of life for all those who live on it. We inspire people to act together for a thriving environment. For further information visit http://www.foe.co.uk/.

Fight The Flights At The Houses Of Parliament

FTF were recently invited to speak on the platform at an event in the Houses of Parliament, organised by Friends of The Earth , and hosted by Paul Truswell MP on the proposed new 'Planning Bill'. We were honoured to be asked, and to stand alongside other successful campaigners from the local communities.

It gave us the opportunity to tell MPs our experience of the failings in London City Airports application - which required consistent objections and requests for clarification and further information - all of which happened to be on the bits that the airport wanted to bury as they were negative. To be able to object and technically challenge is crucial - RPS, Bickerdike Allan Partner and LCA all have their own agendas - to make money. Not too much else matters to them - and that is why the communities voice is so important and the current proposed Planning Bill is bad news for communities.

For those of you not familiar with the proposed bill, it would essentially move all MAJOR applications away from local councils and into the hands of an unelected board of individuals.

It will:

1. remove the meaningful right for communities to participate in decisions about where they live
2. not take account of climate change

As we all know the current system is not perfect, it relies upon an efficient and fair council that is objective and not biased or autocratic. Newham Council clearly does not fall into such a description, however communities do at least get a chance to represent their concerns, even if Newham don't listen to them and ignore requirements. Hazel Blears however is even misguided enough to support that developers carry out their own consultations in this new bill - can you imagine the advertisement which masquerades as a consultation, that London City Airport would carry out? Probably the same one they have already carried out with their 'partners' LB Newham. Statements made by Richard Gooding the CEO of LCA such as 'there will be no increase in noise levels' would be even more commonplace than they have been in such a system. But this time it would be endorsed by a ridiculous piece of legislation which is the biggest threat to democracy since post war. Public inquiries would no longer be available communities.

Still that is the way LB Newham seems to like it - either remove funding from groups that don't play their game, or ostracise anyone who dares to object or criticise the council, or its Mayor. They call that totalitarianism don't they?

Hazel Blears wants this new planning bill - she says to speed things up and refers to residents as 'minnows' and the developers as 'sharks' to justify removing the democratic rights of residents to have a say about their communities . She might be right about the business/developer 'sharks' but she is completely out of touch in referring to residents in communities as 'minnows'. She should have realised that when she sees the growing group of aviation anti expansion campaigners and direct action campaigners. Minnows they are not.

The way to speed planning up is to ensure that developers such as London City Airport submit decent, accurate and detailed applications in the first place. They did not, and even on approval they had not. That developers choose to overlook the negative impacts of their plans slows the process down, it is the applicants that Blears should be looking to if she wants to speed up the process.

Blears wants to stop you asking questions but do you trust an unelected board to put you and your community above the requests of the sharks? We say no.