London town hall chiefs criticised a Lancashire MP today for backing a third runway at Heathrow while opposing the go-ahead for fracking in his area.
Lord True, leader of Richmond council, Wandsworth’s leader Ravi Govindia and Hillingdon’s leader Ray Puddifoot criticised Fylde MP Mark Menzies.
The three Tory council leaders highlighted that last year he backed campaigners seeking to stop fracking in the village of Little Plumpton in his constituency. They also said he was well-known for promoting localism.
“For our part, we will not mount a campaign to advance the interests of fracking in Little Plumpton,” they said on the ConservativeHome website.
But they also added: “If anyone thinks Conservatives in west London are prepared to accept Heathrow as the best answer to providing much-needed expansion in the South-East, then we have a message for them on behalf of our constituents.
“You’re fracking joking.”
Mr Menzies brushed off their criticism and repeated his support for another runway at Heathrow, saying: “Let’s get on and build it.”
The Conservative MP dismissed as “ludicrous” the comparison between his stance on shale gas and expansion of the west London airport.
“The vast majority of people who live near Heathrow have actively decided to live under the airspace of one of the world’s busiest international airports,” he argued. “In stark contrast, the prospect of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in rural parts of Fylde is not only new to local residents but entirely new to the whole of the UK.”
The three council chiefs said the MP’s comments backing a bigger Heathrow were not likely to be “exceptional views 250 miles north of west London”.
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They added: “It’s easy to see a consensus if your electors are not amongst the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are already blighted by the noise, air pollution, traffic and environmental degradation that is Heathrow. And that’s before expansion.”
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