Heathrow and Gatwick: MP calls for David Cameron to speed up airport inquiry

 
p41 HEATHROW AIRPORT / Aircraft queuing to take-off from London's Heathrow airport. Options for a major expansion of Britain's airports were being published Tuesday July 23, 2002 in a consultation documents being released by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling. Suggestions may include a third runway at Heathrow airport in west London, one or possibly two more runways at Stansted in Essex, or a new airport near the River Thames at Cliffe in north Kent. Elsewhere, regional airports such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Southampton and Luton might be expanded. See PA story AIR Expansion. PA Photo: Tim Ockenden....A...Heathrow Airport, London...UK
PA
19 November 2012
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A Senior Tory MP today joined growing calls for David Cameron to speed up an inquiry into expanding Britain’s airports.

Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, said the probe by former London School of Economics boss Sir Howard Davies, should report before the 2015 election.

“It is time to get real on airports policy,” the Tory MP, who rarely intervenes publicly in controversial debates, told the ConservativeHome website.

“We need to move the debate on from pie-in-the-sky ideas to sensible and achievable solutions.

“None of the options is easy but it is the job of Government to take difficult decisions in the long-term interest of the country. On this basis, we need the Airports Commission to report sooner than 2015.”

The MP for Altrincham and Sale West backed more flights from regional airports but does not believe that this is a solution to the airport capacity problems in the South East.

He wants all options to be considered by Sir Howard for developing a world-class hub airport and appeared to favour expanding Heathrow.

He accepts there are challenges to a third runway at the west London airport, particularly noise.

But he added: “A combination of new technology and improved operating procedures could see the noise impact at Heathrow improve and additional mitigation measures like insulation and double-glazing could also help.”

He stressed that proposals for a “Boris island” airport in the Thames Estuary were “superficially appealing” but faced “major challenges” including the costs and timescale.

Linking Gatwick and Heathrow with a £5 billion high speed rail link to create a “Heathwick” virtual hub was a “red herring in this debate”.

London Mayor Boris Johnson and a growing number of Conservative MPs, including several representing constituencies in the west of the capital, are now calling for the Davies’ report to be published before the election.

Some of them believe it will rule out expanding Heathrow, while others think it is at least better to be upfront with voters about the party’s stance on airport expansion rather than waiting until after the election.

The Department for Transport has stressed that Sir Howard will publish an interim report next year, which will include a shortlist of expansion options, and that the heated debate on more runways showed why as much political consenus as possible was needed on this issue to make progress.

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