Supreme Court Gives Go Ahead To Third Runway
Anti-Heathrow expansion campaigners still doubt it will ever be built
CGI image of how extended airport might look
The Supreme Court has overruled a previous verdict that the Third Runway was in breach of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
In February 2020, the Appeal Court had ruled in favour of a group of local authorities, including Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham, and environmental campaign groups who were challenging the legality of the government’s support of expansion of Heathrow.
A new third runway was unanimously recommended by the Davies Commission in 2015 and the government enacted legislation to enable it but the court found that Chris Grayling, who was transport secretary at the time, had failed to take into account the commitments that the government had made on climate change in the meantime.
The government opted not to appeal against this decision but Heathrow Airport did and this Wednesday (16 December) the five Supreme Court justices ruled in its favour.
The case was determined by the ruling by the judges that the Minister was correct in using a temperature increase limit of 2C rather than the Paris Agreement aim of 1.5C in determining that the expansion did not breach the requirements of agreements on climate change.
Tim Crosland of Plan B, one of the groups defending the appeal said, “The government was right to accept the Court of Appeal’s verdict. The Supreme Court’s judgment, which has legitimised Mr Grayling’s use of the deadly 2C threshold, has betrayed us all.”
John Stewart, chair of HACAN, said, “Despite this verdict, there remain a real doubt about whether the third runway will ever see the light of day. Recovery is all that is on Heathrow’s mind right now. Flight numbers are down nearly 90%. The airport’s expansion team has long since been disbanded. A third runway remains no more than a distant and uncertain prospect.”
A Heathrow Spokesperson said, “Only by expanding the UK’s hub airport can we connect all of Britain to all of the growing markets of the world, helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in every nation and region of our country. Demand for aviation will recover from Covid, and the additional capacity at an expanded Heathrow will allow Britain as a sovereign nation to compete for trade and win against our rivals in France and Germany. Heathrow has already committed to net zero and this ruling recognises the robust planning process that will require us to prove expansion is compliant with the UK’s climate change obligations, including the Paris Climate Agreement, before construction can begin. “
If work on the project resumed immediately the earliest possible opening date for the new airport would be 2030.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
December 16, 2020