Submission to Department for Transport on Air Traffic Growth
November 25, 2002 12:00 AM
By Liz Lynne in Submission to Department for Transport
By Liz Lynne in Submission to Department for Transport
Summary
· Total and unequivocal opposition to proposals to build an airport between Rugby and Coventry.
· Opposition to a second runway at Birmingham International Airport.
· Support for measures to tackle the current under use of Birmingham International Airport.
· Support for high-speed rail link to connect West Midlands to channel tunnel.
· Support for UK to work with European partners for a tax on aviation fuel.
Main points
1. I disagree with the underlying assumption of the consultation document that air traffic will need to increase to between 400 and 600 million passengers per annum (from 180mppa). Aside from a personal scepticism about how viable these statistics really are, nowhere does the consultation document go into the huge environmental and social impact such an increase in air passenger growth would have. Neither does it explain where the fuel for such a large increase in air travel will come from. With the international consumption of oil already at unsustainable levels, as well as the current instability in several of the world's oil producing nations, this would appear to be overly optimistic.
2. I am also confused as to why some proposals, such as the one for an airport between Rugby and Coventry, have apparently come out of the blue, while others have been ruled out entirely. The underlying assumptions in this document over both the need for airport expansion and what options are available regrettably make this process less open than it could be.
3. I am totally opposed to the proposals to build a new airport between Rugby and Coventry. This proposal would devastate an unacceptably large amount of green belt land, cause years of road and rail disruption and in building over the River Avon, without major structural work, would significantly increase the risk of flooding across a wide area. I do not accept the costings in the document of £6.9bn as being remotely realistic, as they do not appear to include the significant costs of restructuring the entire local economy which has built up around Birmingham International Airport which will close under these proposals or the huge increase in road and rail demand. And it would increase pressure on an already overheated economy and vastly increase the pressure for digging up still further amounts of countryside to make way for hotel accommodation and industrial parks.
4. I am also opposed to the building of a second runway at Birmingham International Airport, although I am in favour of initiatives to tackle the current underuse of the site. Birmingham International is in one of the most built up areas of any UK airport and any expansion would include levelling an unacceptable amount of greenfield land and areas of natural beauty.
5. According to the consultation document, even according to its own predictions of air traffic growth, the region will be able to cope with demand until at least 2020. Given my scepticism about those figures, I believe that in reality, this will be manageable for much longer.
6. The government should take steps to curtail air traffic growth as much as possible. To achieve this, a "stick and carrot" approach must be adopted. Rail travel should be supported much more enthusiastically than currently. Phase Two of the West Coast Main Line should be completed and the region eventually needs a high-speed rail link to the Channel Tunnel in order to link the Midlands with continental Europe. This would significantly reduce demand for short haul flights.
7. Furthermore, the UK must work with its EU partners with a view to introducing taxation on aviation fuel. There has already been some work on this at EU level, and as an MEP I shall be pursuing this. This tax is important, not only to discourage unsustainable air traffic growth, but also to get the air travel industry to pay its true cost in terms of pollution and carbon emissions.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats