Glenda in Wonderland over Heathrow

Hampstead’s MP Glenda Jackson recently wrote in the Ham&High that “the economic future of the UK does require an international hub airport and without an additional runway, Heathrow could not maintain its present position and would inevitably lose its status and market share, bringing with it not only unemployment for the airport and its environs, but the country as a whole.” If that was a line in one of her films, the film would be called “Glenda in Wonderland.”

There is no reputable independent study that shows that Britain’s economy needs Heathrow expansion – only propaganda by the British Airports Authority (BAA) and the Labour government. The 2M Group of local authorities, which represents more than four million people living in the south east including Camden residents, argues that nobody has ever proved the economic case for a third runway. Prof. Paul Ekins of Kings College London has shown that the government rigged the price of carbon in their study on the benefits of Heathrow expansion. The Campaign for Better Transport says it would be much more sensible to put public money into railways and video conferencing technology.

What has been proved is that a third runway will create far more noise, far more pollution and enough extra carbon emissions to destroy any chance of the UK hitting its target of 80% emissions cuts by 2050.

There will be 240,000 more flights by 2020 as a result of the third runway. According to the 2M Group there will 50% more flights over Camden, including planes over Hampstead Heath and Regent’s Park for the first time. We are already breaking the EU air quality rules on nitrogen dioxide emissions at Heathrow. A third runway will inevitably increase those noxious emissions according to both the Environment Agency and the EU’s Environment Commissioner.

Ms Jackson says aviation only makes up 0.4 per cent of our emissions total, a figure she has must have plucked out of the rarefied air she breathes where she lives on the other side of London in Blackheath far from both Hampstead and Heathrow. According to the highly respected Tyndale Centre for Climate Change, aviation currently produces around 41m tonnes of CO2 in the UK, accounting for approximately 7% of the country's emissions. But that’s only part of the problem - you have to multiply the total by 2.7 because the vapour trails emitted by jets act as a greenhouse gas.

Furthermore aviation is the fastest growing sector of our economy in terms of emissions. The Tyndale Centre estimates that the third runway will account for 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions target by 2050, and that, if current trends continue, aviation will account for more than 100% of our permissible emissions by 2050

Our MP is flying in cloud cuckoo land if she thinks BAA will be held to noise, pollution and emissions agreements. When Terminal Five was built they agreed to a cap on flights, but that went out of the window within a couple of years with the cooperation of Ms Jackson’s Labour government.

The Tory candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn recently wrote to me to say that only the election of a Conservative government would guarantee the cancellation of Heathrow expansion. But the Tory backbenches in Parliament are awash with discontent over David Cameron’s “no 3rd runway” policy. And the most important elected Tory in the country– London Mayor, Boris Johnson – wants to build a whopping great new airport in the Thames Estuary. They don’t know their wings from their cockpit.

Greenpeace is taking direct action by buying up the fields where the new runway is supposed go and then dividing up the land into tiny plots so that BAA will have to negotiate with thousands of landowners. I’ve signed up for my plot. I’m planning to grow rotten tomatoes that I can throw at ministers, Glenda and BAA bulldozers. If you’re as concerned about Heathrow expansion as I am, then go to the Greenpeace website (www.greenpeace.org.uk) and join their Airplot campaign.

Can we stop the third runway? YES, WE CAN!