When Will Heathrow Expansion Zealots Give Up?

Cllr Gary Malcolm says now is the time to accept airport should stay as it is

Southfield ward councillor Gary Malcolm

I am fed up with biased pro-expansion Heathrow consultation after another biased pro-expansion Heathrow consultation, over the past few years.

The recent Court of Appeal ruling, now being appealed, deemed the expansion plans were unlawful because it would stop the country meeting its climate change targets.

The coronavirus has clearly left many airports and travel companies reeling but when things get back to normal I think the normal will be less travel abroad due to price rises as there will be fewer companies still around to compete with each other.

There were too many airlines who offered flights at too cheap a price and so drove themselves to the edge when fuel costs rose, and that was before the coronavirus outbreak.

There will be many more people unemployed and more families will spend money not on luxuries like international travel but food and household bills. Some people are actively now choosing holidays based up on the impact of their energy footprint and so turning away from trips where flights are required. This is despite flights not being taxed in the way other heavy polluting travel modes are. Even with this advantage they will still struggle for many years to come.

Liberal Democrats of Chiswick and many other areas of West London know that we would suffer a large amount of noise if Heathrow were ever expanded. Many of us would not have an adequate sleep or work life in the daytime if we worked from home as many do now during lockdown.

I prefer an airport model where no new airports are created but all UK airports act as hubs rather than everything being pushed through London airports.

Liberal Democrats have consistently been against Heathrow expansion at a local, regional and national level. In fact we are the only main party that can say that.

Every few years, after knockbacks, the pro expansion lobby groups attempt to create new reasons to expand flights from Heathrow. There is no reason to do this and the coronavirus has hopefully dealt a blow to any expansion aims.

Let us keep the air in Chiswick and West London cleaner than every allowing more flights to come and go from Heathrow.

Councillor Gary Malcolm,
Liberal Democrat, Southfield Ward

May 10, 2020