Government decides on new runway at Heathrow: CPRE's reaction
Campaign to Protect Rural England
The Government has today announced that it supports the construction of a new runway at Heathrow Airport.
Ralph Smyth, Head of Infrastructure and Legal at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, comments:
“Building a third runway at Heathrow would in itself take a huge chunk out of the Green Belt. But creating the biggest airport in the world on London's western edge would have an even more disastrous impact. Pressure for extra development would be felt in almost every village from the north of Oxfordshire to the south coast, urbanising and industrialising swathes of our most precious countryside.
“The north-south divide has been increasing: by giving the go ahead to yet another runway in the south the Prime Minister has effectively pulled the rug on her own flagship policy of rebalancing our nation's economy.
“It’s madness to be promoting domestic flights at the same time as investing in alternatives like high speed rail.”
