The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) [1] condemns today’s (Thursday) Government decision in favour of expansion at Heathrow.

‘This decision makes a mockery of Ministers’ justification of recent controversial planning reforms, which they suggested would improve local democracy and help tackle climate change,’ [2] said Andrea Davies, CPRE’s senior campaigner.

Later this year, the Department for Transport is expected to issue a draft National Policy Statement on aviation. When Ministers passed the Planning Bill last year, they promised a real ‘national debate’ on aviation policy. The third runway announcement pre-empts this debate.

Improved rail links to Heathrow hardly sweeten the pill of airport expansion.

Andrea Davies concluded:

‘Today’s approval of the third runway makes the new national debate on aviation redundant.’

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen. www.cpre.org.uk

2. The Planning Act 2008, which became law in November, sets out a new planning process for ‘nationally significant’ infrastructure projects, of which the expansion of Heathrow is one. The need for such projects will be identified in National Policy Statements, with decisions on projects in specific locations being made by a new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). During the passage of the Act through Parliament, the Minister for Planning, Baroness Andrews, stated that ‘We are not in the business of having just token consultation on the national policy statements. This will be a national debate about infrastructure that will serve the purposes of our communities for many years to come, and it must be seen to be real…we want the most fertile and the loudest public debate possible on national policy statements.’ (Baroness Andrews, House of Lords Hansard, 14 October 2008). Baroness Andrews also stated that National Policy Statements would be produced in line with the Government’s Code of Practice on Consultation. The first principle of the Code is that proposals should be consulted on when there is ‘scope to influence the outcome’. On 5 November 2008, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears MP, wrote that the Planning Act (at that point still a Bill)  ‘…significantly puts tackling climate change on its face…For those who want a more democratic system and a low carbon economy, it's not the problem - it's the solution.’ (www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2008/nov/05/planning-bill-blears, accessed 14 January 2009).