Residents For Uttlesford is disappointed that the Secretary of State has refused a Public Inquiry into the Stansted Airport expansion after what it says was a ‘faulty’ approval, and that it has committed to striking a ‘fairer deal’ with the airport.
In 2018 Stansted Airport secured planning approval from Uttlesford District Council to significantly expand airport capacity to the same size as Gatwick. Last week the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government wrote to UDC inform them that he did not intend to undertake a Public Inquiry on the expansion.
Residents for Uttlesford said “R4U has written to the Secretary of State a number of times about the expansion of Stansted Airport. It is disappointing that he has refused local communities a Public Inquiry as happened with the 3rd runway at Heathrow. This is just another example of Westminster politics not working for local people.”
“We believe that the expansion decision was faulty and politically pushed through by the UDC leadership without the required evidence. UDC has not been able to even answer any of the most basic questions on the environmental and other impacts. The UDC leadership has also failed to secure the estimated £1.2 billon of road and rail upgrades from the airport required to support the approved expansion to the size of Gatwick. That is not right. They have cheated residents out of what we need to reduce the impacts of what will be a huge airport in our countryside. We are calling on the district council not to ink the final approval until they agree a better deal.”
“If the current Conservative UDC Leadership won’t do it, we will. If we are elected to run UDC after the May local elections, R4U has committed to striking a fairer deal with the airport to balance employment with their responsibility to deal with dirty air, noise, road and rail congestion, and village fly-parking. They need to limit antisocial night flights and invest more in our local infrastructure, transport and economy.”