A campaign group has held a rally against London Gatwick airport’s £2.2 billion Northern Runway plans. The plans, which will see 100,000 more flights at Gatwick, creating around 14,000 jobs and and inject £1 billion into the region's economy every year.
The plans have been opposed by campaign groups, including Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), who say they will launch legal challenges against the Government’s decision.
We caught up with GACC vice-chair Jonathan Essex and Cllr Victoria Chester, whose Horley East & Salfords ward is next to the airport.
The plans have been opposed by campaign groups, including Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), who say they will launch legal challenges against the Government’s decision.
We caught up with GACC vice-chair Jonathan Essex and Cllr Victoria Chester, whose Horley East & Salfords ward is next to the airport.
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00:00Hi, I'm Victoria Chester, I'm a local councillor here in Hawley for Hawley's and Salford's
00:13ward. I'm a town and a borough councillor. So this is Riverside Garden Park, it's a beautiful
00:19little patch of green here, one of the few green spaces in Hawley. It's very popular
00:23in residents, it's really good for nature, nature walks, it was a walk haven during the
00:28pandemic. As you can hear it's already very close to high levels of traffic and you can
00:34hear the airport noise very clearly. The expansion will cut off a large tranche of the park and
00:41remove the tree line protecting the park from the noise of the road. So it's going to massively
00:47impact on this area which is very precious to Hawley residents. And obviously tomorrow
00:51we're expecting the decision on Gatwick's Northern Runway plans. Last night we heard
00:56Heidi Alexander's comments which sort of signalled that it looks like they're going
01:01to be giving the green light to the plans. What are your thoughts on what she said? I
01:05just find it highly disrespectful that politicians of her supposed calibre use terms like eco-warrior
01:12to describe people who are basically trying to take into consideration the results of
01:19the work by such organisations as the Climate Change Committee. People who are trying to
01:25take into consideration the concerns of local people as well as the wider concerns of climate
01:29change. I think using terminology like that is not only disingenuous, it's actually irresponsible.
01:35It's taking up that divisive approach that people have, you know, green versus economy
01:41which is total nonsense as she well knows. Green economies are the way forward. Dealing
01:46with, focusing on economies that are primarily around fossil fuels is a dead end. There's
01:54plenty, plenty of jobs and growth to be found through a raft of green and sustainable based
02:00economies and industries. To talk about eco-warriors at a time when we should be focusing desperately
02:06on how we can make things better here climate-wise is just, well, it's disgraceful I think.
02:12And obviously if it does get given the go-ahead tomorrow to the plans, what are the next steps
02:16for you and for campaign groups like Gatwick, oh Gat, sorry, and what does it mean for your
02:23residents in Hawley and your constituents? Well the next steps will be to obviously read
02:27what the planning secretary says and depending on what conditions they put in place we will
02:33then consider our next steps, one of which may be to challenge it further through the
02:38courts. This is something that we have been working on and fighting against for a long
02:44time and we're not going to give up easily. My main concern as a resident of Hawley is
02:49that the people here have been hoodwinked into thinking this is a good thing. They've
02:53been promised jobs and economic growth when most of that is based on just made up statistics.
02:59They're going to see an awful lot of negative impacts here locally in the short and longer
03:05term and the benefits that are promised really aren't going to materialise so I feel it's
03:10my role, it's part of my role here as a local councillor to make people aware of that, the
03:14truth of the fact and stand up for their rights.
03:20Hi, my name's Jonathan Essex and I'm Vice-Chair of the Gatwick Area Consolation Campaign.
03:26So today, which is the day before the decision on whether Gatwick expansion takes place,
03:32today the UK's independent Climate Change Committee, an independent body connected to
03:38the government, produced its study to say what the government should do to reduce emissions
03:45down for the period from 2038 to 2042, which is exactly the time when this new runway is
03:52being developed for, if you like, and what they said is that we should really push back
03:58aviation expansion and there's really no need for any new aviation capacity in the next
04:04decade. We should instead wait for these so-called sustainable aviation fuels to prove their
04:10worth and then if they do come forward, if they are successful, then that will be the
04:16time to grow aviation later.
04:18Given Heidi Alexander's comments we heard last night, it looks like that the plans will
04:24be given the go-ahead. What's the next steps for your campaign if it is given the green
04:29light tomorrow?
04:30Well, if that political decision is dangerous and irresponsible in the way that Heidi Alexander
04:37was suggesting it might be yesterday, then I really think we should take a hard look
04:43at the decision and Heidi Alexander should expect a legal challenge or two coming her
04:49way.
04:50And how can people get involved with your campaign if they feel so strongly about the
04:55decision tomorrow?
04:56So we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign on the Crowd Justice website. Actually it's
05:05being launched today so it's now going live. People would like to donate and we're asking
05:09people to support us to take this to the first step to see if it can be heard at the courts.
05:15We want to raise the amount of money for each step of the campaign as we go forward.