West End letters: BAA | third runway | Heathrow Airport | Jean Lambert

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 16 October 2009

Say no to runways

• MANY Londoners will be relieved to hear that BAA has decided to hold back their plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
For those living in the immediate vicinity of the airport, whose homes and communities are threatened with destruction, this decision will have lifted a dark cloud hanging over them for seven long years.
However, BAA has not scrapped their plans entirely and if the aviation business picks up again the third runway application may reappear.
Residents need and deserve reassurance that this threat is over once and for all. Like them I await a public statement from BAA that the third runway will not go ahead, no matter who forms the next government.
Residents around other London airports are also living with threatened expansion.
London City Airport is seeking to increase its air traffic capacity by 50 per cent and at Stansted plans for a second runway mean it could handle a higher volume of traffic than currently passes through Heathrow.
We need now a firm commitment from the government and the Tories to put an end to airport expansion: this problem must not be simply transferred elsewhere. If we do not curb aviation growth overall we will fail to meet vital commitments on climate change.
Jean Lambert
London Green Party MEP

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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