Heathrow third runway plan faces 'major obstacles', Kemi Badenoch's transport chief warns
Heathrow third runway plan faces 'major obstacles', Kemi Badenoch's transport chief warns
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Heathrow’s plans for a third runway face “major obstacles,” shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon warned. They included how it would impact on the M25, M4, a local incinerator and the compulsory purchasing of some 1,000 local homes in west London.
He told the Standard: “A third runway as and when it ever opened would certainly deliver growth which would be welcome. “However, there are major logistical and infrastructure obstacles that would need to be solved for the runway to be operational.”.
He added that if the Government was unable to address these issues then he argued the third runway proposal, increasingly backed by Rachel Reeves, was just an attempt to “deflect attention away from their dismal handling of the economy”. The Chancellor is expected to signal support for expanding the west London airport in a speech on Wednesday.
But Mr Bacon previously warned that a third runway would be “ eye-wateringly expensive, environmentally calamitous, and hugely disruptive for south west Londoners.”. The MP for Orpington dismissed the plans for another runway at the west London airport in such clear terms in August 2019 when he urged then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “maintain his passionate opposition to the plans to expand Heathrow”.
At the time he was Leader of the Conservative Group on the London Assembly. Writing on the ConservativeHome website, Mr Bacon said: “It cannot be denied that, in the face of stiff and growing competition overseas, it is an economic necessity for Britain to increase its share of the aviation market.
