Fears over Gatwick
MANY local residents will have been alarmed to hear Jeremy Taylor, chief executive of Cadia, the business association for the 'Gatwick Diamond' region, state on August 22 his belief that Gatwick Airport will have doubled in size in 20 years and will have a second runway one mile away to the south of the existing runway with a new airport terminal.
West Sussex County Council has a legal agreement with Gatwick owners BAA that no such runway will be built before 2019, but for how much longer?
In light of the Competition Commission's report recommending a break up of BAA's airports, with Gatwick first in line be sold off, such certainty over the prohibition of building a second runway looks again uncertain.
Mr Taylor states that the second runway could only be built before 2019 with an Act of Parliament.
On that he is absolutely correct but in light of the recent report from the Competition Commission the probability of such an Act of Parliament now looks very real.
The publication of the Competition Commission's ruling on the future of BAA now revives the controversial plans to build a second runway on the south side of Gatwick Airport, as up to now the Government had always said that if a third runway is not built at Heathrow, only then would it consider building a second runway at Gatwick, though not before 2019.
My concern is that the commission's ruling opens the way for a new owner of Gatwick to push for a second runway on the grounds that the original decision to block a second runway until 2019 was flawed.
The agreement, between BAA and West Sussex County Council, was signed in 1979 and BAA promised not to build a second runway for 40 years if it was allowed to put up the North Terminal.
Gatwick is a small site and on the wrong side of London in that it serves a smaller catchment area than other London airports such as Stansted – extra capacity at Gatwick is not needed.
The second runway would destroy local communities and the countryside.
It is right that Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign and more than 100 local councils with West Sussex County Council and all the MPs within a 20-mile radius are opposed to a second runway.
But the 1979 legal agreement could soon not be worth the paper it's written on.
The commission report indicates that planning laws could be relaxed by the Government to make the sale of Gatwick by BAA attractive and thereby stimulate competition.
A new owner of Gatwick would be 'more active than BAA in exploiting existing opportunities' to increase flight numbers, the report said.
Now more than ever those opposed to a second runway need to continue their fight so that if Gatwick is to be sold off by BAA a potential new owner doesn't raise the issue of a second runway as part of the purchase negotiation with BAA and the Government.
CHRISTIAN MITCHELL
(Con) Horsham district councillor for Holbrook West
Park House
North Street
Horsham
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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