Stansted Expansion: Polluters Must Pay

12.00.00am GMT Wed 17th Dec 2003

Reacting to the government's announcement on airport expansion, Liberal Democrat Euro MP Andrew Duff said:

'The government is still in a terrible muddle about aviation policy. It has not been able to reconcile its international and EU obligations to clean up the environment with its determination to provide as many runways in the South East of England as the airlines want.

'The better approach is to take steps to curb the exponential increase in demand for air travel. The imposition at EU level of a duty on air fuel is now essential. The full cost of air travel must be reflected in ticket prices. The principle that the polluter pays must be wholly respected.

'The decision to have one new runway at Stansted is not as bad as we had originally feared, but it is still a huge blow to those who live in the beautiful neighbourhood. I can assure them that our party will fiercely resist the suburbanisation of Essex. In my capacity as MEP, I will work to ensure that all European Union law is strictly complied with. This includes air and noise pollution, protection of flora and fauna and of the historic environment as well as competition policy. Cross-subsidies from other BAA airports must be fully transparent.

'Public transport must become the normal and not the exceptional way of travelling to and from Stansted Airport. Night flights must be rigorously restricted.

'English airport expansion must also be judged commercially in a European context. With nearby Dutch, Belgian, German and French airports also vying for the international long-haul trade, is endless airport expansion in the South East of England really in the long term interests of the UK economy? I doubt that.

'I welcome the government's objective of maximising existing airport facilities at Luton and Norwich. I support the plan to remove Marshall's aviation business from Cambridge to Alconbury. But I am mystified by what the government says about Southend. Clarification about its intentions for Southend Airport is urgently needed.

'I will now be undertaking further urgent consultations with Lib Dem MPs and councillors to take our own policy forward.'