Climate Change Kills Third Heathrow Runway.

[Blib]

Breaking news on News 24.

Heathrow's third runway expansion is under threat now that a High Court decision that the decision to allow the new runway is at odds with the UK's overall climate change targets.

This will be interesting.

[RichardD]

Surely air expansion wouldn't be an issue if we banned the internal combustion engine and replaced it with a few horses and carts ?

[JRM]

No, just make us all veggies

[Drederick Tatum]

Forget about, terrorism, immigration etc, these greenies are THE biggest threat to the UK IMO

[BOR]

Good. It's an outrage that the government can pursue a green-tax agenda against car use "because it's bad for the environment", yet attempt to increase air travel, one of the fastest growing CO2 contributors.

I'm sick of the IC engine being scapegoated by people who are happy to fly off to Tuscany for the weekend.

[turbobloke]

On the inconsistency side, agreed, but carbon dioxide emissions merely help crops, trees and greenery in general to make the planet look better and feed the humans.

Third runway - OK, reduced green taxes on the basis that tax gas vilification is a total con - also OK.

[Mazda Baiter]

Good. I think there were better options anyway.

[FourWheelDrift]

Wasn't there another story (forget CG) about the people who would be forced to move because of it and a village all but wiped of the map?

[bobbylondonuk]

Does that mean Boris Island research might go ahead?

[Magog]

FourWheelDrift said:

Wasn't there another story (forget CG) about the people who would be forced to move because of it and a village all but wiped of the map?

Theres a few small villages/towns that would be wiped off the map (Harmondsworth, Sipson and Harlington... they wouldn't be any great loss really, except each of them have small parts that are quite pleasant and historic.

The nicest bit I know of is here in Harmondsworth Just out of shot behind the church is a very historic Tithe Barn.

For a significant time they grossly overestimated the extra capacity a third runway would provide, because they didn't take into account the fact that the planes would have to cross the existing northern runway to get there. Whether this was due to incompitence, or a deliberate attempt to mislead I don't know. But it seems to me a pretty damning indidement of the process involved in making these decisions either way.

[Funkateer]

Mazda Baiter said:

Good. I think there were better options anyway.

An expansion at Birmingham airport, if I heard (or assume) correctly to connect with the HS2 line.

Quite like the idea of high speed TGV style trains.

No doubt will be greatly disappointed when the line ends up avoiding the places that it needs to connect and costs the GDP of a small nation state to use.

[5unny]

Well it was never going to happen anyway unless of course Brown is still PM after the elections because the Tories have said they would scrap the third runway plans if/when they get into power.

Edited by 5unny on Friday 26th March 12:02

[Digga]

Funkateer said:

Mazda Baiter said:

Good. I think there were better options anyway.

An expansion at Birmingham airport, if I heard (or assume) correctly to connect with the HS2 line.

Have to say this makes a lot of sense.

For ages now, people from the Midlands & North have had to trog down to HEathrow & Gatwick to get direct flights to many destinations. It does seem to make sense to build up other airports sufficiently to take some of the strain and thereby also ease demand for road, rail and internal flights.

[Silver993tt]

Lots of new busines guaranteed for Germany/Netherlands etc. Frankfurt will have 4 runways operational within the next 12 months, Munich has 3 runways and Schipol has 5 runways. Uk getting left way, way behind again.

[mr_spock]

Magog said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Wasn't there another story (forget CG) about the people who would be forced to move because of it and a village all but wiped of the map?

Theres a few small villages/towns that would be wiped off the map (Harmondsworth, Sipson and Harlington... they wouldn't be any great loss really, except each of them have small parts that are quite pleasant and historic.

The nicest bit I know of is here in Harmondsworth Just out of shot behind the church is a very historic Tithe Barn.

For a significant time they grossly overestimated the extra capacity a third runway would provide, because they didn't take into account the fact that the planes would have to cross the existing northern runway to get there. Whether this was due to incompitence, or a deliberate attempt to mislead I don't know. But it seems to me a pretty damning indidement of the process involved in making these decisions either way.

I used to live in Hayes... there's also St Dunstans (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=church&sll=51.491731,-0.414643&sspn=0.002435,0.004265&ie=UTF8&split=1&rq=1&ev=zo&radius=0.09&hq=church&hnear=&ll=51.491731,-0.414643&spn=0.002435,0.004265&t=k&z=18) which, IIRC, has the oldest Norman Arch doorway in England.

[Fittster]

Funkateer said:

Mazda Baiter said:

Good. I think there were better options anyway.

An expansion at Birmingham airport, if I heard (or assume) correctly to connect with the HS2 line.

Quite like the idea of high speed TGV style trains.

[quote]

Surely the Rail Link between Birmingham International and London is already fast enough?

[tamore]

FourWheelDrift said:

Wasn't there another story (forget CG) about the people who would be forced to move because of it and a village all but wiped of the map?

sipson. no great loss.

[Magog]

Digga said:

Funkateer said:

Mazda Baiter said:

Good. I think there were better options anyway.

An expansion at Birmingham airport, if I heard (or assume) correctly to connect with the HS2 line.

Have to say this makes a lot of sense.

For ages now, people from the Midlands & North have had to trog down to HEathrow & Gatwick to get direct flights to many destinations. It does seem to make sense to build up other airports sufficiently to take some of the strain and thereby also ease demand for road, rail and internal flights.

I think that you misunderstand the function of Heathrow. As well as serving travellers to London and the UK it is also a Hub airport, many of the passengers simply transit through from one flight to another. For an airport to support this function it needs a critical mass of flights from multiple destinations. This benefits the UK (and London in particular) in all sorts of ways Not only with the many thousands of jobs that exist at Heathrow servicing the airport. But also making it a more attractive place to do international business etc. Capacity at Heathrow cannot simply be moved elsewhere to regional airports. At the moment heathrow is being fast outstripped by airports like Schipol (which has 6 runways!), Frankfurt and Paris. Continual expansion isn't an option so other possibilities need to be found.

[Size Nine Elm]

Schipol has lots of runways - Heathrow could be expanded to match.

Only from my experience that would mean building an extra runway somewhere near Reading, and just taxiing all the way there...

[Mikeyboy]

Right result for the wrong reason.

What Heathrow really needs (like many things in this country) is for an authroty to bite the bullet say its in the wrong place for expansion and build a new airport in a better place.
Madrid, HongKong and others have had the courage to do it but not the UK where we have sat on our hands for too long.