GAL – Response to the Airport Commission

Response to Airports Commission
4th February 2015

Good afternoon,

As Sir Howard Davies’ public consultation on runway capacity has now closed, I thought you might be interested to read the details of Gatwick’s submission to the Airports Commission. Please see below the link to the Executive Summary of Gatwick’s submission.

GAL Consultation Executive Summary Final

Over the past 30 years, successive Governments have commissioned independent experts to look at Heathrow’s expansion and every time they have rejected it. Why? Because the only option being discussed was Heathrow and the environmental and human cost of expanding Heathrow is too great.

What has changed this time? In separate ownership and free to compete, Gatwick has provided an alternative solution that delivers all the economic benefits of airport expansion at a fraction of the environmental cost.

Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate said:

“At this critical juncture, the Airports Commission’s decision should reflect the sort of country we want Britain to be in the 21st Century. We all want the UK to prosper, but we should not pursue economic benefits at any cost to the environment – public consultation has clearly highlighted what difficult but pivotal issues noise and the environment will be in this debate.

“Only expansion at Gatwick puts the environment front and centre of the debate, delivering the new capacity and economic benefits the UK needs at a fraction of the environmental cost of Heathrow. Expanding Heathrow means 130,000 more planes over London every year, continued breaches of legal limits on air quality, and 320,000 people – a population the size of Coventry – newly affected by noise. In the 21st Century, Heathrow is simply not a credible option and ignores the key issues the public continue to raise.”

I also thought you might like to see this short snapshot (below) of some of the support Gatwick has received in the short time we have been campaigning on this issue:

GAL Support Document

These supporters realise the importance of finally expanding our airport capacity and that Gatwick is the only deliverable solution – we hope you agree.

Should you require any additional information, or would like to meet to discuss our submission in greater detail, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards

Melanie Wrightson
Community Engagement Manager

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