Rugby Airport: Time for Darling to put up or shut up

2.45.37pm GMT Fri 28th Nov 2003

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne has slammed the government's repeated failure to announce their plans for airport expansion.

Liz said,

"The Department for Transport have been implying for months now that the threat to Rugby is now over and the proposed airport will not be built. But worryingly they have repeatedly failed to come out with a definite statement either way.

"This prevarication is entirely unacceptable - it is high time Alastair Darling either committed to a definite date for his announcement or confirmed that Rugby airport will not be built.

"As the joint leaders of Warwickshire County council said in their letter to the Department for Transport yesterday, Warwickshire lacks the infrastructure to support a major international airport. Big business, politicians, the public and even the aeronautical industry are opposed to building it. To impose this plan on us now would be a gross injustice.

"If Alastair Darling does make his announcement on 17 December, as has been rumoured, it will coincide with the centenary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. This is all very apt, but given the impact on global warming the massive increases in air travel the government is predicting over the next 30 years will have, perhaps a more suitable date would be 6th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol on 9 December.

"If this treaty had forced the air industry to take its impact on climate change seriously, as it should have done, then it is highly doubtful we would have even had this consultation."