Heathrow Consultation
What Next?
The "Con"sultation announcement has been delayed yet again. Having spend the summer apparently massaging their unattractive figures, DfT staff found they had more work to do to look presentable.
A letter from Friends of the Earth pointed out that they hadn't considered the impact of a third runway on a whole section of the community including ethnic minorities, the elderly and people disabilities.
While no doubt cursing that they had another phoney public consultation to stage, DfT staff launched its Equalities Impact Assessment Consultation. It was either that or face a legal challenge.
That Consultation closes in November so a decision is now likely to be sneaked out at the end of the year. Happy Christmas!
Carry on Consulting - seeing the funny side
Ooh, you are awful, but we can't resist having a little chuckle at the expense of those poor people (I mean highly-paid pen pushers) in the aviation industry and government who are trying to stem the tide of protest.
It was all go at the DfT following the shock announcement that Ruth had had enough of the Cabinet.
(Or, considering Ruth only discovered she was going when she heard it on the radio, was it that the Cabinet had had enough of Ruth?)
While Ruth decided to get out of the rat race, Geoff Hoon rushed headlong into her Transport Secretary job to join the other rodents chewing over the latest Consultation corpse.
With his speech already drafted, Hoon is just waiting a respectable time before he announces ...that the notion of a Labour government taking note of a public Consultation is well and truly dead.
Campaign song gets rally crowd standing together
Harmondsworth-based band, Pig Earth, performed their
No Third Runway campaign song to
open the Stop Heathrow Expansion rally on Monday, 25th February.
Pig Earth - They enjoyed that
The song, which has grabbed the attention of campaigners across London, was written by Neil Keveren and Emma Steele who live in Harmondsworth village. Neil has long-standing connections to the areas facing devastation and plans to stay in the area with Emma and their family.
Their performance on Monday had campaigners of all ages on their feet, singing and waving placards - but you can still enjoy it sitting at home tapping on your computer keys.
"This is our home and we will stay - NO THIRD RUNWAY!"
Pig Earth - Central Hall, Westminster
No Third Runway (mp3) - Play on Alternative Player
Music files can take time to download so please be patient
Consultation Updates
Do you know how many consultation responses were received by the DfT?
Having first indicated that there were 18,000, the DfT had a recount - the figure is actually nearer 70,000!
This is quite a number considering how the Consultation was organised. Many areas likely to be affected by expansion were left out of the process. Those who managed to get hold of an official questionnaire found that the questions were incomprehensible.
Campaigners also realised that key information wasn't in the documents - the summary didn't even include a map to show the site of the proposed runway development.
There is still the possibility of a legal challenge about the inadequacy of the consultation.
For consultation-related news, watch this space...
This is a consultation on ways in which Heathrow airport could be developed
over the next 20 years or more. It reports on the outcome of work since the
Air Transport White Paper in 2003 and describes how additional runway
capacity might be provided, its likely impacts and how they might be addressed.
Labour MP, John McDonnell, whose constituency includes Heathrow airport, has accused the Government of betrayal over its announcement that it will back a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow.
