London City Airport: 25 Years of Deception
Posted on July 29, 2012
“It’s been a right royal con, ma’am”
On the weekend that the Queen visited London City, a quarter of a century after she opened it, the campaign group HACAN East has claimed that residents have suffered ‘25 years of deception’. The campaign group, which represents residents under the London City and Heathrow flights paths, has issued a pamphlet outlining the list of broken promises made by the airport to local people.
The pamphlet outlines how, within a few years of the airport being allowed to open on the basis that there would be no more than just over 30,000 flights a year, using turbo-prop aircraft, it applied for permission to extend the runway and use larger aircraft. By 2009 it had permission to operate 120,000 jet aircraft a year.
John Stewart, Chair of HACAN East, said, “It is just not believable that the airport had any intention of keeping the promises made 25 years ago. It has been a quarter of a century of expansion based on deception. Expansion supported by the local authority, Newham Council, and a supine Consultative Committee which is meant to hold the airport to account”.
Stewart added: “Although no blame can be attached to the Queen, it is simply a right royal con that has been played on local people by the ruthless airport aided by a weak council.”
Download the pamphlet here.
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Posted on July 16, 2012
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