CAMPAIGNERS fighting proposals to build a new runway at Heathrow have joined forces with their European counterparts at a conference on noise pollution and aviation in Brussels.
London's Green Euro-MP Jean Lambert said: "Opponents of expansion at Heathrow have long accepted that they must work with those opposed to airport expansion elsewhere in the UK to ensure they are not used as an excuse for building new runways elsewhere.
"This week they have gone one stage further, and extended their solidarity to those campaigning against airport expansion across Europe."
Mrs Lambert's comments came after campaigners from Heathrow travelled to Brussels to meet counterparts from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands at a conference on noise pollution attended by 200 academics, aviation industry representatives and MEPs to discuss noise pollution from airports, motorways and railways.
"Those living in the shadow of Heathrow don't want to see the negative effects of a new runway simply shifted elsewhere, they don't want to see them at all," she said.
"The Government has claimed new runways are needed for the UK to remain competitive, arguing that failure to meet the industry's demands will simply see business lost to other European countries.
"This new co-operation
puts the lie to this claim by demonstrating that plans to extend airports elsewhere
in Europe face a similar level of local opposition. The truth is campaigners across
Europe want to see an end to the endless expansion of the noisy, polluting and
unsustainable aviation
industry."
Anti-airport expansion campaigns have flourished since the Government published proposals for the biggest expansion in the UK in a generation last year, which included plans for new runways at Heathrow and Stansted and a new international 'hub' airport in Cliffe on the Thames Estuary.
The Government is due to announce its preferred options in a White Paper next month.
"It's time to move beyond the outdated predict-and-provide model and implement sensible demand measures, including making the aviation industry meet its own true costs, for the sake of our health, our communities and our environment," Mrs Lambert added.
"We have moved from 'Not in my back yard' through 'Not in anyone's back yard ' to 'Not in Europe's back yard'."
The two-day conference, organised by the Green group in the European Parliament, ended today with a call for a Europe-wide ban on state aid to the aviation industry across the EU, worth #180 for every man, woman and child in the UK alone.
ENDS
For more
information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280, 07973 823358 or at press@greenmeps.org.uk