Campaigners have slammed the government's aviation consultations for failing to provide new mitigation measures on air pollution and climate change.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling last week launched a consultation on a national policy statement (NPS) for airport expansion in the South East. In October 2016, the government announced its preference for a new northwest runway at Heathrow, but the consultation also asks for opinions on expanding Gatwick Airport and extending an existing runway at Heathrow.
In a written statement to parliament, Grayling reiterated pledges to ensure more than 50% of airport users to access Heathrow by public transport; that ‘industry-leading’ measures on carbon and air quality would be followed during construction and operation of new facilities; and the need for the developer of new airport capacity to meet legal limits on air quality to obtain planning consent.
Legal campaign group ClientEarth, which successfully took the government to court over its failure to meet legal limits on air quality, said that the airport NPS failed to demonstrate how the project to build a new runway at Heathrow could comply with air quality targets in an area already failing to do so.
Chief executive James Thornton said: ‘The government is assuming the developer can come up with a scheme which miraculously fixes an air quality problem that has been ongoing for many years, both around Heathrow and in central London.’
An independent impact assessment commissioned by the government from consultancy WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff, concluded that building a third runway risked delaying compliance with air pollution limits in the area.
However, the government-appointed Airports Commission suggested that air pollution from a new runway could be mitigated by wider action on the road network, such as the introduction of EU legislation requiring vehicles to be subject to more stringent emissions testing procedures than at present.
But the WSPIParsons Brinckerhoff report states: ‘The reduction in compliance risks associated with these schemes is primarily dependent on actions and measures implemented at national and local government level over which the airport expansion scheme promoters have no direct control.’
Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said: ‘With an air pollution crisis already linked to over 9,000 premature deaths a year in London alone, people's health cannot be dependent on rose-tinted assumptions and a notoriously unreliable car industry.’
On climate, the airport NPS reiterates the government’s belief, in line with the Airports Commission’s conclusions, that expansion of Heathrow will not impact the UK’s ability to meet carbon reduction commitments.
But the Committee on Climate Change has raised concerns about this, arguing that if emissions from aviation are higher in 2050 than 2005, then all other sectors will have to meet tougher emissions reduction targets than the 85% already assumed.
James Beard, climate change specialist at WWF-UK, said the government did not have a credible plan to back up its claims that airport expansion would not impact the UK’s climate goals: ‘If the government keeps ignoring the Heathrow carbon problem it runs the risk of breaching the Climate Change Act. The forthcoming emissions reduction plan must set out how emissions from the new runway will be dealt with before the NPS is finalised.’
Documents published alongside the NPS include a sustainability appraisal, including a strategic environmental assessment, an assessment of the policy under the habitats and birds directives, a health impact analysis and an equality impact assessment.
A separate consultation covers how decision making later in the process for new runway capacity, including how local communities can have a say on how their concerns should be taken into account.
The government is proposing an independent commission on civil aviation noise. It also suggests a call-in function for a secretary of state on proposals to change airspace, similar to that used by for planning applications. This will create a democratic back-stop in the most significant decisions, it said.
The government has appointed Sir Jeremy Sullivan, the former senior president of tribunals, to oversee the consultations.
Both consultations close on 25 May, after which parliament will scrutinise the airport NPS.
