Monday 9 November 2009 - Green MEP Caroline Lucas has today branded a report by planners which recommends Council approval of a major increase in aircraft movement at Farnborough airport as ‘irresponsible and misguided’.

This week Rushmoor Borough Council will decide whether or not to allow a rise in aircraft movements at Farnborough Airport by 79 per cent in the next ten years. Planners have recommended that permission is granted, even though it will likely lead to a 70 per cent increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

MEP for Hampshire and the South East, Dr Lucas, said: “It is scarcely credible that three weeks before the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen, where leaders will meet to decide how to cut global emissions, planners here in Hampshire are recommending an increase in climate emissions from aviation.

“Across the UK, local authorities are signing up to the 10:10 Campaign, promising to cut their carbon footprint by 10 per cent in 2010 – giving national leaders a clear message of support for tough targets ahead of Copenhagen. I would like to know if Rushmoor Borough Council will take its responsibilities on climate change seriously and do the same.”

Dr Lucas concluded: “By recommending this airport expansion goes ahead, Rushmoor planners appear irresponsible and misguided. And given the fall in UK flight passenger numbers, any supposed economic argument for expansion rings especially hollow. I urge Councillors to throw out this application – the last thing we need now is more traffic in our skies, resulting in increased air and noise pollution and ever greater climate emissions.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The Directorate of Community and Environment Planning Report No. PLN0951 to the Development Control Committee of Rushmoor Borough Council is here: http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/media/adobepdf/7/7/pln0951.pdf

3. Rushmoor Borough Council is a signatory to the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change, and their strategies on climate change are here: http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=6992

4. For more about the 10:10 campaign, visit http://www.1010uk.org/

5. Over 20 local authorities, including Winchester City Council, have signed up to 10:10. See http://www.1010uk.org/organisations#whos_in