Active Planet: New Heathrow runway opposed

London's Heathrow ((LHR) is very busy. And after almost 20 years of planning, objections and construction, the new Terminal 5 is taking in customers. Well, BA, anyway.

But Heathrow is a bit short on runways given the capacity it handles. The government's solution is to build a new runway.

That will cost 700 families their homes, destroy many acres of farm and woodland and result in the demolition of schools and other community buildings.

Supporters say that Paris Charles de Gaule (CDG) and Schippol (AMS) have more runways - and they are right. But they fail to point out that Amsterdam has no other significant international airport, and Paris has only one . However, London has Stansted, City (LCY) , Gatwick and Luton ringing the city.

It is arguable that London is already overserved with airports. But an increasingly London-centric policy is starving regional airports in, say, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow of trade. The arrival of the Airbus A380 is contributing to a concentration on Heathrow for inter-continental flights.

But, say opponents, what London really needs is effective inter-airport ground transport, and integrated baggage transfers. Then, they say, although there will still need to be security clearance at changes in airports, that is effectively no different to the changes in terminals now. There is little to prevent a high-speed rail-link between Heathrow and Gatwick - at present, those transferring between the two airports - which are close together - have to make the transfer by car or bus. That means being exposed to the risk of traffic - and the two motorways involved are notorious for delays. As a result, it is inadvisable to arrive at one airport and plan to leave the other unless there is a period of some four hours, needed to recover bags, find transport, get from one airport to the other and check in again. Business travellers with hand luggage could probably get away with a three hour gap. But a high-speed rail link could make the journey in 10 minutes, and with baggage transfer, the move would be easy.

Similarly for Luton and Stansted - where journey times on a high-speed rail link would be around half-an-hour instead of up to two hours drive.

Such a link - from LHR to Manchester and Glasgow would reduce the need for internal flights - proving a much more environmentally friendly solution by both cutting pollution and reducing the need for more tarmac.

Both the two main political parties in the UK, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats say that they will abort the plans - and pledged to frustrate them in any legal way possible to prevent the Labour government starting work before the next general election, due in the middle of 2010.

As the Labour plans call for completion in 2019, and that it will be held up by a series of inquiries and court challenges, including funded by the Mayor of London's publicly funded campaign, and that householders will fight compulsory purchase orders, especially if their properties are valued at what many see as today's deflated prices, then there is little chance that any real work will have been started in the next 18 months or so.

However, Labour may try to leave a poison pill in the shape of signed contracts for works which would expose their successors to heavy penalties for cancellation.

The announcement of the third runway was made by Jeff Hoon, who has proved something of a lightning rod for bad press for both Blair and now Brown. It was he who, as defence secretary, was at the forefront of taking the UK into Iraq and Afghanistan, and who repeatedly told the House of Commons that Britain was in Iraq under a UN resolution - a point which remains debated. It was he who, when asked "to do all he can to ensure that the necessary level of protection is afforded to our soldiers on the ground in Iraq," said " I can certainly give those assurances." (Hansard 24 Jun 2003 : Column 996) - but it was later found that their boots were snow boots that melted in desert sand, that their rifles couldn't cope with the conditions and their vehicles had woefully insufficient armour resulting in death and maiming of military personnel. Protesters will no doubt raise the question of Hoon's reliability in relation to any statements he may make in support of the proposed third runway.