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Government plans for a second runway at Stansted Airport have cleared a critical hurdle, following a High Court judgement that the blueprint is lawful.
Mr Justice Sullivan ruled on a series of legal challenges to the proposals – brought by a coalition of residents’ groups, including Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) and several local councils – aimed at blocking the development of a new runway at the Essex hub.
With the exception of ruling that the Government's Air Transport White Paper was "too prescriptive" in setting the precise location of the development, the plans emerged from the process relatively unscathed.
While the physical footprint of the runway will probably not be as it appears on the White Paper, the strategic and business cases for such a project have withstood the scrutiny of the High Court.
Importantly, the judgement upheld the White Paper policy to site the South-East’s first new runway at Stansted and also ruled against a challenge to Stansted’s economic viability. Had either challenge succeeded, the Government would have had to rethink its choice of site for a new runway.
Stansted MD Terry Morgan hailed what he viewed as a "comprehensive judgement in favour of" the construction of a new runway at the airport.
Morgan told Business Weekly: "Contrary to some of the information that is circulating on the subject, the negative effect of this ruling on our plans is zero. It will not impact on the scope or timing of the project."
"We have said all along that we would continue to look at all the options for the siting of the development and that work is on-going. We will not have decided on our preferred option until the summer."
While conceding that the ruling stopped short of overturning Stansted as a location, SSE claimed its own share of High Court victory. Chairman of the group, Peter Sanders, described the decision as "a vindication of what we have said all along about the White Paper being fundamentally flawed and an important milestone in our battle to prevent BAA from ever building a second runway at Stansted."
SSE said it was considering appealing against "certain aspects" of the decision, a process which would take it to the House of Lords.
Contrary to SSE's assertion that "all the architects, planners and design engineers appointed by BAA last year, can now put down their pencils and go off on a very, very long holiday," Stansted is preparing to push ahead in its preparations.
Morgan said that Stansted would be showcasing its proposed scheme to local communities this summer and lodging its formal planning application in Spring 2006, a timetable that pre-dates Justice Sullivan's ruling.
It is anticipated that the plans will be subject to a Government planning inquiry in 2008, with construction mooted to start in 2009 and the runway operational by 2012.
The next legal obstacle is a slightly lesser one, and comes in the form of a challenge from a number of local councils, including Takeley which want to see BAA's home owner support scheme thrown open to more local residents. The scheme aims to mitigate the affects of property blight caused by the proposals.
Morgan stressed that any changes to the footprint of the new runway as it stands now would not negatively affect the airport's home owner support scheme. The scheme will remain open to residents within the current boundary even after it changes.
CBI Director General Sir Digby Jones summed up the importance of the new runway to UK PLC. He said: "The economic case for airport development in the South East, and elsewhere in the UK, is as strong today as it was when the government published its aviation white paper.
"Airports and ports are our gateway to overseas markets. If the UK is to keep its status as the world's premier trading nation we must allow airports to grow sensibly and that includes Heathrow and Stansted. British jobs depend on it."
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