Heathrow Airport has been granted permission to appeal

[Cookham Webmaster]

Heathrow Airport has been granted permission to appeal against a block on plans for a third runway.
 
In February the Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s support of the third runway plans was unlawful as it did not take into account the climate change impact it would have.
 
On Thursday, May 7, the Supreme Court granted the airport permission to appeal the decision.

[Deborah]

With full sympathy for the air industry currently, surely there is no business case for this to be built now. I imagine that once ‘normality’ is reestablished and airlines settled one thing that will decline significantly is business trips abroad- now we’ve got used to Zoom / GMeet and Skype as the new normal. Wasn’t there something on the news that BA were going to pull out of Gatwick Due to less anticipated future demand? There are other infrastructure projects that would employ as many people but be better long term investments, and not all in the South East too.

[Roger]

The CEO of Heathrow gave the impression the other day that the new runway was dead, but it sounds like he may have done an about turn.

[Cookham Webmaster]

The leader of a Berkshire council opposed to expanding Heathrow Airport says he is "not surprised" the Supreme Court has decided against his position.

Last Thursday the court granted Heathrow Airport permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the government had not taken into account the climate change impact it would have – calling it ‘unlawful’.

The announcement came a day after MPs were told by Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye the £14 billion project was likely to be 10-15 years away due to many flights being grounded because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead was among the bodies campaigning against the government's plan to expand the airport.

Council leader Andrew Johnson said: “I’m not surprised given the extreme public interest in the issue and, in particular, the appeal.

“It was almost a given that the Supreme Court would allow a hearing to be held.

“Our formal position is we’re not seeking to carry on as a council with the challenge we were leading with other councils and other parties because that would not be an effective use of taxpayers’ money.

“It will always be the case of ‘third time lucky’ or not potentially as the case may be – but what we will be doing is giving our support to the challenge that was successful in the Court of Appeal that seems to have achieved a result as so far as the government’s policy was thrown out.”

No date has been set for the hearing. The government stated it will abide by the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, along with four other local authorities, lobbied to challenge parliament’s decision to expand Heathrow Airport by launching a judicial review.