No to Stansted expansion and no to "Boris Island" !

Essex Green Party is celebrating the demise of the planning applications for a second runway at Stansted Airport - which if granted would have allowed the airport to expand to a size larger than Heathrow is today.

Thousands of acres of countryside would have been at risk, homes would have been bulldozed and communities already suffering noise would have been subjected to a trebling of flights over their heads.

Almost every council in the area objected - as did the National Trust, which runs the nearby protected Hatfield Forest. And of course airport expansion means higher carbon emissions - which the Labour Government seem unconcerned about in their misguided support for Stansted and Heathrow expansion.

The planned hugely expensive public inquiry due in April 2009 will not now take place. Over 1000 people and organisations objected to the planning applications.

Eastern Region Green Party Co-ordinator Dr. Rupert had registered to speak at the inquiry, as had Essex Green Party Co-ordinator Cllr. James Abbott, who is the Green Party's national spokesperson on Science and Technology.

HOWEVER, there is no room for complacency. In January 2012, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government (self titled the "Greenest Government Ever") started to make noises about yet another London Airport, which could bring Stansted back into the frame, or a hugely damaging Thames Estuary airport ("Boris Island") or perhaps another site.

The Green Party will continue to oppose major airport expansion on any selected site. The skies are already too crowded and the noise, climate change and other impacts from the plethora of airports in the South East need to be reduced, not increased still further.