Lord Clinton-Davis
Main Page: Lord Clinton-Davis (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Clinton-Davis's debates with the Department for Transport
(11 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy noble friend makes many very good points, and I am sure that the Airport Commission will take them into consideration.
I speak as the life president of BALPA. The inordinate delay in making a decision about the siting of a major airport in London can only result in benefiting Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. Any alternative to Heathrow is bound to take a huge amount of time to come into operation, whereas Heathrow, properly adapted, is ready now. Is it not the most obvious choice for any Government to enable them to make a speedy decision, which will not result in giving an advantage to other airports in Europe?
My Lords, Heathrow has one fundamental disadvantage: there are 220,000 who live within the 57 decibel noise contour, making it a very difficult problem to overcome.