Airports: London Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Airports: London

Lord Clinton-Davis Excerpts
Monday 10th June 2013

(11 years, 5 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Earl Attlee Portrait Earl Attlee
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My noble friend makes many very good points, and I am sure that the Airport Commission will take them into consideration.

Lord Clinton-Davis Portrait Lord Clinton-Davis
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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?

Earl Attlee Portrait Earl Attlee
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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.