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Stansted expansion plans challenged

Clayton Hirst
Sunday 27 October 2002 00:00 BST
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Alistair Darling's plans to build new airport runways in south-east England could be grounded by legal action.

A group campaigning to prevent the expansion of Stan-sted airport filed a claim on Friday for a judicial review of the plans. Stop Stansted Expansion says the Government's consultation process to decide which airport should be expanded is unlawful because it provides an "incomplete picture which will skew the decision-making process".

Mr Darling has outlined proposals to build new runways at Stansted or Heathrow or a new airport at Cliffe in Kent. But the action group claims the consultation is unlawful because it does not consider expansion at Gatwick.

The Government decided to exclude Gatwick from its expansion plans because of a 1979 legal agreement between airport operator BAA and West Sussex Council. This stipulates there should be no new runways built at the airport until 2019.

The Stansted action group claims that as the government consultation paper sets out the argument for a third runway in the South-east by 2024, Gatwick should be included.

It has also emerged that the Government rejected the advice of its own consultants to expand capacity at Gatwick. Prior to the publication of the airport expansion consul-tation paper, the consultancy Halcrow Fox argued that building another runway at Gatwick by 2011 should be the first priority to relieve the pressure on other airports.

The High Court is expected to rule whether to grant a judicial review in the next few days. If approved, the hearing will take place next month.

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