R4U disappointed by Stansted Airport expansion approval that prioritises business profits over our environment

Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) is disappointed in the approval of a large-scale expansion of Stansted Airport, and calls on the Secretary of State to reverse the decision so that the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget law emission targets can be met.

Dan Starr (R4U Chair) Dan Starr (R4U Chair)

R4U party chair Dan Starr said “R4U is bitterly disappointed with the appeal decision because we believe that growing Stansted Airport to the size of Gatwick is incompatible with the new UK legislation that limits emissions to well-below 1990s levels. We have no argument with the airport itself; we just believe that our environment should be put ahead of the profits of one business. It is a sad day for Uttlesford and the UK as a whole.”

Dan Starr continued “All over the world we’ve seen people-power stepping in where governments fail in their obligations to protect our planet. At Residents for Uttlesford we fully support the decision made by the vast majority of Uttlesford District Councillors from all parties who voted to do just that with respect to this damaging expansion. It was always going to be a challenge for any new UDC administration to overturn the poison-pill that was the prior approval granted by the previous Conservative administration, but it was important to do so.”

Dan Starr concluded “We believe that green-lighting both the Stansted and recent Heathrow expansions prevents the government from meeting its legal obligations under the UK’s Sixth Carbon Budget law; and undermines its credibility for hosting the COP26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow. We shall now urge UDC to write to the Secretary of State to ask that the decision be reversed, as was recently done for a proposed coal mine in Cumbria. It is time that the government put our environment first.”

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