The thin end of the wedge

According to the Yorkshire Post, on Tuesday the planning committee of Doncaster Council will consider an application to lift restrictions on night flights and loud aircraft at the Robin Hood Airport near Finningley.

It shows the value of the work being done by local people to resist plans to establish a commercial airport at Elvington airfield near York. As can be seen from the case of Doncaster, this can very often be the thin end of the wedge for more extensive operations later on. But disturbance to residents isn't the only issue about airport expansion.

As this FoE report discusses, the obsession with regional airport expansion actually drains money away from regional economies: as people go on cheap flights to the sun, they spend more money abroad than visitors from overseas to the UK - £26 billion a year as opposed to £11 billion, in fact. This £15 billion is helping to contribute to Britain's yawning trade deficit; the only region with a small net positive balance as a result of tourism is London. Alarmingly, the situation is deteriorating further - the number of visitors to Britain is increasing by 1.8% a year, whilst the number of people travelling abroad is increasing by 5.0% a year.

And of course the elephant in the room here is climate change - there is no realistic prospect of cutting our emissions by the 80% minimum required if air travel - the most environmentally damaging form of transport - is allowed to grow without restriction. Evidence also shows that the Yorkshire and the Humber region is already more than adequately served by airports - so the additional capacity is "pump-priming" for yet more low cost flights. It may be one thing for politicians to try and tell people they're not allowed to go on holiday abroad, but it is another entirely to subisidize them.

The Green Party is the only party to take a strong and consistent stance nationally against airport expansion. Once again, the Greens are not only leading the pack on environmental issues, but economic ones as well.

Let's hope that Doncaster Council have the courage to throw out these plans at their meeting next week.