THE BRITISH government has overruled a local council to allow Stansted airport to handle an extra 10 million passengers a year.
The new transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, announced the decision yesterday, provoking an angry response from environmentalists and local residents. A 10 per cent increase in flights will increase the number of passengers using the airport from 25 to 35 million.
Stansted's managing director, Stewart Wingate, hailed the decision by Mr Hoon and communities secretary Hazel Blears as "great news" for passengers and businesses located in the local community and across the wider region.
However Liberal Democrat spokesman Norman Baker said the decision was "further evidence that the government is in the pocket of the aviation industry".
While not in principle against the enhanced use of the existing runway facility at Stansted, Conservative spokesman Theresa Villiers also suggested it had only taken Mr Hoon a week in his new post "to allow BAA [the British Airports Authority] to start writing government aviation policy".
With a third runway at Heathrow, Ms Villiers confirmed Conservative opposition to a second runway at Stansted. A planning inquiry on that proposal is due to start next April.
Uttlesford District Council rejected the current proposed expansion of operations on the grounds of noise and environmental concerns. Mr Hoon and Ms Blears however concluded that the impact on health caused by air pollution was "likely to be very small" and agreed with evidence showing "that the proposal would deliver large direct economic benefits" while acknowledging that the evidence did not "reliably quantify this".
The ministers also said that nothing in their letter to BAA should be taken "as an expression of a view on the need for, or acceptability of" a second runway, which is part of BAA's long-term plan for the airport.
Matthew Knowles for the Society of British Aerospace Companies said: "This is a welcome recognition of the progress that the aviation industry has made in further reducing its impact on the environment."
However Tim Yeo, Conservative chairman of the all-party parliamentary environmental audit committee, said this was "a bad decision environmentally for East Anglia" and wrong economically because the expansion of Stansted depended on low-cost flights.