Since the High Court’s ruling to uphold the Government decision to Expand Luton Airport we have had a round of media announcements from Luton Rising (LR), as to how great this will be for Luton, the surrounding area, and indeed the whole country.
But their sums still don’t add up. We are told the Expansion will all be financed by Private Investment not by another debt stream provided by Luton Borough Council (LBC).
And we have been debating as to what our plans should be going forward, as technically we can’t now Stop Luton Airport Expansion as all the avenues to stop it have now closed.
So, we have decided to now change our focus to Scrutinising Luton Airport Expansion.
We will be on watch to scrutinise all the Plans — the decisions and designs of LR to ensure they meet all the restrictions of the Development Consent Order, and that the horrors of air and noise pollution are as minimal as possible. We will do this because all such plans will have to be approved by the Planning Committee of LBC, and as they have done with all previous Airport Planning Applications, there will be many fine words about preserving the quality of life of all those effected by airport operations and growth, but our concern is that the Applications will just be ‘waved’ through ignoring any of the imposed restrictions. That is of course if those Committees even sit in public — as the norm in the past, has been to switch all video and empty the Public Gallery when Applications concerning the Airport are reviewed.
We will continue to follow the environmental impacts of the construction – in particular how LR plan to protect the public when it attempts to excavate the huge industrial and domestic rubbish dump under Wigmore Valley Park, which was in operation from the 1930’s for over forty years. For we believe that records for deposits are scratchy, and no one is certain just what was buried there, when, and in what quantities.
We will continue to examine the finances — to make sure any expansion is funded by Private Investment and that the Dividend from the Concession Fees to LBC budgets is returned at the earliest opportunity, and not just the interest on loans they currently pay, which is always trumpeted as being a great return whilst conveniently forgetting the huge sums being lost to actually settle those loans.
We will watch all and report on what we think the public should know.
Hence, we’ve come up with the header photo, which we think fits our new mission.
Will Scrutiny Stop Luton Airport Expansion?