We all know this is the mantra of Luton Borough Council (LBC) and its airport company Luton Rising (LR) within its plans to blight lives and the planet by expanding Luton Airport. At the current round of consultations, the displays that portray this oxymoron are now washed – to be frank – in a hideous shade of green to reinforce how good for you and the planet expansion will be. Quite how destroying a County Wildlife Site for a car park and filling your skies with more old technology aircraft achieves this in Phase 1, remains a massive riddle.
Let us use the website of Climate Emergency UK, a group set up to help Local Authorities in the UK make a real difference with their Climate Action Plans:
https://www.climateemergency.uk/.
If you enter “Luton Borough Council” into the search function, you will see the uninspiring scores of just 19% across the nine criteria. Now you may ask if that is because of the effects of Luton Airport and its swathes of aircraft and vehicle pollution. Not so. The airport was excluded from the LBC Action Plan, because it was doing its own reduction scheme. With those figures would it even register double figures?
Green Growth Only is, has always been, and always will be, based on controlling the 1% of emissions produced by the infrastructure buildings of the passenger terminals, and technical support buildings. The other 99% produced by aircraft and vehicle movements, is totally outside LBC/LR control, so is not their responsibility in their blinkered eyes.
But here is the rub of that Green argument: if LBC/LR doesn’t expand the airport car parks, there will be no new emissions.
If LBC/LR does not build more aircraft parking stands, there will be no new emissions.
If LBC/LR does not increase aircraft movements, there will be no new emissions
Three key factors DIRECTLY under their control, apparently are not?
Green Growth Only is just another of the “long line of Wolf in Sheep’s clothing” statements LR continually make. Perhaps LR should show dirty aircraft/car exhaust pipes painted green with a fragrant rose stuck in them?
Please complete your responses to the Consultation. Excellent help on your response can be found on our sister group’s website: https://ladacan.org/. Help us put a stop to airport expansion.