Planning and legal figures have applauded the Government’s ruling in favour of a fifth terminal at Heathrow, but said that T5’s lengthy gestation highlighted flaws in the planning system.
Transport Secretary Stephen Byers yesterday announced in the Commons that the Government would approve the £2.25bn expansion, a decade after it was first proposed.
Chris Williams, lead partner on Terminal 5 at CMS Cameron Mckenna, which advised British Airports Authority (BAA), said that the team was “delighted” with the decision, but “the fact remains that the planning inquiry took far too long.”
He added that T5 had shown the need for the Government to introduce “clearer statements of national policy at the outset of such inquiries” and that “key issues must also be identified early so these factors, and only these factors, can be focused on.”
However, Ian Trehearne of Berwin Leighton Paisner said that the time taken was necessary, given the possibility of judicial review, saying: “The Government’s lawyers have spent the last two-and-a-half years bullet-proofing it.”
Faraz Barber of the RICS said that the inquiry showed that it was “time the Government looked at planning resources more closely to deliver on major developments and seek to outsource the administration of minor applications.”
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) agreed that the longevity of the inquiry showed the need for national strategies and better resourcing.
RTPI added that: “The nonsense we have had at T5 was that the parties in the case – BAA and the local communities – have had to put up with the cost, time and trauma of trying to guess and evaluate a national airport strategy.”
The inquiry itself has cost over £80m, £62m of which was paid by BAA and British Airways.
T5 will enable 90m passengers to use Heathrow pa, compared to the current annual total of 65m.
Byers has capped the number of flights allowed through Heathrow at 480,000 pa – last year, 460,000 flights went through the airport.
EGi News 21/11/01
