Protesters gather as Heathrow expansion legal challenge starts
The legal battle over Heathrow’s expansion has started at the High Court.
A legal challenge against the Government’s approval of a third runway has been mounted by a coalition including local authorities, residents, environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, as well as the London mayor.
Opponents include Wandsworth Council, which tweeted this image, along with the message: "Together we will ask the High Court to quash the Government’s decision to expand Heathrow."
The coalition claims the government’s National Policy Statement (NPS) is unlawful.
They say it does not deal properly with the impact expansion will have on air quality, climate change, noise and congestion.
The two-week case will be heard by Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Holgate.
Friends of the Earth said the third runway would be a ‘pending emissions disaster’.
It added: "An expanded Heathrow Airport would put seven hundred extra planes a day into our skies, pumping millions of tonnes of carbon into our atmosphere.
"With the impacts of climate chaos already being suffered by millions around the world, we simply cannot allow this to go ahead."
Tim Crosland, director of environmental campaign group Plan B, said: "This reckless disregard for the science and for the future must be stopped."
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he is ‘greatly concerned’ about the impact of a third runway on air quality and noise pollution.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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