Councils demand powerful airport regulator (From Your Local Guardian)

Councils opposed to Heathrow expansion demand powerful airport regulator

6:40am Monday 1st June 2009 in Local news By Jamie Henderson

Councils who opposed the Heathrow expansion are calling for a powerful regulator to enforce new environmental standards at the airport.

Ministers have just finished consulting on reforms which could require large airports to obtain a licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Under current proposals the CAA could impose fines for failure to achieve service standards but as yet there are no proposals for sanctions for breaches of air pollution and noise limits.

Nick Botterill, of the 2M Group, an anti-expansion alliance of local authorities, said "The Government massaged its case for a third Heathrow runway by setting its noise benchmark as the last year when Concorde was flying and ignoring the findings of its own research on the impacts of aircraft noise around Heathrow - yet the CAA failed to speak out.

“It will take a powerful body to stand up to both industry and government.

"This could be a job for the Environment Agency - or we could move towards a new, independent regulator which could combine protection of passenger and community interests with real enforcement powers.”

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