A legal challenge to Britain’s plan to expand Gatwick Airport, the country’s second largest, began on Tuesday, as campaigners sought to block the project on climate change grounds.
Britain’s transport minister Heidi Alexander approved the opening of a second runway in September, hoping that converting a back-up runway into one that is fully operational will allow thousands of extra flights and drive economic growth reported Reuters.
But campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions, or CAGNE, said officials who approved the expansion of the airport, situated 30 miles (48 km) south of London, had failed to properly assess its impact on Britain’s climate change goals.
The government has said the increasing use of sustainable aviation fuel means airport enlargements are not incompatible with its net-zero targets. It has therefore backed a new runway at Heathrow, the country’s biggest hub, and at Gatwick.
Airports have struggled to expand in the densely populated southeast England in recent decades, encountering opposition from communities worried about noise and pollution. An earlier plan to build a new runway at Heathrow was scrapped in 2010.
Read more here.
