§ Mr. Biggs-DavisonMr. Speaker, Sir, I beg leave to present to this House a Petition from the Chigwell Urban District Council. It bears the Council's common seal, duly affixed in the presence of the chairman, Councillor R. W. Spurge, and the Clerk, Mr. Bryan Ostler, and it bears the signatures of 16 councillors.
The Petition is directed against a decision of Her Majesty's Government to site the Third London Airport at Stansted in the County of Essex, notwithstanding—
- (a) the disastrous consequences to agriculture and village life as well as the utter destruction of some of the finest and most beautiful countryside in North Essex;
- (b) the advice and findings of the Inspector appointed by the Government to hold the public local inquiry into local objections to the proposed development of land at Stansted as the Third Airport for London;
- (c) the weight of local and national opinion against the proposal.
Wherefore your Petitioner prays that Her Majesty's Government may be called upon to look again at its policy for national airports and the suitability of Stansted and other alternative sites for the Third London Airport and that the final decision for the siting of the Third London Airport may not be taken until this has been done and the decision can be taken in the context of an overall national airports policy.And tour Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.