Runway Capacity (Hansard, 18 February 1988)

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, the 1985 White Paper Airports Policy (Cmnd. 9542) set out the pattern of airport development to meet the demand for air travel into the mid-1990s. We naturally keep the adequacy of capacity, including runway capacity, under review, as does the Civil Aviation Authority, which has a statutory duty to make formal recommendations to my right honourable friend on such matters.

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that punctiliously correct reply. Do Her Majesty's Government appreciate the difficult, not to say dangerous, situation that is building up with the volume of air traffic coming into the South-East of England becoming excessive for only four major runways?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, Her Majesty's Government are well aware of the position but it is up to the CAA to make a formal recommendation. Until it does, the Government cannot take action.

§ Lord Harvey of Prestbury
My Lords, can my noble friend say why there is only one runway at Gatwick? Is it not a fact that the buildings were so placed that it is impossible to build a second one?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, that is not the reason that I have in front of me. There is an agreement made under Section 52 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 between the airport operator and the county council. The Government were not party to that agreement.

§ Baroness Burton of Coventry
My Lords, may I ask the Minister in respect of his reply, which I did not think took us any further, whether he is aware that the chairman of the CAA, Mr. Christopher Tugendhat, said last month that additional capacity was necessary in the 1990s and beyond, while the chairman of British Airports Authority plc, Sir Norman Payne, said that it was not necessary to consider the matter now? Can he tell the House with whom ultimately the decision rests, and if it is with the Government, when will they do something about it?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, my right honourable friend was naturally interested to see what Mr. Tugendhat had to say about capacity. The initiative is quite definitely with the CAA. He was also interested to hear what Sir Norman Payne had to say. Sir Norman Payne said that there was no need to look at runway capacity for a couple of years. That is how the matter stands at the moment. The noble Baroness has tabled a similar Question for next Thursday when the Minister will be back in his place and I am sure will be delighted to reply to her.

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, has the noble Viscount looked carefully at the Question tabled by the noble 754 Lord, Lord Boyd-Carpenter? It refers to available runway space for British civil aviation. Is there not at present adequate runway space throughout the United Kingdom? The problem may be lack of runway space in the South-East. If Stansted should regrettably reach its maximum capacity of 25 million passengers per annum, we are likely to have adequate runway space. Is not the real problem the safety of air space, of which we may be running short in the South-East?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I shall refer that question to my noble friend, who will no doubt answer it next week.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, has not the time come to consider fast surface transport to the northern airfields? They could take much more traffic. If they were used more, it would produce an enormous amount of activity and employment in the North.

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I shall convey my noble friend's remarks to my right honourable friend.

Lord Winstanley
My Lords, is the noble Viscount aware that some of us worry not so much about whether there is adequate runway space at the end of the century but whether there is enough space at the end of the runway? Could that anxiety be kept at the forefront of the minds of those who are dealing with these matters?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I shall convey the noble Lord's anxiety to my right honourable friend.

§ Baroness Platt of Writtle
My Lords, is my noble friend aware of the plan to build a bridge at the end of the STOLport runway in the Docklands which, if it is allowed to proceed, will permanently reduce the capacity and financial viability of that airport? Will he look into the matter?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I did not know about that proposal. I shall therefore look into it.

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Underhill, that Stansted Airport could take 25 million passengers a year with one runway would be an achievement which no airport in the world has so far got anywhere near?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I do not think that I can comment.

§ Lord Ferrier
My Lords, is it possible that the time is coming when, as was suggested in the House years ago, the reclamation of the Goodwin and Maplin Sands might be suitable locations for an airport?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, those were indeed happy days, but the proposals never came to fruition.

§ Baroness Burton of Coventry
My Lords, could I remind the Minister of an unpleasant fact? Does he remember that the last time the CAA put forward a proposition in connection with the development of civil aviation in this country the Government totally ignored it? Does he expect us to believe that when the 755 CAA puts forward a recommendation, as Mr. Tugendhat said recently, that there should be additional runway space, any more notice will be taken of it than last time?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, yes, I do, because my right honourable friend has the power under Section 69 of the Airports Act 1986 to direct the CAA to take the steps that it thinks appropriate to encourage or facilitate a Section 16(2) recommendation. That power of direction was included in the Act at the instigation of your Lordships' House.

§ Lord Annan
My Lords, is not part of the trouble that the proposition to build a third London Airport at Stansted in the early 1960s was referred to the Roskill Commission, which, at a cost of £1,250,000, came to the conclusion that the third London Airport should be located at Cublington? That area was unfortunately near to the home of the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph and was turned down by the Conservative Government, who then proposed that the airport should be sited at Maplin Sands. That proposition was again turned down and the Labour Government decided that no London airport was to be built. It was only in 1987, something like 25 years after the original proposal was put forward, that the Government announced that Stansted would be the third London airport.

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I think that we are beginning to fly over rather old ground, if I may put it that way. Perhaps it is time to find a runway.

§ Lady Saltoun of Abernethy
My Lords, who on earth wants to go to Stansted?

§ Viscount Davidson
My Lords, I know some people who may wish to do so.