§ Mr. LuffTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give the grid references of the site identified to the South East of Worcester as a possible site for a new West Midlands airport. [74752]
§ Mr. SpellarThe Government is not putting forward for consultation any option for a new airport site in the Midlands other than that located between Rugby and Coventry, as detailed in "The Future Development of Air Transport in the United Kingdom: Midlands" consultation document.
The Government, having identified a potential need to develop further airport capacity in the Midlands over the next 30 years, had earlier appraised a number of locations throughout the Midlands against a range of criteria in a five stage process. Details of this process are available in the document "Preliminary Site Search of Options for New Airport Capacity to Serve the Midlands" and its appendices which can be found on the Department for Transport's website www.airconsult.gov.uk. The result of this process was that the option of a new site between Rugby and Coventry, and no other site in the Midlands, should be included in the consultation.