Cameron set to decide new Heathrow runway by end of month

for over 25 years the new runway at Heathrow has been a hot topic of debate. In 2010 permission to expand the Airport was withdrawn owing to the fact it blighted the lives of many thousands of people living in the region. However, moving forward five years, this situation changed when the Airport Commission recommended the construction of a new third runway at the airport. As a consequence, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, is likely to make a U-turn on the pledge he made to voters back in 2010 when he assured everybody there would be no third runway at Heathrow, “no ifs, no buts”, and it is anticipated that this month he will give the go-ahead to the £23 billion (US$35 billion) plan for Heathrow’s extension.
Of the three options available, extending Heathrow, extending Gatwick, or extending the existing north runway at Heathrow, the Commission recommended the first option, which has put Cameron in an awkward position among fellow parliamentarians on both sides of the bench when it comes time for Parliament itself to vote on the proposal. London’s mayor, the flamboyant Boris Johnson and who himself is a Conservative member of Parliament stands fully against the proposal, going as far as to state that he would lie down in front of bulldozers to stop the third runway proceeding.
The campaign group Plane Stupid, which stands against any air-traffic expansion in the UK, has already tried to disrupt operations at Heathrow as a protest. Back in July the airport’s perimeter fence was cut through and activists chained themselves together on a runway forcing the cancellation of a number of flights. Only last month they blocked the main entrance tunnel to Heathrow causing traffic chaos for several hours. In addition, a separate protest group, Stop Heathrow Expansion, has been arguing that the EU pollution limits have already been exceeded in certain areas close to the airport.
However, recently Heathrow’s chief executive confirmed he was confident that any expansion plans would still enable the airport to meet EU air quality limits and that he would only permit increased capacity via the new runway if it did not affect currently set limits. With the airport presently operating at full capacity. Heathrow is keen to see improvements which will benefit Britain’s links to other markets, anticipating that 120,000 new jobs would be created together with adding £100 billion (US$150 billion) to the UK economy.
In confirming that a third runway for Heathrow was the best option, the Commission was of the opinion that this option would provide the optimum solution to increasing the number of “urgently required” long-haul routes to new markets and thus provide the greatest benefit to the broader economy.