Angry MP Confronts BAA

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 24th Sep 2003

Jenny Tonge MP at a meeting about Heathrow Expansion

Dr Jenny Tonge, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, took the British Airports Authority to task at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton on Monday September 22nd.

The MP was speaking at a meeting organised by the pressure group Airport Watch. She told the meeting: "I'm getting angry. There is constant debate surrounding this subject, but the fact remains that much of the South East of England is having its quality of life destroyed by air transport. It's not just the environmental impact of the aircraft themselves."

"On noise - the Government didn't accept the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that we were entitled to a night's sleep and appealed against it. There are growing worries about Air Traffic Control - how can they cope with the volume of traffic? And my constituents have had two frozen bodies fall out of aircraft in the past three years - not to mention blocks of ice."

"That's why we have formed the All-Party Group of South East MPs on airports to challenge the Government over development in south east England."

"I cannot believe that it is impossible to get good fast rail links between cities within ten years. It would take so many planes out of the air."

"And why can't BAA ban airlines that fly with leaky toilet compartments? Why don't they toughen up a bit?"

"What makes me angriest though is the way that BAA has consistently given us projections for air traffic that are hopelessly wrong. The figures given at the Terminal Five enquiry were exceeded within a year. We were told at the T5 enquiry there was no need for another runway - and now we are looking at a third runway and a sixth terminal."

"My fear is that people will turn to direct action. It's going to get nasty."