In Britain environmental groups such as "Airportwatch" are celebrating the cancelation of new runways at both Heathrow and Stansted Airports.  This is how Peter Sanden, the leader of the opposition to the Stansted expansion, explained the outcome.

"There is only one reason why this appalling timetable (to build the new runways) hasn’t been achieved, and that is because of the strength of our opposition, and the opposition of our allies in local government and in the environmental and civic organizations that have worked with us. We tackled the Government, and BAA, on every front, on every issue. We never let them get away with anything. In the end they were so scared of legal challenges that they took months, years, to make decisions. Without our opposition, and that of our allies, the Government would have steamrollered its plans through and we’d have been facing a second runway"
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The decision to cancel the runways was made by the new Conservative/Liberal Democratic government.  The Secretary of State, Philip Hammond, responsible for airports, went on to say that he would like to do something about short-haul flights.  The reason to stop short-haul flights is because they produce much more air pollution per passenger kilometre traveled than long-haul flights.

The tide of political opinion on airports and air travel is turning in Britain and the new government reflects that consensus.  We are much behind the British but the fight against Porter and short-haul flights is turning in our favour.  The lesson is that if we stick to our course we can achieve our goal of shutting down the Island Airport, just like the opposition to airports has triumphed in Britain.

Bill Freeman