2nd e-mail to all Tewksbury Councillors on Staverton Airport

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Dear Councillors,

In my last email (see post below) to yourselves regarding the planning application for Staverton Aiport, I warned that the un-stated objective of the developments at Staverton airport was to facilitate new infrastructure to allow the introduction of passenger services from the airport and that it was not just to improve safety as the airport management claimed. I argued in my previous email that given the latest evidence on global warming, especially in the light of the IPCC report, this was unacceptable. The report in this week’s Gloucester Echo (attached below) has confirmed the worst fears.

It is now clear that the airport management's claim that the development was safety related was clearly designed to mislead and avoid the necessary public scrutiny that an airport development should be subjected to, especially given the increasing public concern about global warming.

To give an order of magnitude of the environmental impact of this development, I previously calculated that the proposed development would require approximately 1.5 million trees to be planted to absorb the CO2 produced. Given the increased number of flights that the airport management is now claiming it wants to introduce, this will be an under-estimate.

Despite the airport management’s claims, the development will have a significant global warming impact. It is incumbent on yourselves to oppose this development for the following reasons:-

• Aviation is the fastest growing source of carbon emissions. Current government policy effectively provides unrestricted development of aviation in the face of all credible scientific evidence. The governments own figures show that aviation's emissions will treble by the year 2050.

• The government and the aviation industry, (including the Staverton airport web site) claim that aviation emissions can be managed through incorporation of aviation into the European Carbon Trading Scheme. This is a cynical lie. The transport secretary (Douglas Alexander) on being questioned by the environmental audit committee on the inclusion of aviation into the European Carbon Trading Scheme said:-
  
  "In terms of where we are in those negotiations, the evidence from the public statements of Lufthansa, even in the last 48 hours, evidences that the argument is not yet won within the aviation community. It is also no secret that some of our international partners are less than convinced of the merits even of a European scheme, never mind a wider scheme given the global nature of air travel"
  
  It is therefore absolutely obvious that there is no mechanism in place that will ameliorate the emissions generated from this development or for that matter any other airport expansion, despite the claims made by Staverton airport and others within the industry.

• The aviation industry would like to claim that their emissions are a small percentage of the overall total compared to power generation and car emissions. However policies are gradually being developed to reduce these such as carbon capture for power stations and road pricing for cars. Aviation is the only major emitter of carbon that is doing absolutely nothing to reduce its total emissions.

• The airport's management claim that with the new development the total number of flights from the airport will not increase, implying that existing flights will be replaced by the new services. There is absolutely no evidence to support this and it is inconceivable that the airport management will terminate existing businesses and service contracts once they introduced new passenger services. The most likely scenario is that the existing customers will be maintained and the proposed new business will be run in addition.

• Tewksbury Council signed the Nottingham declaration on climate change. This is a powerful statement to make. However, actions speak louder than words and in this case the strongest statement that the council can make on their support for climate change is to completely and utterly reject the proposed developments at Staverton.
  

• The airport literature claims “business jets operating from the airport having the range to take colleagues to almost anywhere,” implying that this is important to businesses in the area. However as a council committed to the Nottingham declaration, it is incumbent on you to encourage businesses in the area to use low carbon forms of communication such as video conferencing, rather than allow the most carbon intensive mode of operation possible. Also, in reality a large number of these “business jet” flights are likely to be made by the rich and famous and will not support any critical business development.
  

• The airport has made and will continue to make the claim that its emissions are small compared to the adjacent motorway. However, this overlooks that fact that airport is actively seeking to increase its carbon emissions. If history has told us anything, it is that it is far easier to stop a bad idea from beginning than to stop a bad idea from continuing. Japan tries to continue whaling because it has a whaling industry to support, cars are driven long distances on motorways because people choose to live further from work and demand that motorways stay accessible so they can continue to work. In the near future as the impacts of climate change bite deeply into everyone’s standard of living and future security, those industries and people who have become dependent on airports like Staverton will argue that its continued operation is essential for the maintenance of their livelihoods, to the detriment of everyone else.

I therefore urge you to uphold the commitment that you have made to the Nottingham climate change declaration and reject this unnecessary and damaging development. The science on global warming is now unequivocal and it applies to us all.

Yours sincerely,
Kevin Lister

See article from This is Gloucestershire