Livingstone against third runway

12:56pm Friday 20th June 2003

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Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has announced this week that he cannot support the construction of a new runway at Heathrow Airport.

Mr Livingstone said: "The expansion of Heathrow is strongly favoured by the business community but it has not been demonstrated that this can be done in a way that does not breach EU air quality standards and is acceptable on noise and other environmental grounds.

"The expansion of runway capacity at Heathrow suggested by the government would result in far more people being affected by noise and air quality problems than other options, such as expansion at Stansted or Gatwick.

"For that reason I will be telling the government that I cannot support the construction of an additional runway at Heathrow."

The Mayor commissioned ICM Research to conduct an opinion poll which showed that of those living in boroughs most directly affected (Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond), 48 per cent were against expansion at Heathrow with 35 per cent in favour.